British Airways customer complaint response? (messed up ticket booking)
Oct 9, 2017, 1:31 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: Qatar Airways
Posts: 34
British Airways customer complaint response? (messed up ticket booking)
Hi experts,
To make a long story short, I had a booking on British Airways in August to fly from DOH to EDI, then EDI to JFK, then back to LHR and then to DOH. I bought the ticket on the BA website and it wasn't until after the fact that I realised the DOH-EDI would be flown by QA as a codeshare (and EDI to JFK by AA, JFK to LHR by BA, and LHR to DOH by QA - oddest ticket I've ever had).
When I attempted to check into the flight from EDI to DOH I discovered that somehow my first name on the ticket had magically been changed to gibberish (well, the full name was shortened to two letters + my last name). I attempted to correct it but the BA system wouldn't let me to it, and neither did the redirected QA check in page as I was flying on QA for that leg). I assumed I could sort it out at the airport in Qatar. That did not work as there is no BA counter, QA couldn't do anything about the name as the original ticket was booked via BA, and worst of all, QA wouldn't let me check in because the first name on my passport didn't match the "HK" that now represented my name in their system. QA tried to contact BA, but couldn't reach anyone. To save my holiday I ended up buying a one way ticket on QA to Edinburgh on the same flight.
At Edinburgh, the very kind BA staff member went through the entire ticket and couldn't figure out why the name had been corrupted. The name associated to my e-ticket number at the original booking was my proper full name. She updated the system so I was able to fly onward to the US without any problems, and also had no problems flying back to Qatar at the end of the trip.
However, the issue is, of course, that something happened to my name on the ticket, and I believe it to be some kind of computer error, and this forced me to spend $1,000 USD on a one way ticket to Edinburgh. I have been trying to sort this out with British Airways and to seek some kind of compensation. During my holiday I attempted to contact BA but all times the phone put me on hold and was never to directly speak to anyone. When I had my layover in London I once again spoke to BA staff, and another quite lovely person spent some time with me filling in details of the incident in their system so there's apparently an account of it associated with my booking reference number/e ticket number and she also told me to contact BA customer complaints via the "contact customer relations" online form. I did so and explained the story, including the booking reference/e-ticket number as per her instructions and submitted the form and did receive a compliant reference number.
I have yet to hear back from BA at all, not even a follow up email. I am wondering if this is normal? How long should I expect to wait to hear from someone?
Last but not least, can anyone possibly shine a light as to what happened to the name on my ticket? The BA staff in both Edinburgh and London were genuinely puzzled. Has anyone had a similar experience and were they able to rectify it? If so, what kind of compensation were you able to obtain?
To make a long story short, I had a booking on British Airways in August to fly from DOH to EDI, then EDI to JFK, then back to LHR and then to DOH. I bought the ticket on the BA website and it wasn't until after the fact that I realised the DOH-EDI would be flown by QA as a codeshare (and EDI to JFK by AA, JFK to LHR by BA, and LHR to DOH by QA - oddest ticket I've ever had).
When I attempted to check into the flight from EDI to DOH I discovered that somehow my first name on the ticket had magically been changed to gibberish (well, the full name was shortened to two letters + my last name). I attempted to correct it but the BA system wouldn't let me to it, and neither did the redirected QA check in page as I was flying on QA for that leg). I assumed I could sort it out at the airport in Qatar. That did not work as there is no BA counter, QA couldn't do anything about the name as the original ticket was booked via BA, and worst of all, QA wouldn't let me check in because the first name on my passport didn't match the "HK" that now represented my name in their system. QA tried to contact BA, but couldn't reach anyone. To save my holiday I ended up buying a one way ticket on QA to Edinburgh on the same flight.
At Edinburgh, the very kind BA staff member went through the entire ticket and couldn't figure out why the name had been corrupted. The name associated to my e-ticket number at the original booking was my proper full name. She updated the system so I was able to fly onward to the US without any problems, and also had no problems flying back to Qatar at the end of the trip.
