Filthy Monkey

Did I miss a memo!? It seems that the gold guest list phone line now diverts to India from late evening (9? 9.30?) until 6 or 7am. I've had to use it a couple of times in the past week to make some changes and the service level really drops at that time. Even the simplest of changes take much longer. 20 minutes last night, for example, just to pay for a held flight using a saved credit card. I also found the fake, rehearsed small talk really annoying. I don't mind a conversation, but not when when it's dictated by a list of 'phrases to help you interact with your customer'. It seems the cuts are hitting all levels.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes it has been mentioned on here a few times. Basically they no longer run a full night shift in either Manchester or Newcastle, and calls thereafter get directed to New Delhi. I did put up a thread about it some time ago, the bigger casualties being USA customer (any description) who have to put up with trekking through glue for their afternoon calls. There is another thread that says that IAG generally are reviewing call centres, with doubtless out-sourcing or off-shoring on the agenda. I hope they proceed very carefully since I know how easy it is to lose business this route. A colleague tried - and failed - to get understood by New Delhi, and simply shifted a large group booking to another airline (Lufthansa), costing BA in excess of Ł100k in one lost transaction alone. I know it happened since I had to sign it off.

By all means send in your complaint via the GGL email, I'm sure your experiences will be read with considerable unofficial interest, even if the official reply will be bland.

ahmetdouas

Come on now even cutting GGL lines? Now that's ridiculous! How much does the nightshift cost them 100 GBP per nightshift staff a night? Madness!

Filthy Monkey

Something else on the list to whinge about on Monday night!

Tobias-UK

Give 'em both barrels Filthy ^

kanderson1965

With all the impending outsourcing, it is perhaps time to revert back to the name Imperial Airways.

dylanks

With the recent change, I now just use the email service more unless it's an absolutely urgent issue which is not usually the case.

Most US carriers moved the majority of phone service back on shore years ago as average Americans really struggle with accents. Instead they've invested a lot more in the phone system to automate or streamline requests (e.g. Confirm passenger information, do more with voice recognition software, and most importantly, instead of keeping passengers on hold, implementing a service that will call the passenger back when it is their turn in the queue).

I think BA would be better served with the latter form of investment if they want to reduce costs and improve the experience.

littlefish

Bah
Thought something was odd, doing my last booking. Some uncharacteristic mis-steps and we even set up a spare booking via a different transfer point in case the original booking couldn't be resurrected.

Had understood this wasn't 'til 2017.
Any ideas what time the "real" GGL line closes and re-opens under the new order (and if a longer gap at weekends)?

It wasn't that long ago they were training new people up for GGL line

Peter M

The inability to modify most BA bookings online has always been painful, the poor phone service makes it doubly painful, and then finally the sub-standard IT the phone reps seemingly have to use to re-price changes to tickets in foreign currency, that can take days, is just farcical.

As if irregular operations and canceled flight rebooking is not bad enough, now you have to watch that the GGL lines does not rebook a flight paid with cash, into an avios redemption booking class so no tier points or avios are earned, just wonderful.

Irubi

Yes, I noticed this when I called from the US last week to book seat 64A on my JFK-LHR 747 and was told by the GGL New Delhi line that there was no such row on the plane and what did I want her to do?

vibguy

This is another way BA telling its best customers : 'Go away, we don't appreciate your business any longer, we now want to be a true LCC'.

nufnuf77

I had to call in last week early morning on Tuesday, got transferred to India and they just could not do/comprehend what GGL normally does without a problem. I gave up. This used to be the best benefit of GGL...

headingwest

But what's the point?

We all know that BA are going to outsource these call centres.

Oaxaca

Very sad. Although I firmly believe you shouldn't have to be at GGL level to get decent customer service, this is/was the reality at BA. I'm glad my last "out of UK hours" calls were before this happened, hoping I won't need too many in the future.

By nature a higher proportion of GGL queries will be more complex, BA obviously doesn't care about the value the service creates. No doubt they would trot out some stat about very small percentage of calls during this time to justify it, but the impact of a single very bad service experience can be significant.

Had great service (as almost always) this week a couple of times from the Manchester team, I hesitate to think how those queries would have been handled in DEL. Actually got a Nunwood survey about one call and gave due praise, for what it may be worth.

DFB_london

What you end up with when you have a ceo Who does nt get premium and trashed Vueling before he left that, and a cfo who only understands cargo . Just going to sit back and wait for the begging 'please come back' in 2-3 years.
Afterall, clueless offshoring worked so well for uk banks and BT. Perhaps Cruz is stuck in his Chelsea residents bubble?