mayodave

So you know what went wrong may I ask what is being doe to stop it happening again. I also have to say you can pass my comments to your T3 First class lounge staff for being absolutely great last Friday afternoon, they certainly went out of their way to make our stay very nice after a very tough tough weeks of travel all over Europe. I also left comments in the comments book as well.

paulwuk

Nothing is been done. This (usually shorthaul to Domestic, long haul to domestic is a new enhancement) has been going on all year with no fix.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ce-flight.html

And I stand by my quote

stifle

Here you go.

"Customers departing on a oneworld flight in business (including business UK) or first class have lounge access. Plus one guest if in first.

Customers departing on a oneworld flight with a oneworld emerald or sapphire card have lounge access, plus a guest. Extra guest if GGL.

Customers departing on a oneworld flight in any class who arrived at that airport on a oneworld flight in business class or first class within the past 24 hours, or will travel onwards on a oneworld flight in business or first class within 24 hours have lounge access. Plus one guest if first.

All guests must also be departing on a oneworld flight but it need not be the same one as the host.

Any staff member found to have refused a passenger who is entitled to access will be deemed to have committed gross misconduct."

That covers GC; should be a simple exercise to extend this to GF/CCR/GA/etc.

Magic01273

Sadly, an employment tribunal wouldn't agree. At least, not unless there had been repeated offences occurring despite verbal and/or written warnings, re-training etc.

But I agree with the sentiment. This whole lounge access area is a serious service failure and should be addressed once and for all by BA.

sigma421

Yup, gross misconduct for one offence seems too harsh. Maybe a line like 'in the event of doubt a manager should be called immediately. Repeated breaches of lounge admission policy will be subject to disciplinary action'

LiviLion

Completely unacceptable for anyone to swear at someone they don't know regardless of what they do.

If I ever spoke to a customer in that way I would expect to be dismissed for gross misconduct. Pity the OP didn't have one of those apps running on his phone that automatically records all your phone calls so you could forward the recording to someone at BA to deal with.

itsmeitisss

I, as do many on here appreciate all you do ^

HOWEVER

As in the thread (which is a very long one) that Paulwuk links, this is far too regular a problem. Staff on the desks don't know the basic rules of entitlement. It isn't with the greatest of respects rocket science. It's not too much to ask that ALL lounge staff know the qualification rules.

I used to be a retail manager, and if any of my teams spoke to a customer in this manner, the next thing they would have got was an invitation to collect their P45.

The lack of knowledge of the rules is not a new thing. Perhaps you can enlighten us as to BA's strategy for this?

zrs70

I'll chime in as a UA regular.

Mind you - I'm going to perpetuate stereotypes. I find the British to be among the most polite people in the world. But they are not necessarily friendly. And when confronted with opposing information, they often stand their ground rather than seeking information.

Again - a stereotype.

And yet... I'll give one parallel example to support (though not prove) my point.

Years ago I was flying on Varig from LHR-CPE in First. Like One World, *A has similar lounge access rules. Basically, you can access any *A First Class lounge when departing on any *A flight. This was back when the United Lounges were in Terminal 3.

I produced my boarding pass - and I was denied entry. The gate-keepers were more and more firm the more I insisted I had entry. My *A F ticket meant nothing. My *A Gold card meant nothing.

Finally, I managed to find my USAirways Club card. They then directed me to the Red Carpet Club rather than the F lounge.

Anyway, I share this story because I can see and hear the defiance that the OP is talking about.

ABZ1C

Shocking behaviour, language & attitude from lounge agent.
Should we be surprised that she humiliated the OP's wife & then threatened to get the police?
Not really, in the post 9/11 world that we live in it has become the default position for many (Not all!!!) people who work in the air line business.
It's a very powerful threat to issue to a customer / traveller who has either annoyed them or proved that they are wrong.
Who are the police going to believe in such a situation?
In the good old days, the customer was always right, now if someone is having a bad day, is poorly trained or just can't be bothered they have the ultimate sanction if a customer chooses to complain or disagree with them.
If I was faced with a situation either on board an aircraft or in an airport where I was unhappy with either the attitude, behaviour or language of a staff member there is no way that I would complain either to them or their superior simply because all that they have to do is call the police / security & state that I've been abusive & or threatened them.

Wozza2404

A work colleague was denied boarding at Zurich by LX a few months ago as he was travelling on one of the RGN jumbo fares. He stood his ground (politely) and refused to leave the gate area. The gate agent there started snarling and threatening to call the police, to which he simply responded "Yes please, I'd quite like to speak to them about the theft of my air fare anyway." After a bit of stuttering the airport security and police were indeed called, and they then proceeded to give the gate agent a right good Swiss bo***cking about wasting their time with "internal politics".