However, the issue is, of course, that something happened to my name on the ticket, and I believe it to be some kind of computer error, and this forced me to spend $1,000 USD on a one way ticket to Edinburgh. I have been trying to sort this out with British Airways and to seek some kind of compensation. During my holiday I attempted to contact BA but all times the phone put me on hold and was never to directly speak to anyone. When I had my layover in London I once again spoke to BA staff, and another quite lovely person spent some time with me filling in details of the incident in their system so there's apparently an account of it associated with my booking reference number/e ticket number and she also told me to contact BA customer complaints via the "contact customer relations" online form. I did so and explained the story, including the booking reference/e-ticket number as per her instructions and submitted the form and did receive a compliant reference number.
I have yet to hear back from BA at all, not even a follow up email. I am wondering if this is normal? How long should I expect to wait to hear from someone?
Last but not least, can anyone possibly shine a light as to what happened to the name on my ticket? The BA staff in both Edinburgh and London were genuinely puzzled. Has anyone had a similar experience and were they able to rectify it? If so, what kind of compensation were you able to obtain?
Oct 9, 2017, 1:41 am
#2
Ambassador: Emirates Airlines
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 18,618
No idea what happened, but you should be able to follow up by phoning the BA Customer Relations. They should be able to at least tell you that you complaint has been registered correctly. Did you get any sort of reference number while you were at LHR? You'd normally get a "We've received your complaint email". I assume there's an email address on the booking?
One other thing... you were quite fortunate that the rest of the itinerary wasn't cancelled after you didn't board the DOH-EDI flight. This would normally have been automatic. That would have made a bad situation even worse.
One other thing... you were quite fortunate that the rest of the itinerary wasn't cancelled after you didn't board the DOH-EDI flight. This would normally have been automatic. That would have made a bad situation even worse.
Oct 9, 2017, 2:02 am
#3
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,829
Did you draw attention to the ticket name problem in Doha? I have never had your specific problem, but when BA tickets go through various interfaces to other airlines they do get mangled up occasionally, and I've learnt never, ever to use my middle name since that seems to increase this risk. However I just sail blissfully through the airport, not mentioning any name issue, indeed my ticketed name is a truncated variant of my slightly hippy-esque passport name. I do know that if I were to ask airline staff about name mangling it would become a problem!
However that's really water under the bridge. It looks to me that the BA - Qatar interface fell over on your name and actually I suspect it was Qatar's fault more than anyone - otherwise we would have loads and loads of complaints about this here, and this specific one in detailed form is the first I've seen of this [doubling up and concatenating the first and middle names is of course very common on the Amadeus-SABRE link between BA and AA].
Anyway, what you should now do in the first instance is to speak to Customer Relations on the telephone, call BA and on the voice menu wait for the option to for customer relations issues for flights that have already been completed. Quote the log number. I'm not sure if this is still going, but recently you could not speak to Customer Relations in the UK morning due to them being overwhelmed with the IT meltdown issue, if that has now cleared an update would be good so I can stop advising people to call in the UK office hour afternoons only!
Your case is unusual in that realistically it is best not done via webforms, you best call up. Having used the webform you can at least do some shortcuts by referring to the incident number.
It may be that BA will refer you to Qatar, and that may be correct given they were the operating airline, but make very careful written notes of exactly what their reason is for that. I hope in a way that BA says "oh yes this was our error" since whatever annoyances we have about BA customer relations, Qatar manage to make BA look good in this department!
However that's really water under the bridge. It looks to me that the BA - Qatar interface fell over on your name and actually I suspect it was Qatar's fault more than anyone - otherwise we would have loads and loads of complaints about this here, and this specific one in detailed form is the first I've seen of this [doubling up and concatenating the first and middle names is of course very common on the Amadeus-SABRE link between BA and AA].
Anyway, what you should now do in the first instance is to speak to Customer Relations on the telephone, call BA and on the voice menu wait for the option to for customer relations issues for flights that have already been completed. Quote the log number. I'm not sure if this is still going, but recently you could not speak to Customer Relations in the UK morning due to them being overwhelmed with the IT meltdown issue, if that has now cleared an update would be good so I can stop advising people to call in the UK office hour afternoons only!
