LBA_flyer

Which bit of modern day BA inspires you to have such faith? you really think it more likely they were hacked than offer this reply?

jeremyBA

And bear in mind with a lcc I can change a ticket name ( sure it will cost me ) and also skip a flight without tinge whole itinerary being cancelled. I have lost thousands on ba tickets post my divorce where they would not refund nor change name.

subject2load

Hi c-w-s, yes perhaps so. Although I seem to think it’s hardly an isolated example of such poor service, so is it about training and nervousness ; or simply an indication of a disinterested / lazy respondent …..?

Amidst the general current chaos, you can’t help wonder whether the staff member was sitting at her desk (engaged on completely different tasks) when a stressed manager suddenly shouted across the office …….”hey, anybody here good on social media” ? Several enthusiastic hands go up, belonging to instagram and tik-tok aficionados ……. but with zero experience of handling a corporate twitter a/c, let alone knowledge of BA operations.

@ LBA_flyer : I take your point. Excuse the momentary lapse on my part. I’m now back in the room.

LupineChemist

Exactly my point. It should be its own organization and not BA or IB who have both been proven uncapable of running IT and just put a skin on for each airline.

ratechaser

My third cocktail now in hand, I think there was something... might have been a queue... can't quite remember though...

venk

Clearly, you have not interacted with (or hired) many corporate social media accounts.

Only a few companies use social media as a full fledged support. Primarily because if they were to sufficiently train the people and empower them to actually do things for customers, they are better off putting them in under-staffed phone banks or email support paying a lot more. They let people blow off steam without using up a phone line and a trained agent’s time. They might not even be connected to any internal IT systems at all. It ticks off boxes in executive reports that they have social media presence.

The social media staff is typically untrained interns or outsourced services that are given a bunch of templates with strict instructions not to guarantee or confirm/deny anything especially about operations. This is probably where that quoted interaction fits in. Their main purpose is to offload as much of the phone calls as possible and not look like a chat bot. They do not want customers claiming they were told something as an excuse later.

Typically the template will be something like “show concern and say you understand (even if you don’t)”, look for the closest template that will fit and say that their staff will look into it with highest priority. Basically, a lot of words that don’t mean a thing.

A few of them act like a conduit to forward requests or issues but they are not set up to follow up with a case number, etc. It is a cost center for the corporations.

PS: I ahould also add that in many corporations the social media presence is part of their marketing units separate from customer support units. Some have separate handles for the two.

Barnaby100

My husband has just done tube to first lounge in 15 mins
got an email about free airportr on Wednesday. They collected bags including a bike box last night from central London. VeriFLY, boarding pass was issued (yay-that has been a major pain in last few trips as not issued despite having done VeriFLY)We have partnered with AirPortr to offer you a complimentary baggage collection so you can travel light on your upcoming flight from London Heathrow.

This exclusive service is available for London collection addresses and parts of Surrey, whether this is from your home, hotel or office. You can choose a convenient pick-up time and track your bags from doorstep to plane

airportr was amazing and I would pay for it

apparently t5 is deserted this morning but 1st lounge is busy

UrbanLegend

I am hoping things will improve soon.

• Flew BA on 8 April
  • LHR T5 baggage took 70 minutes to arrive. I suppose that's not that bad given what I observed for some other arrivals
  • Still no TPs posted
• Flew AS on 28 and 31 March. Still no TPs posted. It's been over a year since Alaska joined One World. I can't tell is this is an AS or BA problem as some have posted but some need follow up with BAMissingAvios
• TP posting timescale - the new normal? Sometimes I wonder if this whole process is manual
• IT meltdowns
  • Website isn't showing my future bookings anymore. Others are seeing this here Is ba.com down?
• Preemptive cancellations. Why does BA remove flights from schedule and not inform customers with bookings?I'm hoping my future domestic connections don't get cancelled
• Restoring the F&B offerings in First and CW to pre-pandemic standards
  • Long haul in-flight catering | First
  • Long haul in-flight catering | Club World

In all of this I do feel for the people doing the real work. Demand is surging. Resources are stretched thin. People are sick. Many were laid off.

Hoping things improve over the next few weeks.

..and one more

• BA experience at MAN. Ok I'm not actually expecting this one to improve. I'm just used to it

wijibintheair

Although.....Megatron seemed happy with the "we are unable to provide this information" response, why does BA need to change if the client is happy? (why don't they have a slapping forehead emoji on here)