bagold

Sorry to have another thread on BA's poor experience. I don't post many complaints but this one has made me decide it is no longer worth flying BA to keep my GGL status. So this year will be my last GGL year.

I had a revenue F ticket from DFW to LHR. I had to change to a flight one day earlier due to a meeting schedule change. There was no F so I changed my ticket to a J class ticket. Upon arrival at DFW I checked ExpertFlyer and found F1 A0 so I asked to pay the difference back up to F (previously they refunded me the F->J difference). This is where the fun begins. First agent said no seats in F. I said I can see it and even went to ba.com to see I could purchase a ticket and showed them I could buy it online. So the agent told me I should just buy a new ticket online. I asked why would I throw away an existing ticket when I can pay the fare difference?

I quickly realized that BA had gotten rid of all BA staff at DFW. I know this is cost cutting but the BA staff there before were brilliant. The DNATA staff there now are clueless. I asked for the manager (dnata staff) to check but they said she was busy. So after 20 minutes the manager finally came out as I was still hoping. By the time she came out the F seat was gone. No one else check-in during the time I was there in F or J. She said there was no F seat and the flight was oversold. My biggest complaint was just her arrogant attitude that she knew everything and I knew nothing. BA should have one of their own BA managers / staff at DFW to manage the flight. That is what I've seen in other airlines where they retained at least one of their own working with an outsource ground team.

So I guess they upgraded another person from J to F even when I was willing to pay revenue. I'm sure dnata staff have no incentive anyway to help BA generate more revenue.

Other incompetence was shown when they entered my KTN (Tsa Precheck) number into my FF number so my boarding pass showed BAGold###### but the number was actually my KTN number. 3 agents tried and could not fix it. So I went to the gate and first agent said she is too busy and to fix it upon arrival in London which I knew was not easy or possible. Finally found another agent to just delete my FF number so I can send a retroactive claim later.

Flight itself was fine no issues at all.

London arrival was a mess as I expected. E-gates were great but baggage took over an hour. My Apple Airtags showed the bags had arrived at the baggage system (we were parked at C gate) over 30 minutes ago but no one loaded the priority bags onto the belt. Another flight that arrived later had all their bags out on the same belt by the time our bags came out.

Went to BA Arrivals, showers were broken and I needed a shower before going to my meeting so had to go to Sofitel to get a day room for a shower before heading into town for my meeting.

Overall, just a poor experience and made me decide after all these years being loyal to BA it is not worth it anymore. Luckily, I'm at a stage in my life I choose my carrier regardless of price but sad to see the decline of BA.

bisonrav

Why would you not just call the GGL Line to sort the ticket out?

c1223

F1 A0 doesn't necessarily mean there's a seat available. I presume the ticket you could purchase on the BA website was for an extortionate amount.

PGberkshire

All the showers and baths in the Arrivals lounge were broken? every one?

Saladman

Without being too picky, out of the sections you’ve complained about, the first - the agents at DFW - were not BA staff. The second, the lack of a First seat is hardly BAs fault either. If it’s full then it’s full though presumably it would let you overbook it? I’m not knowledgeable enough to know how this would work, however I always thought that Expert flyer was not gospel but a ‘best guess’?

The flight itself, which ultimately is what you’ve actually paid for, as you’ve said was fine.

The baggage experience was obviously left wanting and having used it the other day, I can concur. Though I’ve had similar in other airports recently, Sydney was awful.

Can’t comment on the showers. But as a GGL one assumes you do a shed load of flying with BA and whilst it’s obviously your choice, it does seem odd to suddenly write off BA completely on the strength of some Dnata contractors and a slightly longer than normal baggage wait.

Presumably only you’ll know how much value being a GGL holder gives you which of course may have a bearing.

makin'miles

Chosen by BA, wearing a BA uniform, completing work for BA, and interacting with BA passengers (and not labour lawyers). I mean, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

Are you inferring that BA isn't responsible for the quality and service of staff that it contracts for?

