jerumagrinberga

Earlier this year, I booked a trip in F(at considerable cost) and justified it on the basis that on the return I would get a good nights rest to have a good(quick) call in the afternoon and then relax in the concorde room before flying off again.

To that end, I emailed You First the following:

"Preferred method of communication: email
Enquiry: Hello,I will be traveling from XXX-LHR March XXth(XXXXX) followed by LHR-XXX on March XXth(XXXXXX). After arriving from my XXX flight, I would like to reserve a cabana(or be put on the waitlist for one) and to reserve treatments at the spa including the 1. customized facial and 2. power back massage.Best,XXXXXX"


the response I received was:

"Thank you for your enquiry. To enable us to check the availability for your cabana booking please can you advise us what time you would like us to check the availability for. With regards to the pre booking of your spa treatment we can only pre book spa treatments for departures out of London Heathrow all appointments for arrivals are booked subject to availability on arrival into London and are booked directly by the Spa staff on the day.

If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us."

----------------------------------------------

Does this person not grasp that I am both arriving and departing the same day? What is the point of saying that arrivals are booked on the day?


BA, please don't post this on your website:

"At your service: ....Assistance with booking Concorde Room facilities such as cabanas and access to the Quintessentially Lifestyle concierge services
Pre-booking spa treatments with Elemis at London Heathrow Terminal 5 and Terminal 3"
Source: http://www.britishairways.com/travel.../public/en_gb#


and then have your staff claim not to be able to do these things.

jerumagrinberga

And here is where Gold Guest List EXCELS - I called up YouFirst, got the poor chap who wrote the first, unfortunate email and was eventually transferred to a GGL liaison/manager who sorted everything out.

Land-of-Miles

You First and GGL are the same team so it is the same people.

dubbin

To me this reads like a simple misunderstanding combined with a sprinkling of DYKWIA. I'm sure a short, followup email would have sorted it with less effort than it took to post here.

As an aside, I am always nonplussed when screeds here are written addressing BA in the second person as if FTers are all BA customer service employees!

darthlemsip

Having read the original post, I'm sure someone is trying to outdo TheHak for 'First World problem of the week' here...

BizFlyin

This happens on the phone too, best just get used to it. They will tell you 3-4 times something is impossible, then magically they understand and it works.

HAM76

Maybe, maybe not... My own experience with You First has been mixed with some e-mails never being replied to, some requiring back and forth a few times before an issue is resolved, some getting immediate responses.

To be fair, though, as technically You First is limited to UK customers, I was glad to be served, at all.

Dr P

^

I have always found You First to be great at handling my many (and often zany) requests..

Greg45

You First not actually putting me first ...

... as in booking my spa treatment in the wrong terminal

How difficult can it be to get this right? Apparently too difficult.

GavT_london

And yes - v difficult to take a flight number and date and translate that into a booking... I told them about my FIRST flight to Săo Paulo and youfirst booked me a 07:40 appointment for a 21:35 flight... I do arrive early to enjoy the CCR but notthat early!!!!

elemis staff were equally pretty clueless to resolve this - couldn't search on my name and said they didn't have me on record (even though I've visited about 3 to 5 times per year since t5 opened) but eventually found me on their system and explained youfirst were recently given direct access to booking system - groan... Really I DON'T CARE I JUST WANT YOU TO GET IT RIGHT!!!! Lol

AAPlatinum

I had a similar problem with an email request that I sent You First asking them to book a spa treatment for me at 12:40. I got an email reply that my appointment was booked for 7:00 - this is before my connecting flight even leaves AMS. I rang the You First US # and got a clueless agent in JAX who was unable to help me. I then rang the UK # and after a bit of a hold, got my spa treatment moved to 12:40.

kileysmom

I booked a cabana and spa for mid-January - all done by phone and both confirmed twice (usually once would be enough but the agent seemed a bit clueless so I called back just in case). When I arrived, no cabana booked and no spa booked. Elemis got me in but the cabana never happened. After a long trip to LHR, that was a real disappointment.

Sent email to BA after I arrived home and got some sort of answer that they were sorry I'd had problems but not offering any solution or any reason why this happened (surely there is a record they could get someone to review). I emailed back saying their email didn't address my enquiry - why did this happen. Haven't heard another word. So much for customer service. Yet another disappointment. Have been thinking about trying yet another email but think it is probably a waste of time.

spbeck

I think the OP message to You First could be confusing to the recipient.

It asks for a Cabana booking, but does not say from what time it is desired.

It requests Spa treatments, but does not specify if they are required on arrival or upon departure. (and as described pre booking is only available on departure)

I don't think the response from You First was bad in his instance.

HAM76

I disagree... They could have made a reservation for the cabana for the entire stay and also pick two appointments in the spa. Then follow up with the request to please let them know if these times are not suitable as to not to inconvenience other passengers who might make use of the facilities instead.

Land-of-Miles

They are not going to block a cabana for a very long stay even if there are no other bookings.

If requesting a booking it is wise to state a preference so a Spa booking at HH:MM or a cabana booking from XX:XX to YY:YY. This minimises the risk of confusion and reduces the risk of no booking being possible.

Would you ask a hotel to make a spa booking for you without giving a time?