Some Observations On Outstation Inconsistency
Jan 8, 2018, 10:16 am
#1
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Some Observations On Outstation Inconsistency
I fly a same route consistently now at least once every 2 weeks and turning up at the destination airport for the return leg back to London has revealed some frustrating inconsistencies in the BA service. Appreciate the outstation is contract staff but am forever puzzled why BA cannot manage and enforce certain minimum levels of service that are advertised as clear benefits for status pax. My last 4 return trips have had the following inconsistencies with the check-in and boarding process.
1. Two check-in desks open up landside, sometimes they have a dedicated one for Club Europe, Gold / Silver etc, sometimes they don't even bother and both just say "Euro Traveller" or "Bag Drop". On my last flight back last week, both said "Euro Traveller / Bag Drop" so no separate check-in was offered at all....although the CE cabin was the biggest I had ever seen it on this flight at some 6-7 rows. Bizarre!
2. Even when one of the desks is a dedicated CE / Gold-Silver, no attempt is usually made to actually police this and keep it clear for those who can correctly use it. So despite the signing, it is just a free-for-all and anyone is allowed to queue and use it. Only once in some 20 return flights have I seen an agent come down the queue and mention it is a dedicated queue.
3. Sometimes on a full flight the gate agents are pro-active in taking some cabin baggage off pax before they board, sometimes they don't bother and delays then result as the CC have to do it once everyone has boarded and the overhead bins are full. I raised a thread about this some 6-7 weeks ago when the CC sent a message up to the gate agents to stop any more rollaboards - but this was ignored as a further 20-30 pax boarded with them which then had to be removed and delayed us. Yet last week the gate agents were very pro-active in doing this up at the gate...but not the previous flight!
So my questions are not really criticisms of the staff, more why BA cannot seem to contractually enforce their service level requirements to ensure pax do consistently receive the advertised benefits they should be getting? It is the old story.....very poor consistency!
1. Two check-in desks open up landside, sometimes they have a dedicated one for Club Europe, Gold / Silver etc, sometimes they don't even bother and both just say "Euro Traveller" or "Bag Drop". On my last flight back last week, both said "Euro Traveller / Bag Drop" so no separate check-in was offered at all....although the CE cabin was the biggest I had ever seen it on this flight at some 6-7 rows. Bizarre!
2. Even when one of the desks is a dedicated CE / Gold-Silver, no attempt is usually made to actually police this and keep it clear for those who can correctly use it. So despite the signing, it is just a free-for-all and anyone is allowed to queue and use it. Only once in some 20 return flights have I seen an agent come down the queue and mention it is a dedicated queue.
3. Sometimes on a full flight the gate agents are pro-active in taking some cabin baggage off pax before they board, sometimes they don't bother and delays then result as the CC have to do it once everyone has boarded and the overhead bins are full. I raised a thread about this some 6-7 weeks ago when the CC sent a message up to the gate agents to stop any more rollaboards - but this was ignored as a further 20-30 pax boarded with them which then had to be removed and delayed us. Yet last week the gate agents were very pro-active in doing this up at the gate...but not the previous flight!
So my questions are not really criticisms of the staff, more why BA cannot seem to contractually enforce their service level requirements to ensure pax do consistently receive the advertised benefits they should be getting? It is the old story.....very poor consistency!
Jan 8, 2018, 10:25 am
#2
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If you are referring to GOA (and indeed many Italian outstations) I think you will find similar inconsistencies against the contractural standard applies to all the airlines at that airport. All sorts of reasons for this but there are typically only one or two ground agency companies that operate in a given airport, they are heavily unionised and airlines can't really do much about it. Ditto Air France, easyJet and so on. There is also a high staff turnover and the ground agents may be working 4 different airlines per shift. Trying to keep the niceties of BA's standards doesn't therefore get the emphasis it should. The BA airport manager for that airport is shared with a number of other airports in the region, when he turns up then I've no doubt things run well, but should be working in another airport that day, then things may start to slip.
Jan 8, 2018, 10:26 am
#3
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For the sake of clarity since you state it is an advertised feature, the advertised CE feature is
my bold
- your own dedicated Club Europe check-in desk at most airports
my bold
Jan 8, 2018, 11:17 am
#4
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If you are referring to GOA (and indeed many Italian outstations) I think you will find similar inconsistencies against the contractural standard applies to all the airlines at that airport. All sorts of reasons for this but there are typically only one or two ground agency companies that operate in a given airport, they are heavily unionised and airlines can't really do much about it. Ditto Air France, easyJet and so on. There is also a high staff turnover and the ground agents may be working 4 different airlines per shift. Trying to keep the niceties of BA's standards doesn't therefore get the emphasis it should. The BA airport manager for that airport is shared with a number of other airports in the region, when he turns up then I've no doubt things run well, but should be working in another airport that day, then things may start to slip.