1Aturnleft

I applaud your decision to not renew GGL and to fly away from BA and (presumably) Oneworld moving forward. The more people who do so will result loss of market share and passenger numbers and perhaps a better passenger experience for all moving forward. In the meantime I hope whoever gets your business moving forward lives up to expectation. I fear however that unless your airline of choice is Harrods Aviation and using private terminals or equivalent you're going to end up disappointed again rather quickly.

HIDDY

I get the feeling you're not quite as important to BA as you seem to think you are. Best calling it a day.

stevie

That's a very odd thing to say but you have been consistent for some time, not happy move on. I have and don't regret it one bit. Blew a tonne of avios on flights in intra-Asia and the US so only thing holding me to OW is my impending Silver card.
If the product is not worth it, just try something different, or as I did for many year get the x4 BA flights and then use better OW choices. Better than stewing on it.

bagold

Yes they told me all showers and toilets are not working when I arrived at the Arrivals lounge.

Yes I could purchase the ticket online for US$14k+ one way. So I assume the F1 was correct. The only reason I didn't was then I would throw away my old ticket segment which expires in June and I didn't have plans to fly BA again before that from US to Europe.

As someone else suggested I should have called GGL to try. I've always had my agent handle my bookings but on the spot didn't think of calling GGL.

Dave Noble

If anything, I think that he would be implying it - you are inferring that he is implying it

chriswiles

This is roughly the norm now. At least 40 minutes I find. Sometimes you might be lucky and they come out quickly (I once walked from the plane), straight through security, to find my bag was coming out on the carousel. 15 mins from plane to bag. Other times, it's taken 1.5 hours.

I don't think this is all BA's direct fault though. Moving to another airline won't suddenly offer you a vastly improved service, through Heathrow. I've flown AA a few times recently and it's been shockingly poor - made flying CE through BA a pleasure.

NWIFlyer

That would suggest some sort of plumbing issue, probably a complete loss of water to the lounge. That's pretty bad luck, and yep - I'd have been muttering some words under my breath after the baggage wait.

Was the rest of the lounge working as normal? Were the public toilets in the terminal working? I'm not remotely familiar with how the plumbing works in T5 (I sense that might even prove a stretch for the encyclopedic knowledge of c-w-s), but I'm not sure that's something you can reasonably hang on BA.

That notwithstanding, you obviously haven't just made this decision off the back of this single flight - there must have been more incidents because you don't just throw GGL away without a great deal of considered thought. We've probably all been there at some point with different airlines because we perceive they don't care about us/our business any more. In truth, none of them ever did.

So I wish you luck. I hope it's the right decision for you, as you don't really know until you've made the jump. I'd just check the other forums on FT before you finally make the jump, because I percieve there are similar complaints about other airlines you might jump ship to. Believe me, if and when i have to make a choice between maintaining Star Alliance or oneworld status, it'd be the latter I'd be going for without question.

our_kid

OP sorry to read about your experience but as bisonrav correctly says this is exactly why you have priority assistance via the GGL line.

Any IRROPS I tend to deal straight with the team there as they’re empowered to get you out of a pickle.

crazy8534

DFW has been one of my regular F trips the past 12 months and I can understand the desire to fly F instead of J on the A380 (although an upper deck window seat with the side bin is probably one of the best iterations of "old" CW).
I think trying to change a ticket at the airport is always going to be tricky and wonder if you might have had more success just asking for an AUP at the start?
But as you know the F cabin on that route (and really on a lot of them now that there is so much less F with the retirement of the 744s) is usually full.
The people who might have been able to help were the GGL line so a shame if you will now give up that privilege.
You are already GfL so you will be reasonably well taken care of even if you do only fly BA occasionally now and the benefits on AA are good too.

I have dealt with the station manager (or whatever the equivalent is now) at DFW on a few occasions and found her to be pretty helpful.
She knows my face now and will find me to pre-board which is a little bonus I quite enjoy.
I feel sorry she couldn't sort you out but I can imagine with everything so busy and the flight so full that it just wasn't a high priority when you already had a confirmed J seat.

There aren't a huge number of other options for that route if you are wanting to stay in F unless you want to stay with OW and use AA.
Did you use Flagship First Dining beforehand? A gem of the network in my humble opinion.
I have never come across the situation when there were no showers available in the arrivals lounge so I would chalk that one up to very bad luck.