bealine

Given the high incidence of so-called "Ground Rage" and "Air Rage" occurrences in the airline industry nowadays, I would swallow it and move on.

None of us on Flyertalk were present when you checked in, therefore we cannot really pass judgement on how you behaved or whether the third party handler over-reacted.

From the handler's point of view, you were given a Boarding Pass to get you to London, you were given a reasonable explanation as to why your onward BP could not be issued (this happens all the time, usually because AA only allocate a few seats for joining transfer pax and these have already been used up) and yet you were continuing to hold up the check in lines and demanding to see a supervisor for a trivial matter because you had a "gut feeling" the check in agent was "fumbling" and "didn't know what he was doing."

I am afraid, reading and re-reading your post, I wouldn't bother trying to complain.

henkybaby

Typically one of those arguments you can't win... Hate those. If you complain about a final warning (or something similar) it only strengthens the case of the person giving it to you. I dislike that for whatever reason some people's jobs have become untouchable if they yell 'security risk' at you.

So if you complain about receiving a letter like this and BA simply apologises, withdraws it and maybe even disciplines the person giving it to you, the letter has immediately lost all its power. So BA simply cannot apologise if it wants to maintain this process.

That in itself should be a reason for BA to stop this process, because they are providing your staff with a tool they can abuse (if we believe the OP) and which they - by definition - cannot control.

klmml

The above is a reasonable explanation, but unfortunately "the system can't issue it [and I don't know why]" is rather more nebulous and would probably make me a bit wary too. That coupled with the sudden appearance of a supervisor who was initially claimed not to exist would make me suspicious.

Perhaps something was lost in translation between the OP and the handling agent?

Presuming the OP acted politely: agreeing to stand to one side while any queue cleared, was at the desk in plenty of time (perhaps the agents had to move to the gate and were pressed for time), offered to wait while they tried to sort it out, then received a detailed and convincing explanation such as that above, I doubt this thread would have appeared.

Anyway, it's water under the bridge. OP: complain if you want, and move on. It is, if possible, best to let poor service slide unless you have something tangible you can complain.

corporate-wage-slave

1) Trying to get boarding passes with mixed airlines is always fraught with non specific problems. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have one of the cleanest travel profiles possible (in terms of APIS, booking and ticketing mechanism, someone at BA checking my bookings and what not) and yet BA to AA still falls over about 25% of times. It is genuinely the case that an agent looking at the Amadeus end of DCS can't do everything all the time with a SABRE booking. Next chain in the process, next agent can get things to happen for no apparent reason, however in reality things like check in confirmation/status may have slowly updated whilst you travel. I'm surprised you haven't had some AA to US problems with boarding passes!

2) Because of this, I feel reaching out for a supervisor lacks proportion, in my opinion. Stuff happens. Best just to smile to agent1, wish them well and inwardly say "oh well, LHR here I come baby".

3) Asking for a staff member's name tends to have an implied threat on it, asking for a surname more so. It says "I'm so annoyed I'm going to follow this up and there may be negative ramifications for you". Usually first name is good enough, if you are persisting beyond that then the supervisor may well have felt passive-aggression is coming on, plus their need to get out of the situation quick - issuing a boarding pass shouldn't take up a lot of time let alone argument. Hence the notice.

4) I doubt that this has any long term ramifications: there's isn't some monster record out there that is going to creep up on you. You probably got struck off the supervisor's Christmas card list, but that's about as far as it goes. I guess you could follow up with a telephone call and a letter to get your version of events on to the record, and indeed if this supervisor has issued dozens of these Yellow Cards in recent months then that may be worth highlighting, but frankly I doubt it's worth it. Either let go, or just ring up then write in with a very short note with your version of events.

So given that there will be two sides to the story, it does seem an over-reaction from the supervisor, I wouldn't worry about it, though I too would have been beyond annoyed to have got one of these Yellow Cards. I've never been Yellow Carded in 35 years of playing rugby and that takes some doing, one member of my team can barely stretch to 35 minutes.

But equally I do feel you did bring aspects of this upon yourself, in terms of over escalating the boarding pass issue. Don't sweat the small stuff!

Littlegirl

To get the issue looked into correctly, your best course of action is to write to the Station Manager for British Airways at this particular airport.

