squawk

This is a new one on me: just received the following text, supposedly from BAeServices, regarding an apparent lack of catering on my flight this morning.



The number is not visible, but the contact photo is white SOS on a red circle.

This has all the hallmarks of a scam (why not the BA logo, rather than a scare-inducing red SOS?) and both my and my travelling companion received it at the same time. The flight is currently a few minutes late, so I wonder if this was related to the data leak issue raised in the “Who sold my data to the flight delay claims handler” thread.

But in this case - it isn’t asking me to ring anyone, or pay anything. Indeed, it’s specifically talking about a refund (if purchases made from speedbird cafe) or voucher (in Club Europe). Which makes me wonder if it is, in fact, a genuine text that is simply so badly branded that it looks like a scam.

I guess I’ll find out once we board whether catering is indeed absent (if it is, to be honest I’d probably prefer some compensation Avios to a voucher at MAN, I don’t even know who to approach as we’re HBO and already airside).

But if it is genuine text, and if anyone from BA is reading, please consider revising the branding you’ve applied to this. And if it’s a spam text, it seems like a bit of an incompetent one - though I’d still be interested in where they got my data…

KARFA

Yes this is a genuine text.

Windy1875

I also had a similar BA SOS text advising of a cancellation.

lost_in_translation

Yes, I agree that charging customers a hefty premium for Club Europe and then repeatedly failing to provide any catering is indeed a scam…

Oh, I see that’s not what you were asking

squawk

The mind boggles as to how someone hasn’t pointed out at a high level to BA’s comms team that this looks like a scam?! It isn’t a split infinitive in a marketing email…

Hint: reusing the same colours/emoji as the SOS emoji - and the SOS icon in the iOS settings - is probably a bad idea.

squawk

Ha! Any suggestions how many Avios might be an appropriate resolution? 🤔

crazy8534

Yeah, bit weird isn’t it… this is one I had. No idea why they randomly chose that particular flight to remind me don’t think it ever happened before or again….

corporate-wage-slave

I had a few of these earlier in the year when DHL was short staffed. The language is identical. On my Android phone there isn't an SOS symbol but a red exclamation mark, and the sender just has a blob - if I attached a Speedbird logo to the contact then I'd get that instead. So is this more the phone's interpretation of the notification / alert? It's not an SOS, annoying though it may well be, and whatever the cause or source, it devalues the process if everything is over-prioritised.

Incidentally I've had a few alerts when in reality some sort of catering was available.

squawk

Interesting, I wonder how different phone OSes interpret messages to assign an SOS symbol or exclamation mark. I guess this could originate from several places: 1) whatever service BA/DHL/Company X integrate with their system to send them out attaches some kind of flag to the SMS to indicate it's a time-sensitive or important alert and Apple/Android implement this in whatever way they choose (just as emoji are a common Unicode standard, but visual representation is left to a custom implementation by different vendors); or 2) the OS determines what should be flagged as "SOS/Important" solely on content analysis of the message - this seems less likely to me.

This is the crux of the issue for me. Something flagged as SOS should be reserved for really critical information - very severe delays, cancellations, or genuine emergencies. It is important to flag up a lack of catering so people might make alternative arrangements, but no matter how hungry I am it isn't worthy of an SOS.

Interesting, I guess we'll see. Though I suspect this would emphasise the devaluation of the alert even more!

GumshoeW12

SOS: Speedbird Onboard Service?

lost_in_translation

It seems to be completely random depending on who reviews your complaint - could be 5K or 10K or 15K Avios.

My view is compensation should be a minimum of the difference between ET and CE but this isn’t BA policy, I was given only 5K Avios for no catering on SKG-LCY last week as well as several other complaints concisely expressed in a single paragraph. Was clear the agent hadn’t read any of it and just saw I’d ticked ‘I wasn’t given a complimentary meal’ or whatever BA call it and just copied and pasted a response. Have cancelled all my upcoming BA operated flights that are easily refundable as things have now dropped below my breaking point, frankly.

bisonrav

Standard no meal compensation is 5K avios.

Scots_Al

Not really, there's no call to action (apart from speak to uniformed BA staff at the airport), no link to click on, and it relates to a flight which you are actually booked on (and because it's today there's no relationship-building to be done).

Knodde

What is a "refreshment voucher", and where would it be used?

For CE customers the compensation should obviously be related to how much food and drinks one would have consumed on the flight if there wouldn't have been an SOS-situation. For all to fill out in a form, or maybe related to body size and health of the liver?

mikeyfly

Not sure why you’d think it’s a scam when there’s no “click here” link etc and you don’t need to do anything just a standard BA comm