BA304

It doesn't sound like the agent was doing her job. She refused someone a published benefit.

If the OP made it clear that he is a GCH and she said that he must check in elsewhere because she was only admitting F pax why would he think that producing the card would help?

DWFI

The "First?" "No, Gold." conversation happens many times during my travels. Not once have I ever been asked to produce the card. Sure, I know that they technically could ask, but come on, are you really going to badger people like that?

Maybe you could offer some of your experience on how many people a day say that they're travelling in F or have Gold and turn out to be lying...

bealine

I have to say, when it comes to Zone J check in, I tend to take people at face value. If they tell me "Gold", I accept it. However, when working on the desks, I would say one out of ever five passengers, or 20%, are chancers. It is incredible how many people brazenly turn up "my next door neighbour's a Gold card holder - he told me it would be okay!"

Fraudulent attempts to enter the lounges are widespread and the number of expired gold/ silver cards that are collected beggars belief!

JamieT

rarely have to check in at T5 as I'm normally connecting through there, but last time I did (end of last year) I checked with a staff member which desks I was entitled to use as a Gold card member and was told it was the Club desks. It sounds from this like I was given the wrong info. I had my card with me but wasn't asked for it.

IAMORGAN

I'm sorry, but this experience is not good enough. I know that having to queue at the Club desks was probably only a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, and I do understand that BA want the F check in area to be 'exclusive', but I do wonder how exclusive it feels as somebody who is entitled to use F check in to be 'greeted' by somebody who, as beeline has already said he does, thinks all the customers there are trying it on.

Surely, the best thing to say would have been to ask to see the Gold card -not in an accusatory way, either.

I find dragon who stands outside the CCR also has a similar attitude, and it takes the edge off the premium experience. Whatever anyone dislikes about Lufthansa and their First Class product, you just wouldn't be talked to like that by someone at the First Class Terminal. I know it must get very frustrating to have customers always trying to devise new ways to trick the system on the one hand, and have BA mangers applying the thumbscrews from the other, but at the end of the day, that's what BA staff are paid to do. It is not commensurate with the service levels at a full service premium global airline for staff to deny Gold card holders their published benefits -the onus shouldn't be on the customer to hand over the Gold card -the onus should be on the dragon to ask for it.

I also doubt that this surly attitude would have happened at LGW, nor do I expect it would have occurred at a US outstation where staff actually know what customer service is. It is often mentioned in Trip Reports that LHR ground staff have an attitude problem, seeing passengers as an annoyance, whilst it is true that LHR is much busier for BA than any other location, staff just need to be polite.

One reason I choose BA over easyjet is that at BA I expect the ground staff not to shout at me and hurd me around like cattle. Experiences such as this, when combined with recent tales of woe from MF cabin crew, simply serve to demolish any differentiation that is left between BA and their 'Low Cost' competitors.

It's such a shame to read reports such as this, because for every member of staff who is working like crazy and maintaining a smile on their face, there is also the member of staff who really can't be arced and just views the Self Loading Freight as an annoyance to be managed.

IAMORGAN

I've seen this. Whenever I go to any BA lounge at T5, there is normally at least one person (or group of persons) who spend about 10 minutes 'discussing' or 'negotiating' with the lounge receptionist. It must get annoying for the staff and lead to suspicion -much like the police and how dealing with criminals on a daily basis makes them naturally suspicious of everybody and everything.

turbo79

As European airlines go, BA is quite good. However this experience illustrates the difference between the standard of service between Asian carriers and BA.

The OP has a gold card, so he clearly must be quite loyal to OneWorld - the sort of passenger BA should be fighting tooth and nail to keep. A BA staff member, rather than take the time to confirm the situation decided to act officious and deny him the privilege of using the First checkins; and another on this forum tries to justify the staff member's actions by effectively saying they are often busy and rushed.

I have personally experienced this attitude myself when flying BA, where it appears some staff have been in their J/F positions so long that they appear to be under the delusion that they outrank their customers.

Queue the Pretty Woman Rodeo Drive moment...!

adrianjc32

Leccy, this experience is absolutely not good enough and there is no reason whatsoever to excuse it. Please accept our apologies for our colleagues attitude, it is not what staff are trained to do.

BA304

This made me laugh and is so true in a few cases (although not unique to BA) ^

WouldLoveToFlyFirst

The OP needs to man up a bit.
"In fact I was so surprised I let it go and walked back towards CW"

If I was in the same situation, I would have fished out my GC, reminded the member of the staff of the benefit and and continued towards the check in desks.

Yes, bad customer service is not great, but to then give up, wander over to CW desks and post on it here afterwards is ridiculous when it could quite simply be solved at the time.

LTN Phobia

It must be really irritating for the staff members and they have my full sympathy.

It's also annoying for other passengers at busy times because two or three of those chancers all trying to negotiate (I have, shockingly, seen multiple chancers at once) will hold back genuine users trying to get in. However, BA lounge guardians are usually pretty good, and ask the chancers if they wouldn't mind stepping aside for a moment to process the legitimate ones (I do wonder what happens if the next one in the queue happens to be a chancer as well though).

bealine

I agree that there is no excuse for rudeness......but then, as adrianjc32 knows very well, there are some outstanding training and developmental needs in the great greenhouse!

IcHot

Well, heaven forbid that you challenge authority! You may be accused of lacking proper reserve and DYKWIA syndrome.

You really can't win if the customer service agent feels that you are either a chancer or a self important blowhard who won't relent in demanding their due.

oxtailsoup

I enjoy reading about fellow travellers experiences, it is what makes the forum interesting. Why should the OP "man up" to deal with the BA guardian? We all have different personalities and ways of dealing with things.

The OP has done nothing wrong whatsoever.

Phil the Flyer

I fail to see why it is so difficult for a passenger to have their BAEC Gold Card in their hand available for inspection as they approach LHR T5 First check-in.

I do this every time - never had any problem with BA staff as a consequence.