He/she will be an actual employee of British Airways, most likely the only actual BA employee and will be able to properly look into why sometimes boarding cards cannot be issued and also remind the agency staff about whether using that letter was correct or not.

Call up the airport and ask to be put through to the BA office, (do this at a time that actual BA departures are taking place) then ask for the name of the British Airways Station Manager and the address.

It is going to be your word against that of the staff members as has been pointed out by others, only you and they know whether you were being difficult or not. However it could be a staff issue and therefore it won't hurt to highlight it to the Station Manager as this staff member may have been complained about before. I expect though at best you will just get a reassurance that he/she will look into your issues.

PUCCI GALORE

I am intrigued why the OP choses not tell us where this incident took place. I'd love to know where this was as if this is the sort of conduct that we can expect then forewarned is forearmed.

We only have the OP's version of events. We were not there, however if every time a Supervisor is challenged by a passenger a Final Warning is to be issued then they'd better print plenty more.

To the OP - You are a customer and I would at least write in to BA with the whole incident and preferably the name of the Supervisor. At least you were given incorrect information since the agent was incapable of performing your request. You should have been given your onward BP - I'd take it from there and wrongfoot them from the start. Sounds like behaviour I encountered in Italy once.

henkybaby

(Hello Pucci ! Nice to 'see' you again !)

It would make sense if they gave these 'letters' to staff at outstations where they may not be able to argue as well in English...

PUCCI GALORE

and you too, Sweetheart!

I agree but since the sign over the doors says "British" I would have thought that there should be sufficient language skills available and indeed in this instance that does not appear to be an issue.

Maybe when we learn where this happened we can get a better idea?

henkybaby

I just think you should never substitute proper training by a letter....

BA should stop this immediately.

dddc

It's getting to the stage where the only way people can make an accurate assessment of events is to record it, either audibly or visually. Google Glasses anyone?

Ultimately, it will be your version of events against theirs. If someone does make a complaint like this to BA, does it go on their customer record? Does this record get shared with other alliance or partner airlines?

I'm not sure what outcome is possible from logging a complaint in this instance. You may get a sorry this happened letter, but I don't know if this will actually make a difference to BA.

I think your course of action reporting it here is probably the best. If this happens to more people and they report it here, then it would identify that the staff member is using this letter as a "stop annoying me or I won't let you fly" threat.

IAN-UK

That's the best advice you're going to get. I try to follow the same mantra, and usually manage to pull myself back from going ballistic over trivia. It helps to pause, consider that others might be going through a seriously bad day, then remember my own (vey marginal) fallibility ().

scottishpoet

Unfortunately it does sometimes happen that one airline cannot issue a boarding pass for another

Sometime BA at LHR and/or GLA are able to give me my boarding pass for the AB flight from TXL to KRK

Sometimes they are not

HIDDY

A small inconvenience and hardly worth demanding to see a supervisor over.....especially as you didn't accept their explanation anyway. Sounds like you wasted more time at check-in than you did collecting your boarding pass at LHR. If you'd missed your flight because of it then that would be different.

Could you not have printed/downloaded your own boarding passes or does AA not allow it?

Flyingturkey

Ideally there should never be a situation where a passenger is more competent than the worker. In reality this is of course not true. A letter asking be BA to deal with re-training and an explanation of the situation would be far more constructive. If the mistake is easily remedied it falls down to BA's training not the individual staff member.

Fix from the top down not from blaming the unknowing worker, reporting his name and risking his job when he has not be properly trained is an improper way to proceed.

tangey

I read a query, not an argument. Any reasonable person flying the exact same route twice, with non-issuance of flight documents the second time in comparision to the first, might well query why. And when told that the system can't do it, I'm not surprised if the response was it did it recently.

Now if the follow up was, "yes but the system no longer lets us", or "sometimes it let's us, sometimes it doesn't" then at least there would be an explanation (right or wrong).

Anyhow, I'd guess it's your word against their word, unless BA routinely have CCTV on their check-in desks in which case you could likely prove the "yellow card" was not warranted, but that sounds like a lot of hassle, for very little outcome.

A side, and possibly more important question, does the issuing of these "yellow cards" get recorded against the passenger's details anyhow ( against the BAEC / AA number for example). One guesses that they aren't issued every day, and hence might be deemed worthy of recording ?