kzoom

Why on earth on June 30 at 8pm PST, 11pm EST is ba.com already quoting the new redemption rates for BA EC NA award bookings?

Is the program now being switched to GMT?

Long waits on the phone and/or the pure and simple inability to even wait on hold to get through is one thing (one may have to put up with) BUT switching online redemption rates ahead of time is another (not particularly ethical IMHO) ...

CT-UK

Why the hell should they be EST or PST?? Is this not British Airways? BST or GMT are fine by me. If it was set for EST then the guys in Dnever would comlain, if it was set for PST then the people in Hawaii would be screwed.

As for unethical...............



[This message has been edited by CT-UK (edited 07-01-2003).]

Gaza

I agree with you.





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Gaza's oneworld & Star Alliance Round the World Information Pages - www.rtw-info.co.uk

Gaza

Are you serious? British Airways operate on British Summer Time or UTC (GMT).

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Gaza's oneworld & Star Alliance Round the World Information Pages - www.rtw-info.co.uk

Grog

BA compartmentalized ECs around the world in terms of rules--it's not so farfetched to expect compartmentation in terms of time. (Are the open/close times of the US offices listed in GMT?)

--Grog--

schreibsman

the Exec Club for north america operates on EST, and as such they close at 8pm for everyone in the US/Canada. technically all bookings needed to be made by 23h59 yesterday, but either I found a glitch in the system or they are being leniant for some reason and not punishing the procrastinators--

I put an award reservation on hold on Friday, and a note was put in to ticket me pending a mileage transfer. I frantically phoned around the world last night after being told the EC would re-route calls until midnight to various places, but no such luck. I phoned this morning to the US number at 7h30 and was able to book my award for the old redemption level, possibly because i already had a booking, but the CSR said it had cancelled itself at midnight. at any rate, the miles have been deducted and I'm a happy camper. thanks BA.

I don't see this as a 'reward' for putting things off, or that things will always work out, but I appreciate their compliance. of course, being misinformed by two different agents was part of the problem, but no one's perfect.

dhacker

Hope you weren't referring to me. I am not one of the people who is abandoning BA. I still have 100,000 miles in my account and will be transferring additional miles in from Diners because there are still some awards available that work for me.

They made their money when they sold the original tickets for travel and when they sold the miles to Jaguar, Diners Club and the rest of their mileage earning partners. This is why they should have spent more money to hire more tele-sales agents so their customers could make so-called "last second" award reservations. I don't see how calling 2 or 3 days ahead of a deadline is "last second". Also, what about their regular customers who just happened calling for an award reservation over the last few days? A company that cares about customer service wouldn't set up their system so that you can't even choose to wait on hold.

Calling 2-4 dats ahead of time isn't comparable waiting until midnight to file your taxes or waiting in a long line. BA's system did not even let you stay on hold once they determined that the "line" was too long (probably in order to save a 800 number phone charges).

I didn't wait until the last second to book my awards at the old rate (unless you consider March to be the last second. Please try not assume things about people and their situations. Your assumption in this case was dead wrong.

Also, the complaint here is about not being able to reach BAEC to make a reservation, not any lack of award availablilty. With the exception of the Concorde, award availability seemed to me to remain quite good on the destinations I was checking for my changes, a fact that BA should be commended for.

Sorry the complaints are getting tiresome for you. Perhaps not reading them from now on will help

Also, you seemed to completely miss my main point, which was that waiting until the end could make sense if someone needed to get the maximum expiration date on the award tickets.



[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 07-01-2003).]

BRITISH AIRWAYS USA

- I'm going to start with your main point, where you say I missed it. I actually don't think I did but at this point, who cares? Your main point was that "waiting until the end could make sense if someone needed to get the maximum expiration date on the award tickets." That makes perfect sense to me, your know, tickets are valid for one year from the date of issue. However, everyone else is also trying to do the exact same thing. That means that you have thousands of people intentionally waiting until they absolutely have to book their tickets. All that = 1 hour plus waiting for all the calls in queue.

People need to understand that if BA put more people in E-Club either two things would have had to happen. BA either had to hire 20-30 agents or move 20-30 agents over from a different department. If they hired the agents, they would have to be in training for 7 weeks to learn the reservation system and then E-Club training for another week to learn all that. Not very practical when they would be needed for only a few days. If they had moved 20-30 agents from another department, that means that general reservations would be 20-30 short while their in E-Club training for a week. 800-Airways needs those agents in that department anyways. They could not have moved agents over from the BA Holidays dept because they dont even use the same reservation system. This plan would also not be practical.

- You (dhacker) took what I said and ran with it. I said, "You (anyone in general who this applies to) decided to wait until the last second so I really don't feel sorry that it took forever to speak with someone or that when you finally did, the dates you wanted were not available."

Your response was, "I didn't wait until the last second to book my awards at the old rate (unless you consider March to be the last second. Please try not assume things about people and their situations. Your assumption in this case was dead wrong."

