BA customer service is appalling !
Mar 20, 2012, 6:53 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
BA customer service is appalling !
.
Reference flights;
.
BA0279
25th March
London Heathrow 09.40
LA 13.00
Seats 14F + 14E
.
BA0268
10th April
LA 21.20
11th April
London Heathrow 15.25
Seats 64A + 64B
.
So the story starts that my girlfriend and I make the decision to try for a baby. We know that once the baby arrives that our freedom will be pretty much taken away from us for a long time, so we start planning a last hurrah long haul trip. I have a load of BA miles to use so we set about looking for reward flights. We end up booking return flights from London Heathrow to Los Angeles and start planning a 17 day trip to take in LA, San Diego, drive up the coast to San Fran, Las Vegas and back to LA to fly home.
.
With flights booked, I decide to pay the annoying and excessive charges to book seats in advance. Ł60 per lower deck seat and Ł80 per upper deck seat. In total I spent Ł260 on seat reservations. Great, flights booked, seats done months and months in advance so won’t have to worry about that again. Wrong.
.
BA changed the aircraft our outbound flight was on. I no longer had the seats I had paid to book. So I called BA (On ‘The Bronze’ line) on Sunday morning, was on hold for about 10 mins. I asked if I could get a refund on the outbound seats as I couldn’t have the seats I had paid for anymore. I had an incredibly rude and uninterested ‘customer service’ advisor who said I could get a refund but then I’d have no confirmed seats. After suggesting that it might be considered good customer service to simply refund me for the paid seats I can no longer have due to no fault of my own and issue me with new seats without a charge, I was shot down with laughter (no joke), so i just told him to refund me the money. I also suggested that he might want to change his attitude as it wasn’t acceptable. ‘Yeah yeah, right oh Sir’ was the reply.
.
The next day I went online as I could now book seats for free due to Bronze status and found that the helpful and courteous BA ‘Customer Service’ rep had indeed cancelled all my seat reservations, outbound and inbound. So my cherished seats on the Upper deck on the return leg had gone.
.
Again I phoned BA. 14 minutes on hold till I got through to someone and explained what had happened. He said he would try and sort it out and put me on hold. I don’t know how long I was on hold for but it seemed ages. He came back to me and said he was having problems getting through to seat reservations, put me on hold again. He then said it’s best that I hang up and let him sort it. I did and actually he did sort it out and I had my seats back. Good, all done. No.
.
This morning I get an e-mail saying I have been refunded Ł60 for seat reservations, not the Ł260 I paid. They have refunded me for my seat on the outbound flight only, not my girlfriend’s seat or the two they cancelled on the inbound flight.
.
So I call BA again, 20 minutes on hold to the Bronze line and didn’t get through and I had things to do so hung up. I still haven’t been able to get through to them.
.
Is this really the club world experience? Is this really how BA treat their premium paying customers and find it acceptable? They have stressed me out and wasted a large amount of my time needlessly.
.
For a long time I’ve read and been told that British Airways has appalling customer service and treat their customers as a number, rather than a person. I never knew what they were on about till I stopped flying economy and premium economy and started flying in Business Class. Now I completely understand why, like my best friend, people avoid flying with British Airways. My friend flies to Asia about 4-5 times a year (in business) and will only fly with Cathay or Singapore, he detests British Airways.
.
I haven’t been a business class traveller for long. I started my company only 3 years ago, yet we have grown 100% in that time. I’ve flown in Business with Qantas, Finn Air, Singapore, British Airways and Emirates and in terms of service and quality of overall product, BA come last on that list despite having the best business class seat. I’m starting to get paranoid that they simply want to make it as difficult as possible for me every time I fly with them. I am going to be become a much more frequent flyer, in business in the next few years and you would have thought I would be a person British Airways would like to retain as a customer and build my loyalty to their airline? Apparently not.
.
I’ve gone from being someone who thought of BA as the best airline in the world and quite an aspirational thing to fly in a premium cabin with them, to someone who will most likely avoid them in the future and choose an airline who make flying hassle free and who value me as a customer.
.
To fly, to serve? Trading standards should take at close look at those last two words.
Reference flights;
.
BA0279
25th March
London Heathrow 09.40
LA 13.00
Seats 14F + 14E
.
BA0268
10th April
LA 21.20
11th April
London Heathrow 15.25
Seats 64A + 64B
.
