Do BA really care about their customers' feedback?
 

I just feel I need to rant:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Recently I wrote detailed feedback to BA regarding 2 long haul flights my wife and I took in F. From start to finish the service we both received was absolutely rubbish (although the full english breakfast was lovely - albeit in old F). My wife works in the travel industry and thus she is aware of how difficult it is to get things right all of the time - but from check-in to arrival this was just amateurish. It certainly wasn't worth 210,000 avios and over £1,000 in taxes etc. Even if we had travelled in economy I would have still written to BA:td:

On arrival the flight attendant apologised at how bad everything had been (even though most had been due to her disinterest and rudeness). She even asked if we had been given a feedback form to complete. When I said 'we hadn't' she said 'ok' and that was that :td:

After waiting 5 weeks for a reply I get an email today saying basically 'thank you for bringing this to our attention'. No mention of the fact we were incorrectly charged for a 2-4-1 Amex cancel and open-jaw rebooking. It did appear that my letter had been skim read and a standard response slightly amended.

Obviously I'll now vote with my wallet and take all my business to Virgin and *A out of LHR.

My advice to anyone of thinking of moving from BA to flying TG, SQ, VS etc in their premium cabins is don't!! - because when you do come back to
BA you will realise just how bad they really are

Cheerio then.

No BA don't care about your feedback but you normally tend to get a slightly better response if you are GGL and/or flying F.

If there outstanding issues of substance follow up on the reply given and it will probably be addressed. Always send via You First if you are not a Gold as you should get a better response.

However fundamentally it is true BA really don't want feedback and their aim is to close down issues ASAP rather than get to the root cause and resolve them. It is easier just throwing Avios at customers than solving real problems.

Simple answer is no, evidenced by bland marketing responses to all complaints.

Regarding the 241 cancellation and rebook, iirc you wanted to move from one redemption zone to another. A 241 redemption cannot be changed from one redemption zone to another (SIN=Zone 8, BKK=Zone 7)without a cancellation and rebooking.

Write back.
Compensation is being offered for old first too, so ask for it.
Imagine if you had paid the full cash fare.
Remind BA that your wife works in the industry, and whilst understands that things can go wrong, it is how BA respond that is of greater significance... How could she possibly recommend the product?

Do BA really care about their customers' feedback?
 

A bit more detail about what was rubbish would be good.

Perhaps you can post a copy of what you sent to BA?

That's basically it to be honest.....you either go or stay and give them another chance.

Unfortunate but these things can happen. We had a pretty under par F experience from SYD-SIN-LHR and I sent in my views on what had gone wrong. Got a reply saying they would pass my thoughts on to the relevant department and that was that....never heard anything more.
Our next F flight was a very good one as have all our flights with BA since.

When a company is makig millions in profits why should they care?? Whilst I am with the Op on this one, the fact of the matter is BA just dont care...and they wont care if you dont ever book with them again...

Well, I'm a leisure traveller. I must be one of the lowest golds they have barely reaching 800 TP :) (last year as a gold :()

I don't often e-mail customer service but when I have, I have always had a good response. Maybe I have been lucky when you think of how many e-mails that must reach BA every day.

How can you be "with" the op, all s/he has said is that it was rubbish.... apart from breakfast (which usually is rubbish).

agree - but the issue was I couldn't cancel on-line as the website wouldn't accept the original CC number (even though i confirmed the last 4 digits were correct). IIRC you can't book open-jaws on-line either. So I was charged full cancellation and re-booking fee:td:

Yeah, the trouble is that is the policy. If the thing you want to do can normally be done online but for some reason online isn't working then the telephone fee isn't charged. If the thing you want to do isn't something that can be normally done online (as ba.com doesn't have that functionality)then the telephone fee is charged. But in your case even if you could have canceled online then the cancellation fee would have been charged you just would have saved the telephone fee. Or are you saying that you were told that you could have canceled online without a cancellation fee?

Gladly - if only I could find a copy :(

Is there anyway of getting the original letter I sent via BA's Customer Feedback on-line form?

You should get an email copy of the submission.

It is a mistake though to send queries complaints re:F via the webform? You are better off relaying via the You First email address. This gets you priority response and generally a better standard of response.

None of this changes the fact that fundamentally BA disregards customer feedback instead choosing to log it in a way that can be used to someone's advantage later e.g. complaints about catering will ultimately become "customers tell us that they don't like food on our flights so in respnse to customer demand we are removing it" ;)

There is little point in reporting issues to BA customer relations unless you are looking for some avios.