Jan 8, 2018, 11:19 am
#5
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Jan 8, 2018, 11:23 am
#6
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It wasn't difficult to guess.
By way of contrast at the other end of the spectrum, I was on a Bergerac flight last year. I knew that I was the one and only status passenger and the one and only CE passenger (there were only about 40 of us anyway). I also know the ground agents at that airport, one of them has been there for decades. They effectively opened a CE/status desk just for me (though I suspect a few interlopers used it before and after me), this being an airport which doesn't allow OLCI. I asked her why on earth they bothered setting up a CE check in desk and she said "well yes we knew you were the only passenger for this desk ,but this is what the book says and this is what we have to do".
By way of contrast at the other end of the spectrum, I was on a Bergerac flight last year. I knew that I was the one and only status passenger and the one and only CE passenger (there were only about 40 of us anyway). I also know the ground agents at that airport, one of them has been there for decades. They effectively opened a CE/status desk just for me (though I suspect a few interlopers used it before and after me), this being an airport which doesn't allow OLCI. I asked her why on earth they bothered setting up a CE check in desk and she said "well yes we knew you were the only passenger for this desk ,but this is what the book says and this is what we have to do".
Jan 8, 2018, 11:25 am
#7
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Regardless of the small print, you would expect a separate business class check in on any airline offering that cabin. I honestly can recall just on single example of an airline other than Ba failing to offer this - Aerolineas Argentinas at FTE (El Calafate) clearly is the world class ground handling experience BA aspire too.
IST went through a phase of doing random stuff some years ago - more so with boarding than check in. It’s incredibly frustrating!
IST went through a phase of doing random stuff some years ago - more so with boarding than check in. It’s incredibly frustrating!
Jan 8, 2018, 11:40 am
#8
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The local complication at that particular airport is that you can - at least in theory - check in via the Sala Genova which is landside. I've not seen many people do it other than for Alitalia, but I think I'm right in saying that the very few airlines at GOA that have business class, the others being KLM and Lufthansa, can all use this lounge.
Jan 8, 2018, 11:49 am
#9
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The local complication at that particular airport is that you can - at least in theory - check in via the Sala Genova which is landside. I've not seen many people do it other than for Alitalia, but I think I'm right in saying that the very few airlines at GOA that have business class, the others being KLM and Lufthansa, can all use this lounge.
By the way I see they've managed to persuade Easyjet to try out a few routes.
Jan 8, 2018, 12:01 pm
#10
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The local complication at that particular airport is that you can - at least in theory - check in via the Sala Genova which is landside. I've not seen many people do it other than for Alitalia, but I think I'm right in saying that the very few airlines at GOA that have business class, the others being KLM and Lufthansa, can all use this lounge.
1. Quite often there is no one at the desk when you enter the lounge (I reckon about 50% of times) so you subsequently have to wait for someone to turn up. Invariably there will be a number of pax ahead of you, some also trying to check-in, some trying to process flight changes, seat moves, general connection enquiries. When I tried to check-in there last week the bloke in front of me was heaving a lengthy discussion about why his bags could not be through-checked and labelled from GOA to LAX via CDG on AF....the pax insisted it was possible, the agent insisted it was not and so it went round and round in circles. 10 minutes later it was still going on....so I returned to the Euro Traveller queue.
2. As mentioned, they seem not to be able to process BA luggage from the lounge anyway so bizarrely you turn up at the desk in the lounge and the agent then accompanies you back to the main check-in and does it from there! However, if there is a bit of a queue to get in the lounge the agent won't do this as they leave the lounge unattended too long.....see the start of my point 1 above!
All in all, it is a bit of a disaster for the BA CE or status pax at GOA
Jan 8, 2018, 12:54 pm
#11
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 53
I fly a same route consistently now at least once every 2 weeks and turning up at the destination airport for the return leg back to London has revealed some frustrating inconsistencies in the BA service. Appreciate the outstation is contract staff but am forever puzzled why BA cannot manage and enforce certain minimum levels of service that are advertised as clear benefits for status pax. My last 4 return trips have had the following inconsistencies with the check-in and boarding process.