Your case is unusual in that realistically it is best not done via webforms, you best call up. Having used the webform you can at least do some shortcuts by referring to the incident number.
It may be that BA will refer you to Qatar, and that may be correct given they were the operating airline, but make very careful written notes of exactly what their reason is for that. I hope in a way that BA says "oh yes this was our error" since whatever annoyances we have about BA customer relations, Qatar manage to make BA look good in this department!
Oct 9, 2017, 2:32 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 11,852
Yeah, it sound more like a QR issue to me. I'm surprised that the check-in agents or QR ticket office wasn't able to fix the name issue - QR should be in full control of the ticket (at least for the QR leg) < 24h from depart. Sounds to me more like incompetent agents at DOH being unable to fix the issue.
You could consider to dispute the cc charge alleging that QR failed to let you travel on the original ticket as QR screwed up your name when receiving info/data from BA.
I think you were quite lucky that your ticket wasn't cancelled when you no-showed for the first leg/did use the first coupon of the ticket.
You could consider to dispute the cc charge alleging that QR failed to let you travel on the original ticket as QR screwed up your name when receiving info/data from BA.
I think you were quite lucky that your ticket wasn't cancelled when you no-showed for the first leg/did use the first coupon of the ticket.
Oct 9, 2017, 5:00 am
#6
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: Qatar Airways
Posts: 34
Thanks for the responses.
Just to clarify, the name problem issue began when I attempted to check in online with British Airways, before I was redirected to the QA website. I noticed the name was wrong. That's how I remember it. But the manage my booking function wouldn't let me change the name, at all, even though I could update other information categories. It was quite weird.
BA had no issues correcting the name on the ticket when I arrived in Edinburgh and the rest of the flight proceeded as normally. I agree it was odd, I'm aware of the policy that if you miss the first leg the rest of the legs are invalid. But that was not the case here. It could be because the first leg was QA, not BA, and the woman in Edinburgh did mention there was a chance I would have trouble checking in online on QA for the return journey (from LHR to DOH). That turned out not to be the case.
Both BA staff in Edinburgh and London were mystified. The Edinburgh representative suggested that the system was telling her my ticket had been booked via a travel agent (it was not, it was booked directly from BA and I have the credit card receipts to prove it). And the e-ticket with the original booking clearly had my full name associated with it.
Right now I'm just seeking clarification from BA on what must have happened, and of course, any kind of compensation for having to book the one-way ticket. I've signed up for twitter so hopefully that will get me somewhere, and also sent through a follow up email. I'm unfortunately not able to speak over the phone due to a hearing loss (very annoying). I checked with the BA local office in Qatar, which is just a desk at a travel agent, and they only handle ticketing, and would not help me at all. So hopefully twitter will be useful!
Just to clarify, the name problem issue began when I attempted to check in online with British Airways, before I was redirected to the QA website. I noticed the name was wrong. That's how I remember it. But the manage my booking function wouldn't let me change the name, at all, even though I could update other information categories. It was quite weird.
BA had no issues correcting the name on the ticket when I arrived in Edinburgh and the rest of the flight proceeded as normally. I agree it was odd, I'm aware of the policy that if you miss the first leg the rest of the legs are invalid. But that was not the case here. It could be because the first leg was QA, not BA, and the woman in Edinburgh did mention there was a chance I would have trouble checking in online on QA for the return journey (from LHR to DOH). That turned out not to be the case.
Both BA staff in Edinburgh and London were mystified. The Edinburgh representative suggested that the system was telling her my ticket had been booked via a travel agent (it was not, it was booked directly from BA and I have the credit card receipts to prove it). And the e-ticket with the original booking clearly had my full name associated with it.