So the story starts that my girlfriend and I make the decision to try for a baby. We know that once the baby arrives that our freedom will be pretty much taken away from us for a long time, so we start planning a last hurrah long haul trip. I have a load of BA miles to use so we set about looking for reward flights. We end up booking return flights from London Heathrow to Los Angeles and start planning a 17 day trip to take in LA, San Diego, drive up the coast to San Fran, Las Vegas and back to LA to fly home.
.
With flights booked, I decide to pay the annoying and excessive charges to book seats in advance. Ł60 per lower deck seat and Ł80 per upper deck seat. In total I spent Ł260 on seat reservations. Great, flights booked, seats done months and months in advance so won’t have to worry about that again. Wrong.
.
BA changed the aircraft our outbound flight was on. I no longer had the seats I had paid to book. So I called BA (On ‘The Bronze’ line) on Sunday morning, was on hold for about 10 mins. I asked if I could get a refund on the outbound seats as I couldn’t have the seats I had paid for anymore. I had an incredibly rude and uninterested ‘customer service’ advisor who said I could get a refund but then I’d have no confirmed seats. After suggesting that it might be considered good customer service to simply refund me for the paid seats I can no longer have due to no fault of my own and issue me with new seats without a charge, I was shot down with laughter (no joke), so i just told him to refund me the money. I also suggested that he might want to change his attitude as it wasn’t acceptable. ‘Yeah yeah, right oh Sir’ was the reply.
.
The next day I went online as I could now book seats for free due to Bronze status and found that the helpful and courteous BA ‘Customer Service’ rep had indeed cancelled all my seat reservations, outbound and inbound. So my cherished seats on the Upper deck on the return leg had gone.
.
Again I phoned BA. 14 minutes on hold till I got through to someone and explained what had happened. He said he would try and sort it out and put me on hold. I don’t know how long I was on hold for but it seemed ages. He came back to me and said he was having problems getting through to seat reservations, put me on hold again. He then said it’s best that I hang up and let him sort it. I did and actually he did sort it out and I had my seats back. Good, all done. No.
.
This morning I get an e-mail saying I have been refunded Ł60 for seat reservations, not the Ł260 I paid. They have refunded me for my seat on the outbound flight only, not my girlfriend’s seat or the two they cancelled on the inbound flight.
.
So I call BA again, 20 minutes on hold to the Bronze line and didn’t get through and I had things to do so hung up. I still haven’t been able to get through to them.
.
Is this really the club world experience? Is this really how BA treat their premium paying customers and find it acceptable? They have stressed me out and wasted a large amount of my time needlessly.
.
For a long time I’ve read and been told that British Airways has appalling customer service and treat their customers as a number, rather than a person. I never knew what they were on about till I stopped flying economy and premium economy and started flying in Business Class. Now I completely understand why, like my best friend, people avoid flying with British Airways. My friend flies to Asia about 4-5 times a year (in business) and will only fly with Cathay or Singapore, he detests British Airways.
.
I haven’t been a business class traveller for long. I started my company only 3 years ago, yet we have grown 100% in that time. I’ve flown in Business with Qantas, Finn Air, Singapore, British Airways and Emirates and in terms of service and quality of overall product, BA come last on that list despite having the best business class seat. I’m starting to get paranoid that they simply want to make it as difficult as possible for me every time I fly with them. I am going to be become a much more frequent flyer, in business in the next few years and you would have thought I would be a person British Airways would like to retain as a customer and build my loyalty to their airline? Apparently not.
.
I’ve gone from being someone who thought of BA as the best airline in the world and quite an aspirational thing to fly in a premium cabin with them, to someone who will most likely avoid them in the future and choose an airline who make flying hassle free and who value me as a customer.
.
To fly, to serve? Trading standards should take at close look at those last two words.
Mar 20, 2012, 7:04 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,145
Welcome to FT … and … breathe.
As I understand it, you have encountered a variety of linked problems:
1. Following an aircraft change, you ended up losing your pre-paid seat seat assignments. Yes, that's infuriating: it happens, see this thread.
2. The BA Agent was rude and unhelpful, and erroneously cancelled your return seats as well. Unacceptable: I suggest you complain in writing.
3. The refund of your pre-paid seat assignments was incorrect. Human error? See 2. above.
It's an imperfect world, I'm afraid. And, depending on when you call BAEC, even the Silver line suffers from delays. That's a fact of life: but at least they called you back, which I would have expected when trying to unravel a difficult problem.