Thank you - within 26 minutes of an email from You First telling me they'd asked Customer Relations to review my issues I received another, more detailed response. Most of it being condescending. If it wasn't as a result of my feedback but someone else's I'm sure I would have found it quite funny:confused:

I'll give you a quick snippet here:

I recall I wrote about my wife having a piece of plastic in her desert, and also when my wife asked 'What the wines were on board?' the reply was 'I don't know'. There then was an awkward silence and the the attendant walked off never to return. At the time we both thought that this was rather rude and unhelpful :(

the response I got in relation to this was:

I am also sorry to hear about the issues you had with the catering provision. It is unfortunate that our cabin crew are not trained sommeliers, however, I am sure you can appreciate while we try and advise of the products available their main role is associated with the safety and operation of the flight rather than to have substantial conversations about the catering or wine on offer'.

:confused::confused:

That's a really patronising response. What would marketing think to see that CC are there just for safety and doling out food? The Unions would be happy.

That's an unacceptable response in my opinion. Personally, I'd have read the wine list rather than ask the cabin crew but even so that's a terrible response.

And what about the piece of plastic in the dessert? What did they say about that?

A very disagreeable response, although I'm surprised the OP's wife didn't get a wine list inn First. We do in Club World, even though some CC can barely tell one from another. I find speaking slowly and clearly, saying helpful things like "that red one, please" is usually sufficient. ;)

We weren't given any menus to read at this point :td:

Nothing re: plastic - this was the only referral they made in their response about the catering

I think the danger for anyone writing a complaint is to make it too broad. if I were minded to there are things I could complain about on each and every BA flight I take (and I take a lot). I now just tune out of all but the most serious issues because BA don't really care about pushing improvements so it is just a waste of time and effort bringing all but the most serious issues to attention.

So the piece of plastic in a pudding is serious, the cabin crew not knowing the wine list (which to be fair is mainly printed in the menu) is not. I wouldn't say the crew lack of knowledge is unimportant as really they should know their product but it is of a different magnitude to swallowing a sharp piece of plastic mid air.

I don't want to come across as a BA apologist because I am really not but if you take a relatively scattergun approach to to your complaint you just allow BA off the hook for the important issues.

Keeping your list of issues short (no matter what the temptation), focussed and concise is really the key here.

None of this will make BA care much more about your complaint. It is likely to be answered by someone relatively young who in all probability may never have experienced flying in F let alone paying for it.

Its like a response from Basil Fawlty its missing 'well la de da, you want a winelist do you...'.

[QUOTE=Land-of-Miles;21909624]

So the piece of plastic in a pudding is serious, the cabin crew not knowing the wine list (which to be fair is mainly printed in the menu) is not. I wouldn't say the crew lack of knowledge is unimportant as really they should know their product but it is of a different magnitude to swallowing a sharp piece of plastic mid air.

My comment to BA was not around the lack of knowledge re: the wine list, but the fact that the flight attendant thought it acceptable to respond in the way she did. She could have said 'I don''t know but I'll find out' and that would have been a more than adequate response.

I agree most of the issues raised, on their own, are small, but when you are in First and expect (I quote from You First) 'On board elegance', these things do mount up and totally spoil your experience.
Things like the lady in the T3 Spa tutting at me when I asked if my wife and I could swap massage times - it later transpired that in fact all she did was sit us in the massage chair as the pre-booked massages weren't available. Warm champagne, breakfast (a bacon sandwich made with one rasher of bacon and a bun you get in economy) being cold - I don't think the bacon had actually been in an oven. The majority of the T3 First lounge tables being full of empty glasses and the waiters being more concerned with the England football match on TV than clearing or serving. My wife's entertainment system having to be rebooted twice

- just little things that mount up and spoil your experience

Don't get me wrong I understand entirely what you are saying here (and sympathise having on previous occasions opened to floodgates to all BA's ills when they have pushed me over the edge).

If BA cared to take feedback onboard and used it to address issues then it would be a good thing to do unfortunately however BA doesn't do this, so no matter how valid the issues raised you will ultimately end up more wound up as a result of the complaints process than before it.

In that context I just think it is more pragmatic to flag up major issues and leave it there. Since all you can hope for is a half arsed response and a token amount of Avios.

Just because the wines are on the wine list doesn't mean that they are on the aircraft.

I always which wines are available.

AWESOME ! Now that is a First class response to a whinging First passenger. :D

(agree with the complaint about alleged plastic in desert, but don't see the point of making a fuss over the lack of sommelier.... they provide you with a list, do they not !)

