woody90

simons1

Connectionsperson

today- (the week before Christmas) BA advised by email that they intend to outsource/close and replace with machines your friendly/knowledgeable/can reissue/rebook on other airlines/fare quote extensive trips/solve other airlines mistakes/solve travel agent mistakes/solve passenger mistakes and 100 other different scenarios!!!!
lets see how the machines deal with the fog/snow/rain/volcanoes 😡

babats

Let's hope the machines are better than these - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...se-worker.html

simons1

Shame, but consistent with BA's general cost cutting approach.

I would love to see how machines handle the more complex itineraries. Stand back and wait for the first major IRROPS balls up.

VSLover

in the rare instances i have to fly UA within the USA, i have been shocked by the check in experiences at DEN and SFO--two of their larger hubs (not sure if DEN still is...) because even flying in F, they force you to the machines, and when checking bags, a separate queue to drop the bag. overall a terrible experience and the rare instances i need assistance, yet another queue to help.

would be a shame if BA did this, but given it is vastly more international flying from LHR than my examples above, i doubt they would go so far as united.

Dave Noble

What is so horrendous about using a machine for check in? people , even in 1st class seem happy enough to chekc in online - what makes using a bag drop so bad?

When checking in at locations where there is no such facility, I get more annoyed having to wait to check in with a human

rossmacd

This is not about checking in. You are missing the point.

It is about removing ticketing trained people, who are invaluable to those who have complex ticketing requirements and typically make lots of changes to their tickets. Yes, BA do have call centres for this type of work, but the airport based agents are generally very highly skilled and can make good things happen relatively quickly with some simple key strokes.

I for one will miss having access to BA ticketing agents at the airport. A sad loss indeed.

A P Yu

The machines will last one major chaos event. As soon as that happens. The queues will just become longer and the airline will realise that so many of their passengers just don't know how to use those machines and each will need a staff member next to them to help.
Its just another example of BA expecting passengers to do too much work themselves. These channels are useful and some people do want them. They're generally people of younger years who speak English. They are completely forgetting the huge number of other types who require high standards of service too. I don't mind queuing and will happily join a long queue and wait for human assistance. BA seem more averse to queues than I do.

corporate-wage-slave

Indeed and I had a ticketing issue very recently - admittedly it was an SDC on a corporate ticket - where for some reason it could not be resolved over the telephone. And I was dealing with the highest level of support available within BA too. Once I got to the First Wing the ticketing agent there (not the usual First Wing agent) was able to sort and requeue the ticket faster than I was able to explain the problem. Now this is just one anecdote and unlike some my tickets seem very straightforward compared to those FTers with pressing needs to be in OTP via 4 sectors, but still I'm not convinced that the technology is always going to work. To be fair, there have been some genuine software improvements in this area, agents can do more operations than before, there are now new machines in Flight Connections that should handle many rebooking cases. I guess there will also be some fallback were agents can call a team to resolve ticketing issues remotely. But it is in Flight Connections during bad weather where things could go wrong here since it isn't always sufficient to just put someone on the next service.

Sorry to hear this Connectionsperson, I hope that nevertheless this doesn't work to your personal disadvantage in the long run.

flatlander

A lot of the restrictions on ability to rebook from BA aren't because it can't be done, but because it looks expensive. That's why call center people can't reboot onto other carriers. Airport staff can, but only for tickets that day, so this tends to force more rebookings onto cheaper (BA) rebooking options over expensive ones (non-Oneworld carriers).
Restricting the actions of either staff or machines to only the obvious, cheap options is a handy way to save money. Clearly regulations on compensation say otherwise, but there is a wide power imbalance between the customer trying to travel ASAP and the airline deciding not to rebook. All the airline has to do is stall, and the customer can do little (even legal action later is slow and difficult), and the airline saves money - this is how Ryanair operates.
Getting rid of ticketing staff obviously saves staff costs, but it also prevents expensive actions like rerouting onto other carriers.
Unless, of course, rebooking machines will choose the best option by rerouting onto another carrier when that is the fastest option. I will be very surprised if that happens.

If your flight is disrupted and there are no ticketing staff, expect to fly on the next BA flight with seats and no more.

Dave Noble

if you look at the post to which I was replying, that was complaining " i have been shocked by the check in experiences at DEN and SFO--two of their larger hubs (not sure if DEN still is...) because even flying in F, they force you to the machines, and when checking bags, a separate queue to drop the bag"

That complaint has nothing to do with ticketing but about having to use a machine

VSLover

fair--however for non-EU people like me who have had scanner issues with my mobile pass--it is the security of knowing when i check in and am handed the boarding pass that all of my passport information and checks are clear and i will have no further issues with my journey.

VSLover

mmm, no. it has to do with constant queuing rather than a one point of service which i am paying for.

Dave_C

So the machines will be able to re-issue e-tickets?

Including being FIM'd over to other carriers? Or is that being got rid of to save costs?