[AdrianHenryAsia]

Binman – I disagree. Im a gold card holder and always fly either club of first – the only difference to the service is the speed in which the response is given!! Its much quicker if you fly in First as they promise the respond with 24 hours to any complaint.

[MartynSinclair]

If you have a geunine complaint, especially if you are after compo, then you just have to be very insistent. If calls are being recorded, ask the person you speak to for their name and a timestamp so you can audit trail the calls. Make notes and sooner or later, the big companies will make an error like say something they shouldnt or better still drop you an email admitting they have cocked up which usually speeds things along.

Try to get some comms in writing and just keep going.

Good luck.

[flier74]

To be honest with you, I am still waiting for a reply with regards to re imbursing travel costs of an altertnative transport from HAM to LHR at the time of the snow disruption in December. I phoned up the other day and the lady profusely aplogised and was honest by saying they have 1000s of cases form that time and they get thorugh them asap. They do it in order of first complaint, first dealt with. However I was assured that Status Customers like myself get some sort of priority. My partner who filed the same claim at the same time received an e Mail on Friday saying the money is on its way so I expect my reply by tomorrow orTuesady. I know its painful and tedious but just bear with them, Bremen is certainly on the case, even now when tehy are overwhelmed with claims. I alwaysgot through on the phoone straight away when I rang twice with regards to an update to my claim.

[flier74]

Just to add to my posting from yesterday:
I too have received my reply from Customer Relations in Bremen today and a very satisfactory it was too, with a more than generous offer of compensation for the additional costs I have incurred as I decided to use alternative means of transport. And given the fact that most of this ridiculous situation back in December lays with the BAA and not the Airlines themselves I am very pleased with the outcome. I just hope BA and other Airlines can recover some of their costs from the BAA.
So people, hang in there, they have received my receipts on the 8th January, so it just took over 3 weeks, which is not too bad in my opinion, given the workload they are facing due to the disruprion back in December. The money is on its way already according to the e-Mail.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

flier74

Firstly, let me say I am pleased for you.

Also, I find that BA are good at service recovery for flying related incidents, such as yours and I have benefitted in the past from this.

But with something a little unusual, such as my recent episode, they do not seem to know how to manage it effectively, throwing 10,000 miles at me (which they did not do, by the way, but whcih seems to be the standard response to service problems) for charging a credit card three times, would just not be an appropriate response, an investigation, summary report and reassurance that it would not happen again would be the right reponse.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

[Binman62]

Two points:

Flier 74. It seems BA has covered your additional costs but this is not compensation. My insurance company have covered my costs and did so inside 10 working days from the date of the incident. A response time BA can only dream of.

My insurers covered my costs and I received half the fare back. BA CR have managed 3 corporate impersonal email in 6 weeks and the executive club are taking 10-14 working days to deal with a simple written request which they cannot carry out on the phone or allow me to do online.

The issue is not the return delay but the method of treatment. Weather may not be in the gift of the airline but they manner in which they deal with people sure is. Holding passengers hostage on aircraft in the way they did at LHR was a disgrace. That they got dispensation from the government to travel with bags and not passengers was outrageous and if we had left our bags I fear we would still be looking for them today.

There was no additional food or water loaded, no entertainment, nothing. Just 5 hours of going nowhere. It was scandalous.

Disgusted….Yes airmiles are the compensatory method of choice and they are issued in 10,000 increments. Probably because they know you cannot actually use them on many routes ……Q ….VK vigorous defence through BA branded rose tinted glasses.

And if you do actually find a seat you will pay the exorbitant taxes, fees and charges which BA levies on all such bookings and from which they make money…oh yes and the iniquitous £5 per passenger surcharge for having the temerity to use a BA branded credit card..

The script at CR goes something like this.

“Oh sir there was no IFE in First, that is very unusual and we appreciate that this can be inconvenient please accept 20,000 airmiles………Oh and the seat did not recline…..please have a further 20,000 airmiles…………Oh really sir it has happened twice before…you have been unlucky I can authorise a further 20,000 to you account.

As a Blue Silver Gold, Premier card holder (delete not applicable), we value your feedback and you can be assured that your comments will be passed to a group of senior managers who will review the views of our important customers like yourself”………what is not added is

” and where you can find them in receptacle by the side of the hot desk used by James Hillier at Waterside, as frankly we could not care less as you merely a UK based card holder for who we have nothing but contempt”

There is now a wealth of evidence to support the premise that standards are not falling at BA they are plumbing new depths. There is a pressing need for managers to look at not just what is being delivered to passengers but how. Their focus for too long has been on industrial strife and building alliances and in doing so they have dropped the ball on customer service and consistency.

If I feel like this (as a reasonably loyal fan of the company) I cannot imagine how people feel who fly with them occasionally and were affected by any of the issues BA passengers suffered last year.