Once upon a time didn't BA have dedicated, trained, crew for first class passengers?
What is so difficult about saying ' I wil just check that the wines have been loaded' or similar?

Because they don't want to do that for all 14 F seats ! Hence you are given a list on the menu !

Honestly, in F, that's a bit rubbish. In each of my last 4 flights, I have attempted to order a wine that was on the menu, only to be told they didn't have it. Well, ok, that happens, but when I asked "what white wine do you have," in 3 of 4 flights, I got a "hmm, I don't know" in response. Is it really that hard?

Short Final - how about reading previous posts before you make comments

As I said above in post 24, 'my comment to BA was not around the lack of knowledge re: the wine list, but the fact that the flight attendant thought it acceptable to respond in the way she did. She could have said 'I don''t know but I'll find out' and that would have been a more than adequate response'.

Yes, but why not just omit the moaning about the wine altogether from your complaints to BA .... its a minor issue (if that). You would have done much better (and probably got the results you were hoping for) if you focused on the real issue (i.e. alleged plastic in food).

how about reading the thread:confused:

When my wife asked 'What the wines were on board?' the reply was 'I don't know'. There then was an awkward silence and the the attendant walked off never to return. At the time we both thought that this was rather rude and unhelpful.

As I've said all along - all minor issues if they had happened on their own but when they happen together they spoil the whole experience.

While not significant, isn't this the sort of thing they're meant to get right in "First"? Otherwise why bother selling a product that's 50% more expensive than Club?

Bit ironic, the breakfast is normally the worst actually.

My experience is without one of the official forms, you are wasting your time complaining. I guess BA see the form as an acceptance from the crew that the performance was below par.

No disrespect to the OP but I have seen people have bad experiences in the same cabin as me due to the attitude towards the crew and my experiences fine.

Equally though the crew should be able to deliver exceptional not merely acceptable service to F PAX. A lot of crew relatively are devoted to F so it shouldn't be hard to understand which of the wines on the list are available before taking orders.

I wouldn't have complained about the wine issue myself but I would have noted the name of the crew member and would have complained if it was symptomatic of a wider problem, for instance not being arsed to find out what wines are available could well align with not being arsed to prepare or decant food properly. I would however link a complaint about attitudes with tangible examples of results like this.

Also the expectations of passengers may be influenced by BA's florid promises:-

"Your First class restaurant in the sky

Begin your meal with a delicious starter, while we prepare your personally chosen main course. Indulge further with our tempting desserts and carefully chosen cheese platter, accompanied by seasonal fresh fruit and the finest chocolate.

If you prefer a lighter meal, our Bistro service offers you a selection of pasta, salad, soups and hot sandwiches to keep you satisfied on those days you may not fancy a three course meal.

We want to make your experience individual to you and your fine dining experience to be one you won’t forget."

Unless of course "an experience you won't forget" is meant ironically ;)

I feel it is not inappropriate for the crew in F to be ready and able to discuss the wines with each and every passenger - is that not the level of service one would expect in F?

I find some views on this thread utterly astonishing.

If there are no immediate safety issues to be addressed, the crew in First Class ought to be able to spend time ensuring that their most valued passengers on board the flight are served to the best of their ability.

Would I have asked about the wines? No. However, if a passenger asks then they ought to be treated with the courtesy of an answer.

Equally astonishing is the extract from the OP regarding the customer service response about answering the question about the wine.

Yes, granted, this ought to have been considered a minor issue. However, if I were the OP I would raise that response from customer services with the main board director responsible for customer service. First Class on BA is an expensive premium product and this is unacceptable from both the crew and the customer services team.

And this is another response from Customer Services re: rudeness (tutting) of Spa staff when I asked if my wife and I could swap bookings (only to later find out only massage chairs were available and not the pre-booked treatments - so not really that difficult to swap I would have thought?

I also made a comment regarding the lack of tidying away glasses and plates in the lounge and that I thought it off that a F lounge was self-service especially when the Virgin UC lounge is table service.

I am also sorry to hear that only the standard massage chair was available in the Terminal 3 lounge. This must have been very upsetting for you prior to boarding your long-haul flight to xxxx and can only have been exacerbated by you not being aware that the lounge would be self service.

Our experience was:

Amouche bouche was delivered to our table without a word as to what it was (at this stage we did have menus but it was not mentioned). We therefore both thought we had been given incorrect starters.
However noticed everyone was getting them so tucked in. Found them bland and tasteless. Plates were taken away with the comment 'yes, most people find this horrible'