Right now I'm just seeking clarification from BA on what must have happened, and of course, any kind of compensation for having to book the one-way ticket. I've signed up for twitter so hopefully that will get me somewhere, and also sent through a follow up email. I'm unfortunately not able to speak over the phone due to a hearing loss (very annoying). I checked with the BA local office in Qatar, which is just a desk at a travel agent, and they only handle ticketing, and would not help me at all. So hopefully twitter will be useful!
Oct 9, 2017, 5:08 am
#7
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,829
If you check in via BA and get redirected to Qatar, then BA is just acting as a front end to Qatar's system, you could have got to the same place by starting with Qatar, which again makes me suspect that Qatar is perhaps where you need to go.
Oct 9, 2017, 8:08 am
#8
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland
Programs: BA gold
Posts: 3,902
If you don't mind getting someone to be your secretary/PA, add that person as your third-party nominee on your BAEC profile, and that person can go through the phone on your behalf.
Of course given the nature of the issue, that person ideally be well briefed, hopefully reasonably versed in the lingo.
Minicom/TTY has limited functionality (due to them getting so little usage), so if the above does not work for you (twitter/third party phoning/minicom), I think this one might actually be best handled by the BAEC FT rep to set up liaison with the relevant people.
Edit: I may have an email contact for QR, but that is a while ago, but if you need it, let me know.
Last edited by Stez; Oct 9, 2017 at 8:13 am
Oct 9, 2017, 10:03 am
#9
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,660
Thanks for the responses.
Just to clarify, the name problem issue began when I attempted to check in online with British Airways, before I was redirected to the QA website. I noticed the name was wrong. That's how I remember it. But the manage my booking function wouldn't let me change the name, at all, even though I could update other information categories. It was quite weird.
BA had no issues correcting the name on the ticket when I arrived in Edinburgh and the rest of the flight proceeded as normally. I agree it was odd, I'm aware of the policy that if you miss the first leg the rest of the legs are invalid. But that was not the case here. It could be because the first leg was QA, not BA, and the woman in Edinburgh did mention there was a chance I would have trouble checking in online on QA for the return journey (from LHR to DOH). That turned out not to be the case.
Both BA staff in Edinburgh and London were mystified. The Edinburgh representative suggested that the system was telling her my ticket had been booked via a travel agent (it was not, it was booked directly from BA and I have the credit card receipts to prove it). And the e-ticket with the original booking clearly had my full name associated with it.
Right now I'm just seeking clarification from BA on what must have happened, and of course, any kind of compensation for having to book the one-way ticket. I've signed up for twitter so hopefully that will get me somewhere, and also sent through a follow up email. I'm unfortunately not able to speak over the phone due to a hearing loss (very annoying). I checked with the BA local office in Qatar, which is just a desk at a travel agent, and they only handle ticketing, and would not help me at all. So hopefully twitter will be useful!
Just to clarify, the name problem issue began when I attempted to check in online with British Airways, before I was redirected to the QA website. I noticed the name was wrong. That's how I remember it. But the manage my booking function wouldn't let me change the name, at all, even though I could update other information categories. It was quite weird.
BA had no issues correcting the name on the ticket when I arrived in Edinburgh and the rest of the flight proceeded as normally. I agree it was odd, I'm aware of the policy that if you miss the first leg the rest of the legs are invalid. But that was not the case here. It could be because the first leg was QA, not BA, and the woman in Edinburgh did mention there was a chance I would have trouble checking in online on QA for the return journey (from LHR to DOH). That turned out not to be the case.
Both BA staff in Edinburgh and London were mystified. The Edinburgh representative suggested that the system was telling her my ticket had been booked via a travel agent (it was not, it was booked directly from BA and I have the credit card receipts to prove it). And the e-ticket with the original booking clearly had my full name associated with it.
Right now I'm just seeking clarification from BA on what must have happened, and of course, any kind of compensation for having to book the one-way ticket. I've signed up for twitter so hopefully that will get me somewhere, and also sent through a follow up email. I'm unfortunately not able to speak over the phone due to a hearing loss (very annoying). I checked with the BA local office in Qatar, which is just a desk at a travel agent, and they only handle ticketing, and would not help me at all. So hopefully twitter will be useful!