I booked two tickets to New York in November with British Airways but needed to change them.
I went onto the BA website, as the airline urges us to do, to alter the dates.
The price quoted on the website is £240 however the transaction keeps timing out. I then find out, after spending 90 minutes on the phone that in fact, the actual cost to change both tickets is £646.
I totally understand I would need to pay to change an air ticket but can British Airways be allowed to publish one fare on its website and force customers, in reality, to pay a far higher fee?
I have alerted BA to the issue, they admit they are wrong, the information is incorrect and despite my sticking the problem on a blog for the world (and staff at British Airways to see) the airline simply shuts its ears and seems absolutely unwilling to correct the information.
Breathtaking.
15:40
I have updated the link, apologies for my rubbish HTML abilities!
Read about false information on British Airways's site here
Thanks for letting me know and I have updated the URL.
robsmith100 - 29/09/2011 17:20 GMT
This is technically false advertising. Take them to the small claims court.
Wow.
So I publish, on the web, all the details (above) of the way I have been treated by British Airways and others begin it pick up on it.
Funnily enough, out of the blue I get an email from BA offering its sincere apologies for any misunderstanding. Extraordinary.
Genuine apology or damage-limitation PR? I'll let you decide.
In response to BA's extraordinary climbdown, I have written a perhaps cliched open letter to them.
If it spurs one other person to also stand up instead of being treated like a rubbish, I will have succeeded...
Click below
An open letter to British Airways from someone who it seems they'd hope would cough up or shut up
VintageKrug - 29/09/2011 19:52 GMT
A lot of anger there.
One would have hoped for some magnanimity in response to an email offering "sincere apologies" but apparently that isn't enough for some people.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-of-Complaining/dp/B004P7KTSM
esselle - 29/09/2011 20:07 GMT
RobertCoxwell
I think you are doing sterling work in highlighting a specific instance which will strike a cord with many who have been subjected to the classic corporate stonewall tactic. For BA to try and bat this away as an isolated one-off is insulting in the extreme. It exemplifies the culture of frontline staff having no discretion at all to put obvious wrongs right, and which culture imposes as a default position of the customer being at fault.
VK
I am astonished by your lack of insight; easy to confuse anger and frustration, I suppose, but it is evident that BA have dropped a big one here, and their inability to recognise it is simply toe-curling. Referring folk to a book on Amazon is not worth the time it takes to write the piece.
BA needs to learn some basic lessons about CRM; hopefully this will be another clumsy step forwars.
Esselle, Thanks for the support. I was going to say to VK, 'anger?! I don't think that half of the anger I felt came through.'
Of course I'm angry. I was furious! With apologies to Rowan Atkinson who first used that line...
Remember, it was less than seven hours' prior to their "sincere apology" that BA were insinuating I was trying to accuse them of deception and the head of media strategy put the phone down on me.
And if anything, far from reading the book, I would say my complaint was a success.
The thing that frustrated me the most was that British Airways, like an obstinate school-kid, appeared to put their fingers in their heads and go "na na na na", in the hope I would give up.
I am glad I stuck at it.
VintageKrug - 29/09/2011 20:53 GMT
I'm pleased you stuck at it too. It's right that companies which have websites which don't function correctly address those concerns.
Of the average 250,000 bookings [including check ins, seat requests and MMB upgrades] made successfully on ba.com every day, it's great that you found this error and brought it to their attention.
Bucksnet - 29/09/2011 20:57 GMT
That's over 91 million a year VK - I thought BA carried around 33 million passengers a year, roughly half of whom book directly with BA online.
Must be an awful lot of cancelled bookings if your figure is true.
esselle - 29/09/2011 21:09 GMT
The customer is normally wrong/inept/misguided/trying it on.
Now, what was the question?
craigwatson - 30/09/2011 09:45 GMT
Bucksnet, he was including the multiple entries that a single booking can make onto BA.com, hence his inclusion of "Of the average 250,000 bookings [including check ins, seat requests and MMB upgrades]". I think if I am reading him right, it would have been better to say "of the average 250,000 logins to BA.com every day".
Appologies VK if I am incorrect in my interpretation of your post.
Charles-P - 30/09/2011 10:32 GMT
There's a balance to be appreciated here, VK makes a good point that in general BA's booking system works well considering the number of transactions undertaken however when something goes wrong blaming the customer is never the right step. I have been telling my staff for 20 years, If we get it wrong
Admit it
Apologise
Put it right
Follow up to ensure all ok
However if we are right
Apologise
Explain why we are not at fault
Help the customer solve the problem
Follow up to ensure all ok
RobertC - Good post.Take things that VK says with a pinch of salt. As a self appointed BA eminence grise on this site his default position is to support BA regardless.
As you are now not perceived as an unequivocal BA supporter you will join a group which he will constantly snipe at - it is what he does.
TdC I agree, VK also isn't very good at dealing with apologies either apparently.
Binman62 - 30/09/2011 12:11 GMT
There are issues with the BA.com both from a security angle and from the type of inaccuracies that have been reported here. I have reported to BA that 3 separate PNR have been accessed and seats changed in the last year with spurious VGML being ordered on one occasion. BA ignore the concerns as to admit the problem means they need to deal with it. It each case they have stated that the change was made on BA.com and cannot follow it up. In each case there has been no auto email to me which, as all who use BA.com know, is sent after each and every change made.
