Unacceptable Experience with British Airways in WTP
Dec 24, 2019, 9:50 am
#106
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: 63,846
Dec 24, 2019, 11:47 am
#107
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold; FB Silver; SPG; IHG Gold
Posts: 2,985
Dec 24, 2019, 11:49 am
#108
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: 63,846
That's all stopped a few years back, and BA are about to have 3 times as many locations in NL as KLM, or so I have been told.....
Dec 24, 2019, 12:11 pm
#109
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,543
I'd always been a very loyal BA customer, especially when i lived in London. I always felt that getting on a BA flight was as safe, comfortable and familiar as air travel could get.
I'd been having some pretty bad experiences on BA but loyalty and the Amex 241 scheme kept me flying with them. I then had one flight that was pathetic, truly pathetic and what was worse was BA's response. They literally couldn't careless and showed me exactly how much they valued me as a customer. I stopped flying with BA and haven't been on a BA flght since.
Based in Yorkshire, i needed to find a new airline that could provide us with the routes we needed, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo and the US. My new brand had gained distribution around the world and i'd be flying a lot more in premium cabins. I told BA this but they didn't care, why should they, most would probably say this.
We chose KLM, Leeds through Amsterdam gives us pretty much every route we need. The people and service is good, the business class cabin is good, the economy isn't brilliant but only used it once and now both my business partner and i are KLM Gold Card holders.
I now feel zero loyalty to BA, i have no interest in ever flying with BA again. End of last week i flew to Berlin with Easyjet out of Manchester and there was an article about how BA were rated in the bottom 5 for short and long haul in terms of service and product our of all airlines in the world.
One question, ... happened to British Airways and why are they now the Ryan Air of Long Haul?
I'd been having some pretty bad experiences on BA but loyalty and the Amex 241 scheme kept me flying with them. I then had one flight that was pathetic, truly pathetic and what was worse was BA's response. They literally couldn't careless and showed me exactly how much they valued me as a customer. I stopped flying with BA and haven't been on a BA flght since.
Based in Yorkshire, i needed to find a new airline that could provide us with the routes we needed, Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo and the US. My new brand had gained distribution around the world and i'd be flying a lot more in premium cabins. I told BA this but they didn't care, why should they, most would probably say this.
We chose KLM, Leeds through Amsterdam gives us pretty much every route we need. The people and service is good, the business class cabin is good, the economy isn't brilliant but only used it once and now both my business partner and i are KLM Gold Card holders.
I now feel zero loyalty to BA, i have no interest in ever flying with BA again. End of last week i flew to Berlin with Easyjet out of Manchester and there was an article about how BA were rated in the bottom 5 for short and long haul in terms of service and product our of all airlines in the world.
One question, ... happened to British Airways and why are they now the Ryan Air of Long Haul?
Needless to say that some other people will consider that BA works better for them than KL. I know both airlines very well (I'm FB Platinum for life for a reason) and there are things that I like and dislike about both.
The most interesting aspect of your post to me, however, is that your OP was about your having taken a WT+ flight (you originally wanted J but your business partner convinced you to go WT+ because you had another excellent WT+ flight on BA before) and were badly disappointed. You have now switched to an airline which does not offer Premium Economy. Maybe it is premium economy that also wasn't right for you? It certainly isn't right for me (I obviously much prefer J but if I'm not in a position to get it I'd rather book Y and save cash than W unless it is virtually the same price. W just doesn't do it for me). It seems that you have now followed your earlier instinct which was to book long haul J if possible and maybe that also explains your feeling that you are getting what you want.
Dec 24, 2019, 12:19 pm
#110
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: BOS
Programs: BA - Blue > Bronze > Silver > Bronze > Blue
Posts: 6,812
Meanwhile someone in the Netherlands has probably just converted over to BA!
From the regions BA obv has a lot of competition offering a similar service. I wouldn’t be surprised if your decision has also saved you a good few pennies.
One thing I was surprised by was how bad KL’s A330 business class looked when I was looking at options BOS-LHR for a trip in the Summer.
My flying blue miles went on DL in the end, who with a direct service and better looking product didn’t really give KL a chance.
From the regions BA obv has a lot of competition offering a similar service. I wouldn’t be surprised if your decision has also saved you a good few pennies.
One thing I was surprised by was how bad KL’s A330 business class looked when I was looking at options BOS-LHR for a trip in the Summer.
My flying blue miles went on DL in the end, who with a direct service and better looking product didn’t really give KL a chance.
Dec 30, 2019, 5:55 am
#111
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
The most interesting aspect of your post to me, however, is that your OP was about your having taken a WT+ flight (you originally wanted J but your business partner convinced you to go WT+ because you had another excellent WT+ flight on BA before) and were badly disappointed. You have now switched to an airline which does not offer Premium Economy. Maybe it is premium economy that also wasn't right for you? It certainly isn't right for me (I obviously much prefer J but if I'm not in a position to get it I'd rather book Y and save cash than W unless it is virtually the same price. W just doesn't do it for me). It seems that you have now followed your earlier instinct which was to book long haul J if possible and maybe that also explains your feeling that you are getting what you want.
We now have the travel budgets for bothof us to fly Business Class on all long haul flights, which is why KLM now makes sense for us.
All of our KLM flights could have been BA, but due to the deteriorating service and an unnaceptable flight and response from BA, every single one has been on KLM.
Big companies can and do fail, if they treat a lot of customers like this, perhaps they might decide to care what people think. Ryanair once thought they could behave how they liked and offer no service, they soon learnt.
Jan 13, 2020, 3:45 pm
#116
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 566
Not a direct response to the OP, but I wonder if some perceptions of premium economy are a little off. Expectations and standards pitched higher than the commercial reality. Personally, I view it as Y with a better seat and more legroom. I don’t expect champagne in a real glass and endless warm towels etc. All IMHO of course 🙂.
Feb 20, 2020, 8:57 am
#117
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Marriott Bonvoy
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Englandshire
Programs: SPG LT Plat, BA G, BD*LG, MG Blue+ ...
Posts: 16,034
/mod