Charlie Whiskey

Yesterday I booked two return SQ business class seats Stockholm to Auckland via their Mumbai call centre (£2120 each – A350 / A380 - amazing!) and all done and dusted in 8 minutes, including payment, ticketing and seat selection. ^ Found them via ITA Matrix.

Rang You First after that to ask if our August LHR – CPT / JNB – LHR First flight was ticketed, as it was not showing online. It had been. I then asked if they could check the preceding, connecting BA Comair flight from Windhoek, on a different PNR that I gave the lady. I was told that she could see the answer, but because it was a different PNR and I was flying Club class I would have to ring the normal Blue line for the answer: she was forbidden to tell me, and apologised.

So I dialed Delhi, waited 14 minutes, was told that it was ticketed and confirmation would be emailed to me immediately. Needless to say nothing has arrived 24 hours later, nor is it showing as ticketed online.

I have now decided that BA is not really interested in my future business and would rather introduce petty rules for the staff to follow (even if there is a First segment in our journey) than allow them to use their initiative or be the slightest bit helpful. Pathetic really …..

710 77345

Out of all the crazy, customer-hostile and downright rude things we've heard about over the decades here, this has got to be in the top 10. How on earth does this person get a role working YouFirst / GGL calls? What does she think she's achieving here?

HIDDY

By all accounts, doing what she's been told to do. Don't blame her, blame her boss.

Fly2Where

Not sure I would agree. The agent saw the first leg in FIRST, so should be able to provide details on the second leg (connecting even though on different PNR) and tell customer. And I truly believe her boss will say the same, this is just common sense. I don't think her boss will tell her otherwise. Although it's not on the book, but just basic customer service 101.
Of course, I could be plain wrong, but that's not what I expect or experienced with BA, and I am pretty new with BA.

nufnuf77

Unfortunately same thing happened to me before I was GGL. I called you first about one trip to assign seats and book spa, asked about another trip in club and was told to ring gold line. I found it pathetic customer service.

Tobias-UK

On the contrary, You First is there for passengers travelling in First, it is not there as a back door to the GGL team for those who otherwise wouldn't have access to them. By assisting passengers who are not entitled to the service they may be inconveniencing those who are. Well done You First I say.

As for the OP, I think that was a little harsh. Whilst the agent appears correct, given the information was already on the screen I would have thought the information could have been passed on provided there was no other assistance needed.

This is about BA attempting to protect the service it provides to those booked in First (and, as it is the same team, GGLs). In both these instances passengers were attempting to use a service they were not entitled to.

nufnuf77

I agree with you wholeheartedly Tobias, but that does not change my conclusion that from customer service experience it sucks. Especially in OP's case where agent could see the answer, tells so to the OP but can't divulge the answer.
BA should absolutely protect the line, but telling customer she sees the booking and the answer but can't say so is not good customer service

peck

I completely agree that you should be dealt with by the correct CS team member, but to refuse to give a yes/no answer in this particular situation just seems ridiculous. Yes, it gets the OP off the phone five seconds quicker, but then wastes a further 15 minutes of everyone's time down the line.

Surely a little bit of commonsense would have gone a long way here?

Tobias-UK

I think there is a consensus on this point. A simple, 'yes sir that reservation has been ticketed' would have sufficed.

DrBernardo

Ah Tobias-UK - this is, I think, a marvellous opportunity for you to provide us with some expert counsel on the concept of the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law.

I would have thought that BA's motivation in providing the YouFirst service was to provide fast and convenient service to F travellers, rather than to be able to process queries relating to F bookings quickly (since a booking is an inanimate intangible object which frankly doesn't care how it's processed, whereas travellers are people with finite patience, credit cards and itchy feet). Hence surely the idea is to keep those F travellers happy, and therefore - with some provisos like "first query should relate to the F booking" and "no new bookings which aren't in F" - the staff should be empowered to be flexible to answer other queries whilst the customer is on the phone?

peck

^

Dambus

Imagine if Blue Card Holders figured out that booking a fully flexible F leg for travel in the distant future was a backdoor to using You First services for their annual LGW-LCA jaunt in Y? Chaos! And we --- can't --- have --- chaos.

Fly2Where

?? OP Is talking about a connecting flight on 2 PNR. Very different situation, if 2 different bookings on different days, then of course that's not covered.

DrBernardo

Shhh - I think Dambus was being ironic...

Charlie Whiskey

I take umbrage at your first comment: I am a genuine First passenger and was simply asking about one element of a 2-day journey, both legs on BA but booked on separate PNRs.

Your second comment is all that I needed and asked for. Either the agent was not empowered or had not been trained / encouraged to be reasonably helpful. For my part I was miffed but did as asked, and lost yet another bit of respect for this airline that I have flown for some 55 years.

I feel much better today now that I have been sent a BA online Survey to fill in about this call: catharsis!