The last reply stated that I should change my BAEC login password which simply demonstrated that they did not understand how MMB works. There is no need to login to access a PNR and once accessed you can do almost anything depending on the fare paid except print a receipt for the e ticket. This requires you to enter the number of the credit card used to pay for the ticket. Once access has been gained almost anything can be done depending on the fare paid and seat changes and ordering meals are the least of the issues.
There are also pricing errors but BA will not honour bookings made through such errors. Qantas do which led to the bizarre situation of a booking on BA.com for a flight to OZ which was then cancelled by BA due to the fare error. It was rebooked using same error fare, the sane day but on QF.com and was honoured. The entire itinerary was on BA flight numbers and metal.
Other errors abound on redemption bookings and miles and tier points. Neither can currently be posted if a booking has been the subject of a post booking MFU. This happened recently and while they were added manually 2 of the 4 passengers had both tier points and miles added for flights not taken!!!
I am also aware of massive redemption bookings errors where neither the miles nor Amex 241 voucher were deducted but tickets issued and flown. Voucher were later used for other services and in total the individual saved 480,000 (780,000) if you include the reuse of the voucher). I have seen this lucky passenger’s mileage statement and given that it affected 3 separate PNRs over a 6 month period cannot believe that it is an isolated incident. Sadly I have not benefited myself.
The examples above are not by themselves evidence that there are serious issues on BA.com but there are very definitely some issues and the attitude of BA to these is worrying. Standard apology email and letters, auto generated and print signed by James Hillier, are not how such issues should be addressed.
CRAIGADAMS - 30/09/2011 12:55 GMT
I have a similar experience to that which RobertCoxwell has described.
I am keeping an eye on a booking I have made in Euro Traveller for two passengers to see if any of the 'special offer' upgrades to Club Europe appear.
Since I made the booking, the upgrade price shown for the outbound flight and the upgrade price shown for the inbound flight have both increased. There is also a line on the screen which states 'Save £60.01 by upgrading both flights' and currently gives a total cost of £217.51. I assume this is per adult for the two passengers.
Therefore, I would expect the total cost of upgrading both flights for the two passengers to be £435.02. However, when I click on the upgrade button for each flight and see the next screen, the total price of the upgrades is shown as £520.
Interestingly, the total price of the upgrades shown on this screen was also £520 a couple of months ago, even though the prices shown for the individual upgrades was lower than now, and the 'Save £60.01 by upgrading both flights' stated that the total cost would be £200 (each).
I have not mentioned it to BA, but it seems odd. Meanwhile, I will continue to check if those '£69 each way special offer upgrade to Club Europe' ever appears on the booking!
Robert, I've read this post with interest as well as your blog and I find the whole story quite incredible.
I'm no great lover of BA preferring Swiss, but am certainly no great critic of the airline either. My preference is also to do with geographical convenience based on where I live.
The first thing I would have done if someone offered me free tickets is to graciously accept. At the very worst it would have cost some £400 extra to change the flights. Still a good deal if you ask me?
I would have paid the extra, but pointed out my objection to it in a firm but polite tone. I would then contact my credit card company and put in an objection having the evidence you have. They would then take it up with BA and credit you in the meantime. I'm sure they would have got things sorted for you because at the end of the day it was not correct.
What astounds me though is your attitude after BA have changed your tickets for nothing. If I did not have £ 400 I would be grateful they had waived the £240 charge. In today's litigious age people rarely admit mistakes. Here they did and in effect compensated you. And all in 24 hours it seems. Hats off to BA for that.
I think you are basking in your own glow of self delusion if you think you've blown a hole in BA's multi million advertising campaign. I can assure you you have not. I'm not changing my booking with BA in November to NY made as a direct result of the ad campaign.
I would also wager that very few people will choose not to fly BA as a result of your blog. And if they do, they'll soon move back when seeing the alternative also makes the odd mistake. When you handle 33 million people a year the odd mistake is inevitable. I believe in the end BA handled the situation in an exemplary manner and a bit of humble pie from your side would not go amiss either!
Robert,
I have read this thread with great interest and rather than write a huge long piece have to say that I agree entirely with my fellow poster LuganoPirate. I too prefer other carriers to BA but that does not mean that they are a bad carrier.
Cheers
RichHI1 - 30/09/2011 13:55 GMT
Ditto
LuganoPirate, as management consultant's are prone to say... I take on board everything you say but I stand by all of what I said about British Airways.
They weren't offering a free ticket. They were offering to make the change I wanted for free.
You may have decided to go with the change and then get into a tangle with your bank as well, I didn't want to. Different strokes, different folks.
And I'll say it again, a few hours prior to British Airways's sincere apology I was being accused of some pretty underhand things by the airline.
So no hats off to BA unfortunately who, as I say, seem take the attitude that if you stonewall a customer for long enough, they will soon disappear. I didn't do that and instead took to the internet to shout as loudly as possible about them, until they noticed and did something.
British Airways finally did what they should have done when the problem arose.
The problem was of British Airways's making. I didn't make them quote wrong figures. I didn't make them put the phone down on me. I didn't make them treat me they way they tried to.
You may be happy to accept the status quo and roll over and beg to have your stomach tickled when companies treat you they way they say they will, I take a different view. It's business not charity.
I am not trying to turn people away from flying British Airways - I plan to book a further three long-haul flights with the airline. I am not turned off BA.
What I do hope that is people see my example and think, the next time an airline or anyone tries to stonewall them, when there is a genuine problem, there is something they can do other than send an email off to a generic address that will probably end up in a virtual bin.