He still wasn't allowed to board the aircraft (well, not in F anyway), but still, too many people roll over at the first sign of someone with a name badge telling them they're wrong. Not saying the OP in this instance should have made them call the police, but just saying that we shouldn't be so scared to ruffle a few feathers once in a while; remaining on the correct side of the law, obviously.

BA Executive Club

Dear all

This is being dealt with internally. k_getchell - if you have any useful information that you can pm to me that you haven't provided such as the name of the staff members you have mentioned then I will add this to the information I have already sent to the management team. Without being present at the time the op mentions it's difficult to comment and in fairness to all concerned I will not be publicly confirming any action taken. Again, happy to follow up with k_getchell privately if you send me your details.

On a general point on the issue of lounge access we did issue a communication after this was raised recently. I am now working with the lounge team to look at what else we can do internally to ensure members can access the lounges as per their ticket entitlement

Nicci

gw76

...well perhaps that is a start. Thanks

Skipcool3

It is obvious you can't be a 'Jack of all trades' and whilst it might have some merit in rotating staff through different roles, mastering the lounge is in the 'too difficult' box... for a few, at least.

So.........Why not have AT LEAST one permanent "lounge dragon" who really could get to grips with it, assisted by a staff member on rotation.......

There is never any need to be rude, even if you are challenged, is there?

mrow

All

Apologies for being quiet on this for a few days. This will be a bit of a long post...so apologies about that too!

Since I posted last we have telephoned Customer Services and raised a case to deal with our complaint about the situation. During the call we made it clear what had happened and indicated that we were looking for three outcomes:

1. Confirmation of lounge access rules (so we can refer to this complaint and the outcome again if the problem happens again)
2. An apology if BA did get this wrong on this occasion
3. A confirmation that the member of staff involved has been contacted about this matter so that the mistake can be rectified

My other half followed this call up with a written confirmation of what had happened to ensure no misunderstandings during the telephone conversation.

The response we have had has been quite amazing and far better than we had both expected. The member of Customer Services staff that we dealt with was sympathetic to the problem and took time to go away, confirm the rules and ensure her response was well informed. At no point have any of our complaints been ignored, misunderstood or questioned.

Within a day of my other half providing a written confirmation of the event we had the following response from BA:

Whilst BA got my partner's status wrong (we will be responding to BA on this matter to confirm her entitlement was based on class of service and not OneWorld status), the response we've had has addressed every one of our issues and was provided without us having written to any of the contacts that have been suggested in this thread.

In addition, whilst we were not looking for any compensation, my other half was over the moon when it was suggested by Customer Services...am sure it will go some way to persuading her to do her next Scotland - London run on BA as opposed to Easyjet or Ryanair (and yes, I'll make sure she doesn't argue about lounge access when she's not entitled to it! )

From my perspective I have been very impressed with the way that the BA staff on this forum have reached out to me with helpful advice. I have had two separate contacts - one giving me some internal contacts to write to about this matter and one from a member of staff who is responsible for Customer Services in one of BAs areas of operation (I am being purposely vague here as I don't want to give significant details of the FT members' roles within BA as I don't want to give any info that my reveal their identity or the role that they play in BA). We will be contacting these people and providing the information that they want about the Customer Service case now that I am back home.

From the perspective of this forum my other half has been really grateful for all the responses. She was obviously shocked by the situation and was questioning whether the escalation was down to something she'd done in pushing to get the BA staff member to double check etc. The supportive (and sometimes funny) FT responses have been great and much appreciated (by both of us).

I am really pleased that my post wasn't seen as a BA bashing exercise (there are too many of those types of thread on here - BA ain't perfect, but it's better than lots of the alternatives) and am very grateful for all of the responses, advice and suggestions. I'm especially grateful for the involvement of the BA staff members who are on FT - their input both officially (Nicci) and unofficially (we all know the FT handles of many of them) really does add to the value of this forum and is one of the reasons I am here.

So, in summary:

• BA have been contacted, understood the problem and have come back to us with a reasonably well informed response that addressed the main thrust of our complaint. The response and speed of reply have been very pleasing.
• BA staff members of FT have been excellent in reaching out to me to offer advice and ask for confirmations so that they can help with the matter.
• The official BA helper has provided a public confirmation on the forum that summarises the main part of BA's response to us with respect to lounge access rules.
• All FTers have been great with their responses and suggestions, advice and ideas.

If I've missed anything, apologies. But thanks so much to everyone for their input here. It has been greatly appreciated ^

LiviLion

Great response - looks like a number of people have acted on it quickly.