1. Two check-in desks open up landside, sometimes they have a dedicated one for Club Europe, Gold / Silver etc, sometimes they don't even bother and both just say "Euro Traveller" or "Bag Drop". On my last flight back last week, both said "Euro Traveller / Bag Drop" so no separate check-in was offered at all....although the CE cabin was the biggest I had ever seen it on this flight at some 6-7 rows. Bizarre!
2. Even when one of the desks is a dedicated CE / Gold-Silver, no attempt is usually made to actually police this and keep it clear for those who can correctly use it. So despite the signing, it is just a free-for-all and anyone is allowed to queue and use it. Only once in some 20 return flights have I seen an agent come down the queue and mention it is a dedicated queue.
3. Sometimes on a full flight the gate agents are pro-active in taking some cabin baggage off pax before they board, sometimes they don't bother and delays then result as the CC have to do it once everyone has boarded and the overhead bins are full. I raised a thread about this some 6-7 weeks ago when the CC sent a message up to the gate agents to stop any more rollaboards - but this was ignored as a further 20-30 pax boarded with them which then had to be removed and delayed us. Yet last week the gate agents were very pro-active in doing this up at the gate...but not the previous flight!
So my questions are not really criticisms of the staff, more why BA cannot seem to contractually enforce their service level requirements to ensure pax do consistently receive the advertised benefits they should be getting? It is the old story.....very poor consistency!
1. Two check-in desks open up landside, sometimes they have a dedicated one for Club Europe, Gold / Silver etc, sometimes they don't even bother and both just say "Euro Traveller" or "Bag Drop". On my last flight back last week, both said "Euro Traveller / Bag Drop" so no separate check-in was offered at all....although the CE cabin was the biggest I had ever seen it on this flight at some 6-7 rows. Bizarre!
2. Even when one of the desks is a dedicated CE / Gold-Silver, no attempt is usually made to actually police this and keep it clear for those who can correctly use it. So despite the signing, it is just a free-for-all and anyone is allowed to queue and use it. Only once in some 20 return flights have I seen an agent come down the queue and mention it is a dedicated queue.
3. Sometimes on a full flight the gate agents are pro-active in taking some cabin baggage off pax before they board, sometimes they don't bother and delays then result as the CC have to do it once everyone has boarded and the overhead bins are full. I raised a thread about this some 6-7 weeks ago when the CC sent a message up to the gate agents to stop any more rollaboards - but this was ignored as a further 20-30 pax boarded with them which then had to be removed and delayed us. Yet last week the gate agents were very pro-active in doing this up at the gate...but not the previous flight!
So my questions are not really criticisms of the staff, more why BA cannot seem to contractually enforce their service level requirements to ensure pax do consistently receive the advertised benefits they should be getting? It is the old story.....very poor consistency!
As for the question of why BA can’t enforce their contractual rights:-
1. Try enforcing any kind of contractual right in Italy.
2. What was said about local monopoly supplier, heavily unionised etc.
Jan 8, 2018, 1:02 pm
#12
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Being a regular on this route I can comment from direct experience of this. You are right with your "in theory" however for BA it is not straightforward as they seem unable to process BA luggage from here....although they have a baggage belt in the lounge. I have tried a couple of times to bag drop in the Sala Genova but usual problems are:
Originally Posted by Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy
"It abounds in the strangest contrasts; things that are picturesque, ugly, mean, magnificent, delightful, and offensive, break upon the view at every turn"
Jan 8, 2018, 1:14 pm
#13
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Funny to read the post of Dev 1980 and how he pretty much realised it was GOA after reading the airport experience
Jan 8, 2018, 1:17 pm
#14
Join Date: Aug 2015
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You know, I can live with a bit of outstation (especially Italian outstation) inconsistency, it rather goes with the territory.
But I think we all know that things are going to be almost as bad at T5
. And at home base, simply put...
But I think we all know that things are going to be almost as bad at T5
. And at home base, simply put...T here
I s
N o
E xcuse
I s
N o
E xcuse
Jan 8, 2018, 1:21 pm
#15
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 53
Quite right, a very underrated city and often forgotten as most tourists head for Venice, Florence, Pisa and Rome in Italy. However it has some very beautiful and picturesque parts and the coastline either side is stunning with beautiful little ports and marinas of Nervi, Rapallo, Camogli and of course Portofino are all within about 30-40 minutes.
Funny to read the post of Dev 1980 and how he pretty much realised it was GOA after reading the airport experience
Funny to read the post of Dev 1980 and how he pretty much realised it was GOA after reading the airport experience