Anyway, that was a good rant.
As I understand it, you have encountered a variety of linked problems:
1. Following an aircraft change, you ended up losing your pre-paid seat seat assignments. Yes, that's infuriating: it happens, see this thread.
2. The BA Agent was rude and unhelpful, and erroneously cancelled your return seats as well. Unacceptable: I suggest you complain in writing.
3. The refund of your pre-paid seat assignments was incorrect. Human error? See 2. above.
It's an imperfect world, I'm afraid. And, depending on when you call BAEC, even the Silver line suffers from delays. That's a fact of life: but at least they called you back, which I would have expected when trying to unravel a difficult problem.
Anyway, that was a good rant.
Mar 20, 2012, 7:08 am
#3
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Quite close to NQY
Programs: BAEC Silver,clubcard,clubcard plus, BA Amex................ And Mucci x3 ;)
Posts: 9,488
Welcome to FT … and … breathe.
As I understand it, you have encountered a variety of linked problems:
1. Following an aircraft change, you ended up losing your pre-paid seat seat assignments. Yes, that's infuriating: see this thread.
2. The BA Agent was rude and unhelpful, and erroneously cancelled your return seats as well. Unacceptable: I suggest you complain in writing.
3. The refund of your pre-paid seat assignments was incorrect. Human error? See 2. above.
It's an imperfect world, I'm afraid.
As I understand it, you have encountered a variety of linked problems:
1. Following an aircraft change, you ended up losing your pre-paid seat seat assignments. Yes, that's infuriating: see this thread.
2. The BA Agent was rude and unhelpful, and erroneously cancelled your return seats as well. Unacceptable: I suggest you complain in writing.
3. The refund of your pre-paid seat assignments was incorrect. Human error? See 2. above.
It's an imperfect world, I'm afraid.
Welcome to flyertalk to the OP
cs
Mar 20, 2012, 7:23 am
#4
Fontaine d'honneur du Flyertalk
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Morbihan, France
Programs: Reine des Muccis de Pucci; Foreign Elitist (according to others)
Posts: 19,172
I can see what has happened - there has been a change of aircraft from a 747 to a 777 on those rotations. On your return 64J and K are shown as available as are 60 J and K. After all the trouble that you have had, you may not want to call again - personally I would and ask for a Supervisor if needs be.
I suggest that you PM Nicci here and she can get the Supervisor of the call centre to go and listen to the call and determine how rude the agent was. She may also find out why you are not being offered the correct refund. What a shame!
I suggest that you PM Nicci here and she can get the Supervisor of the call centre to go and listen to the call and determine how rude the agent was. She may also find out why you are not being offered the correct refund. What a shame!
Mar 20, 2012, 7:29 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: North of Watford Gap
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 602
Mar 20, 2012, 7:35 am
#8
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: NYC, SLC, LAX
Programs: AA EXP, UA Plat
Posts: 3,951
No need to be condescending...
OP, I can completely sympathize with your situation, sometimes it really does feel like you are talking to a brick wall.
Contact BA Customer Services online through the web form and if nothing else, they should get that refund sorted for you.
OP, I can completely sympathize with your situation, sometimes it really does feel like you are talking to a brick wall.
Contact BA Customer Services online through the web form and if nothing else, they should get that refund sorted for you.
Mar 20, 2012, 7:36 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Near Edinburgh
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 9,034
Mar 20, 2012, 7:38 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
Mar 20, 2012, 7:40 am
#11
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Cambs
Programs: Mucci, BAEC Silver, Scandic 3rd Floor, PC Pleb, FB Off White, Tufty Club
Posts: 2,836
I didn't read the OP's post that way. It seems like the OP just caught a run of bad luck, exacerbated by a CS rep who also wasn't having a stellar day. Sometimes the world seems to conspire against us, and the OP was having one of those moments. As previously mentioned, I'd recommend PMing Nicci (BA Executive Club) to see if she can help sort it out. She has a good track record.
Mar 20, 2012, 7:40 am
#13
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
Thank you ! I think I will write to BA. This flight is a reward flight but usually the amounts involved are very high and you simply expect better service.
Mar 20, 2012, 7:42 am
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
On board abd in the air i don't have that many issues with BA but on the ground they are useless