[DavidMead]

well this makes me realise that i am not being specifically picked out for poor customer service. I wrote a detailed email to BA on 25th December about the flight i had from Lhr to BKKand apart from the auto reply have received precisely nothing … which on two business class tickets seems odd… I think my return flight from BKK this month will be my last ever flight with BA . they regrettably seem to have missed the plot completely. And I have not travelled Iberia for years ..they are just ghastly in every respect ….
I wonder if they are going to survive as an on going concern ..

[Potakas]

Disgusted,

I believe that the compensation with miles is getting ridiculous, there are standard service failures that they do not fix, instead they try to keep us loyal by throwing us miles. This is more extensive failure as the BAEC becomes ridicules, in my opinion if Iwanted i could earn 5 or 10 thousand miles for service failures (such as priority boarding which never happens, IFE) every time i fly.

If anyone remembers the photo i posted on the BA’s cleaning ability thread, i would like to inform you that i got my reply, they informed me that they are aware of those problems and thanked me for letting them know (LOL).

I replied back that this is not the answer that i was expected for as i am a client and not a BA manager that let you know if the cabin is clean or not,

They replied to me that they understand why i am asking for miles but unfortunately they cannot give me any goodwill gesture (OMG),

I send them back that i had never asked for miles and the answer they sent me shows to me that this is just an automated one. I also let them know that if i wanted some miles i would raising the point of the IFE which was one more time broken!!!

Thats all ,

I was expecting an answer that would state that they are very sorry and they will pass this photo to their cleaning team to ask them why the cabin was like this and that this will never happen, did i expect to much?

During the snow disruption, X-mas period i had 7 BA flights with connections, they manage to broke 3 baggages, the first one on my first flight, the second one was brand new and they broke it on the 4th flight
, finally i bought a third one which they broke it on my 7th and last flight.
They replaced every single one with an equivalent one, although the lady on the Customer service phone center was assuming to me that i was telling lies and i declared the same broken baggage 3 times. I told her that the courier had already took each one broken baggage on dates earlier than the next broken baggage i had (So each time i was checking in a different one). She didn’t apologize…

Bottom line for me is that BA has a good Customer Relations team, my major problem with the baggages solved, i still expect the expenses claim from the snow disruption but i submitted my claim last week, i had a bad incident with the phone CR agent but thats life.

Actually in any other cases with other airlines i had never a response 😉

Regards,

P.S. if someone thinks that i was unlucky with the baggages, keep in mind that i had organized vacations to Tunis but because of the riots there i changed it to Cairo, now i got a refund and i will just go to Marrakech.

[Sparepocket]

Ladies/Gentlemen,may I suggest that you save yourselves a lot of aggravation and a possible coronary and just stop flying BA?I stopped flying them years ago and have not looked back since.
After all, with US Airways and Delta improving and SQ continuing to provide sterling service to SE Asia and Australasia and EK covering the Middle East there really is no excuse to fly BA anywhere.

[MartynSinclair]

“I believe that the compensation with miles is getting ridiculous” – correct Potokas

There is a difference between a gesture of goodwill and compensation. Airmiles being awarded as a gesture of good will is saying, “we have done no wrong, but here are some airmiles, now go away”.

The award of compensation though, is a payment to cover a loss or inconvenience, which has a value, to replace the fact that goods or services were not correctly provided in line with an agreement.

In these circumstances, I do not believe that air miles should be ‘thrown’. If I am awarded compensation, the form of that compensation should not be dictated but agreed. When I had air miles awarded as compensation I declined to accept, preferring instead to request a cash payment, which was eventually agreed and paid.

[Binman62]

Update as promised.

Recieved a call this morning from CR who were very apologetic and empathetic. Made me an offer to provide…yes you guessed it…. miles Indeed enough for a Transatlantic seat in WT+ 2 if you have a 241 voucher.

In fairness they alos provided the option of some duty free vouchers as well. I have accepted the vouchers as I will gain lots of brownie points when I next come home laden with gifts.

In the end BA responded as I would have wished, I just wish it could have been sooner.

[nevereconomy]

My conclusion, after numerous incidents, is that BA has lots of CR people but no actual desire to have a Relationship with Consumers.
I fly First most of the time and have been Gold for years, but still just get the usual guff whenever I bring something to their attention. BA has become mediocre in most areas and this is no exception.

[VintageKrug]

That’s certainly not my experience; in most situations, I get a phone call within a few days of returning from my trip, with an apology and, where justified, compensation.

[Potakas]

VK is correct, although i am one of those that makes complains I think that BA’s CR is way above the average. I always hear back and at least they apologize for what was wrong .

BTW, I sent my snow disruption claim and they replied to me after one week with all my expenses approved.

[MartynSinclair]

VintageKrug – I think BA will go out of their way to answer any issues raised by you, irrespective of what name you use!

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