You (dhacker) clearly did not read what I said. If it did not apply to you, then it was not about you. Point Blank.

- dhacker Quote: "Calling 2-4 dats ahead of time isn't comparable waiting until midnight to file your taxes or waiting in a long line."

I'd say that if calls take that long to get through, then people were waiting a little too long to book tickets. I think it is very much comparable to waiting until 11pm on 01Apr when the lines are long at the post office.

- dhacker Quote: "what about their regular customers who just happened calling for an award reservation over the last few days?"

I can listen to the calls and I can assure you there was no such thing as a regular customer who just happened to be calling for an award reservation over the last few days. Everyone knew exactly what was going on and the changes that were about to take place.

- dhacker Quote: "Hope you weren't referring to me. I am not one of the people who is abandoning BA."

As I first said, "Why should BA spend more money to hire more tele-sales agents so you can make your last second award reservations when so many of you have made it clear that you want nothing to do with BA anymore."

So many of you, but not all, have made that clear. dhacker, that was only aimed at you if it applied to you. Your the only one who knows the true answer to that.



[This message has been edited by BRITISH AIRWAYS USA (edited 07-01-2003).]

TransWorldOne

Tax day in the United States is 15APR.

BRITISH AIRWAYS USA

Ok, You are right about that. It was late when I originally typed that last night, but there really is no excuse for making a mistake as stupid as that one. I really did not expect to find anything funny on this topic until I read that. I actually laughed out loud when I read that which means I must be taking what is said on this board way too personally.

ALW

Tax day in Canada is April 30, does that mean we get another two weeks to book awards under the previoius system?

andrew

ScottC

Despite all the hassle and whining let me drop a massive thanks to the likes of BA USA, Maws, Pucci and all the others from BA that take their SPARE time to help us out here!

dgordon

BA would have had people booking earlier if they said all tickets would be good until June 30, 2004. I waited because I need to use the ticket the last two weeks of June. When I called on the 29th and she said it would be good until the 30th, frankly I didn't trust it. So at 12:01 am June 30th, I booked online for a bogus date in March for ORD to Tunis. You can only reserve 351 days in advance, so I have to wait to get the dates I want. That limitation also creates a problem and more work for them in the end. They are sending me a paper ticket, and then will have to reissue the paper ticket, but there was nothing else I could do because I want to depart June 16th and return June 30th and there was no way that I could book those dates.

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Ms.DtG

dhacker

Sorry if I construed "you" to mean "me" when you were directly quoting and responding to me. Your qualifications in parentheses seemed to be intended to expand your comments beyond just me. If you didn't intend that, I'm wrong.

Would it be fair to say you think that:

1) It is the customers fault if people couldn't get through, and

2) there were absolutely no regular customers who had a good reason to call EC from Friday through Monday?

Well, I was a more-or-less regular customer trying to get though before the deadline because no one there at BA could tell me definitively if a change to my award reservations to different flights on the same day would require redeposit of miles and reticketing at the new higher levels. Here on FT, the strong suggestion is that the old levels and rules would apply. On the Web, I could find nothing. When I called and got through to the service center, they said they thought I would have to redeposit and reticket at higher levels, but that I would have to speak with some at reservations to get a final answer. However, as we all know and you defend, it was virtually impossible to get through to them. I still haven't made the changes to my reservation and have no idea whether or not I can without being charged many more miles. Do you know the answer?

I plead guilty to trying to reach reservations at the last minute, but innocent to waiting until the last minute to book my awards at the old levels. I would not have felt the need to call at all if the Web site was more complete. I would not have felt the need to call reservations if the service center personnel had been better informed. BA had months to train the staff in the details of the new scheme, but didn’t do a very good job, IMHO.

Here is another example of how BA has failed to communicate properly with customers during this transition, which likely just added fuel to last last-minute crush:

I asked here on FT, on the phone to BAEC, and in three different emails to BA using the Web interface about what the new award levels are for business and first class partner awards on AA post 7/1. I got a different answer each time, except for the first two email responses, which basically were non-responsive and/or claimed that they could not quote those award levels. I'd post those emails here, except that they specifically prohibit me from doing so in language claiming that they are confidential.

While I have your attention, can you tell me once and for all how many BA miles AA awards in business and first class are now within the 48 contiguous states on a 3-class aircraft? How about first on a 2-class? Are these 2x base (50k) or 3x (75k)? How about F on 2-class US48 to Hawaii? Is it 2x (70k) or 3x (105k). Why isn't this information posted or findable on BA.com? Why doesn't anyone at BA seem to know the answer?

A little planning, training, and customer oriented attitude on BA’s part would have been very welcome and appreciated.


[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 07-02-2003).]

paddington

drtracker...

If your booking is on BA only and your change is simply a date change or flight number change but on exactly the same route, the ticket does not need to be resissued, an agent will simply change the date and you will not be charged any more miles -

hope that solves that problem! ;-)