Defeated by the BA phone lines
 

Well, there's an hour I won't get back....

Tried to call up for help with adjusting / making an admittedly complex booking and just had the most comedy experience ever (I find that frustration turns quickly to laughter as the best way to deal with these things). Was trying to rebook an old 2-4-1 Avios booking from 2020 that has been 'held' open for me to rebook until Sep this year, plus add in the kids on a second voucher to make it a family trip. Here's how it went:

• Called the BA Gold line and held for 20+ minutes before getting through and selecting the option to adjust an Avios booking. Answered multiple security questions to then be told that they couldn't help me, nor transfer me and I had to call back and select option #3 #1 #3...
• Called back and got through quicker this time (about 5' hold), but told that they also couldn't help me and that I had to speak to the sales team, which they would transfer me through to....
• On hold for another 10' and then got answered by someone from BA Holidays...it was quickly apparent to both of us that this was the wrong number but they could feel my frustration and promised to put me through to the right person directly...
• On hold for a bit longer and then sounded like the phone answered but noone responding (sounded like when someone calls you from their pocket). After increasing volume 'hello'...'hello'...'HELLO' from me I gave up...
• Called the BA Gold line again and tried option #3 #3...through fairly quickly and very polite person said they could not help but apologised for me troubles and said they would get hold of the right person and explain....after 5' on hold they came back to say they were still trying...after 10' of on hold they came back to apologise and say the right phone line had closed so I had to call back tomorrow and select option #1 #1 #1

Two questions: has anyone had a more frustrating / comedic experience recently and is the final proposed option of #1 #1 #1 the right one?

I wish to goodness that BA (and all other companies) would get rid of these multiselect phone systems and just have people answering quickly who can help with / direct any query.

:(

Yeah, it’s a shambles. I used a similar bad BA example doing a customer experience process workshop with an insurance client last month.

A customer holds for 45 mins before a phone answered, takes 30 mins to upgrade a cabin from WTP to Club on a 2-4-1 and THEN you can billed £70 for the change.

An example of where having a bad CX experience can actually pay your call centre wage bill I suppose.

Trying to use old 241 vouchers especially in combo with new ones is a disaster, so much sympathy OP. Very lucky to have had access to the GGL line to sort me out for this stuff. If you are wanting to book in F definitely call YouFirst.

Yes, amending / cancelling Reward bookings is option 1,1,1

I’m sorry but in 2023 there is no excuse. A decent technology company can automate multiple scenarios. BA refuse to engage with modern technology, so the calculators have to come out.

Just wait for the fun you will have when you do finally get through.....

The systems where you press 1 or 2 or whatever is a great frustration & dare I say hate of mine. My worst experience ever was with BA. I lost 4 hours one day. Being transferred & having the phone line just die was horrendous.
I don’t think there is a Gold priority queue for BA Holidays either which doesn’t help. As soon as you choose the option you are in the same queue as everyone else.
There is a small constellation the phone call doesn’t cost me on my EE phone. Unlike AA who’s no always costs a small fortune.

One last thought. Why do so many companies have a message saying some thing along the lines “we are experiencing an exceptionally high call rate…” plus this has been going on for many years. Take ADT my alarm company like many others I have never known them not to have this message. Surely if it was genuine & they cared about customer service something would be done. Harrumph

Thanks all for the empathy and advice!

I did finally get through and it seems like it's not possible to do what I want to do. I can't 'add' people to the old booking to bring my kids in, nor can I not be on that booking to hand it over to my wife + one child. It all seems a bit silly. Obviously, there is no technical reason why this can't be done, BA just don't want you to do it.

To further annoy, I have 1x 2-4-1 voucher expiring in April and 2x 'new' 2-4-1 vouchers expiring next year, but you can't mix and match old and new vouchers.

So, BA doing it's best to make it impossible to use old flights / vouchers.

The other week I called to change dates of a hotel, I called the right number and waited for about an hour, went through all of the redirections for my enquiry and was told I had called the wrong number.

They kindly gave me the right number to write down, and it was… the number I had dialled. :D

I remember calling a company at their 6:30am opening time and being greeted with "we are currently experiencing higher than usual call volumes, if your call is not urgent please call again later". I decided to wait and my call was answered straightaway by an agent who said I was their first and only call so far that morning. Perhaps my 1 call was 1 more than usual for them at that time, as I've just googled and they've reduced their hours and are now not opening their lines until 7:30am!

That always leaves a sour taste in my mouth, when you've been given a really poor experience and then they want to charge so excessively for it!

Yes, ADT is rather strange, not least because in my experience, they always answer very quickly!

[QUOTE=LondonAussie;34932383]I remember calling a company at their 6:30am opening time and being greeted with "we are currently experiencing higher than usual call volumes, if your call is not urgent please call again later". I decided to wait and my call was answered straightaway by an agent who said I was their first and only call so far that morning.

I had a similar experience with Barclays last week. I use telephone banking and I called at exactly 9am on a Saturday to transfer some money from one account to another in order to pay a bill. I had to endure 6 minutes of the most manically depressed woman repeatedly telling me to "use the App" for all my needs including, I presume, to top myself if I so chose. I know that Barclays do this deliberately in order to get people to hang up. Didn't work with me, I hung on, got my transfer done and then made a formal complaint, awaiting a reply.

I particularly enjoy the condescending "you can do everything yourself online, why call us?" type message on the BA hold music. Well yes, it would be great if it worked but I'm calling because your IT is broken again and spitting out an error when I tried to do it online!

Surely they must do focus group research that tells them these messages annoy people and put them in a bad mood before speaking to an agent.

I'm a beginner with this sort of thing but I just finally got through after speaking to maybe 7 or 8 different departments across 2 days. A combination of being transferred or being told to redial the number I'd already dialled and use a different option. I'm only wanting to upgrade a flight, surely this is a very common request and it's made to be almost impossible!! It's made even more frustrating when speaking to one department who can only tell you how many avios it'd take to do, then another department who can only upgrade using cash, and so on and so on.

...and anyway after all that, I was told there was no current availability to upgrade but to try again in about a month.

I might be telling you something obvious here, but, assuming you are on EE (UK) have you tried calling +44 (0) 207-660-2300? I call them; option 2 twice and it is almost always instant.