Dave Noble

It isn't ludicrous to not let the customer dictate the terms

If BA doesn't meet your needs then it makes perfect sense to go elsewhere.

jmc1K

And gone, David. But how long can you defend rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

callum9999

Well it is a bit... I'd be furious if a company who had just ripped me off (weasel out of it using T&Cs however much you like - they were ripped off) spoke to me like that!

Dave Noble

I doubt that this is the entire communication from BA on the issue

Even if it is, it wasn't rude, it was just concise and unambiguous imo

TheHak

Dictate terms? I only asked for being able to reuse the vouchers that had expired between the time of the booking and the refund..How abusive is that??

The ironic thing is that customer service arrogance is what really aggravated me here as the initial BA agent was actually pretty good.

So yes i think they put really the least trained people there. I actually called back the person and I guarantee you 100% (and BA reps can ask me for the name of the agent) that he didn't even know what a GGL redemption was. He didn't inquire, he didn't care, just thought he'd say no ignoring even to enquire about the request...total incompetence..

Dave Noble

You asked - the airline said no

How is that arrogant?

Instead of getting a refund, could you have rebooked onto another flight and still got the use of the voucher?

Enigma368

I have to say I am scratching my head on this one. The re-route you say you were offered was not comparable. If what you say in this thread is correct it seems pretty obvious that they should be refunding you all avios, taxes and vouchers used for this booking and give you extensions on the expiry date of the vouchers. I can understand why the hotel costs might be more of a battle but even then I would suspect good customer service would suggest they pay that.

Finally on top of all this, they should be offering you some sort of significant compensation for wasting your time and ruining a holiday.

If the re-route had been comparable in terms of times etc. then that would be a different story.

I would personally look into whether the law is on your side so as you could take this to court. Again I am only going by this thread and am surprised BA would behave like this.

I have not had this "fob off" email but I have had multiple emails from BA last summer declining me EU compensation for a delayed flight, each email outlining in painful detail why they would not be paying me EU compensation.

Of course as soon as I lodged a Money Claim online, I received an email from another department saying that they had "re-evaluated their decision" and I was paid full compensation immediately. I would therefore take any email from them claiming to be their "final decision" with a pinch of salt.

TheHak

I think you d be great working for their customer relations dept. or maybe you already are?

callum9999

And in my opinion, ripping you off and then refusing to listen to any further complaints on the matter IS rude... Obviously things like this are subjective, but even if you think it's perfectly fine then surely you must recognise that if a whole group of other people object to it, maybe it actually isn't?

Enigma368

I think was the OP continuously emailing asking for 50k avios because he didn't get his peanuts on flight to Dublin, then the email BA sent would probably be appropriate(although still a bit patronising).

For me the point here is that the OP has a valid complaint and not only is he receiving a bad decision, he is being given the bad decision in a very patronising manner.

OP, are you sure they understand what you are asking for? It seems strange to me that they wouldn't refund/extend the vouchers since you are getting a refund. You are not gaining anything from this and it's not really costing them anything over if you had used them as planned.

I am still finding it very difficult to understand why BA would refuse this..

weero

Shudder - this is nearly verbatim the form letter I get for every third exchange when LH screw me over with EC 261 compensation.

En lieu of the owed EUR 600 they offer 5K miles (or 7, rarely 10) and blame politics, weather, and North Korea for their spectacular delay or cancelation, and then they close the conversation with this.

I hoped BA wouldn't follow them down the same sewer but it much seems like it .

economyman

To me it appears that your complaint was not dealt with by the right department or team. Why did the CS agent refer to you as a Gold Executive Club member and not know anything about GGL redemptions.

When I complained recently (post-flight) about the non-functional IFE I had in Y, I received 10K avios, the following was noted: "We value your feedback as a member of our Gold Guest List", and it was signed off by a GGL CS agent.

paul4040

Personally if this was me involved I'd be sending this to Keith Williams.

Not refunding the GGL vouchers is very, very poor indeed. It is a perfectly reasonable request when BA removed your opportunity to use them owing to a commercial decision on a route.

Bad show BA.

layz

That was my thought. Everyone who is GGL seems to value the GGL line and the support and flexibility they bring. Whereas everyone else has to deal with the lottery of customer relations.

It doesn't sound like the OP has called the GGL line.

gengar

Agreed. The fact that the instruments could have expired is immaterial, as [OP] could have used them for different travel plans.

I also agree with those who said that BA's handling of this incident approaches United Airlines levels. And if that's not an insult, I don't know what is.