[Anonymous]

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Interesting website

http://www.ba-bites.com

Regardless of whether this lady was bitten on BA or not, two themes ring true to me in general

1 – BA’s aircraft are not as generally clean as they were a few years ago, e.g. Potakas’s phots recently

2 – The customer service agents are not empowered and do have to direct the customer to write to Sudbury – I know this as one frustrated and experienced agent shared with with me, whilst lamenting that she could have solved my minor problem in a minute or two, in the ‘old days.’

I interpret the American lady’s description of the service as (a) being amplified by frustration, (b) partly due to cultural differences/expectations in service delivery and (c) as a direct result of employees being unempowered.

This, in my opionion, arises from a cost driven mentalilty and is a dangerous game to play with a differentiated brand.

I feel that BA is moving towards the ‘tipping point’ and is at risk of a gaining a bad reputation once more – I don’t know when this might happen, but the mood music is building; having started my business travelling with BA in the late 1970s, when frequent travellers used the ‘best avoided’ acronym and then seen Lord King knock the airline into shape, subsequently developing it into a quality product, I do think it would be a shame.

Roch Paraye makes an interesting point at the start of this youtube video, ‘death by a thousand cuts’ – the subject R&D is different, but the principle seems to resonate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKY3ReAJM8&feature=related

Any other thoughts?

[robsmith100]

Morning Disgusted,

A very interesting piece, I heard this issue mentioned last night on the radio. They also did say that the aircraft in question had been completely removed from service pending an investigation.

Unlike many of you hardcore travellers, i have only flow BA 6 times in my life and only twice has that been on a long haul flight and all flights in economy. So people like yourself can pick up on this stuff like this and changes in service much more quickly.

I am shocked that stuff like this happens with such a prestigious brand, I have for years tried to get job at BA, but have never been successful either because i am underage (ok I was 10 that time), under qualified, inexperienced or just didn’t make the shortlist. If you ever read any of their job descriptions, they are very hell bent on getting the best staff and the recruitment process is not easy from what I am told. This then takes me to think that the quality processes and policies in place are all correct. So is it staff that take shortcuts in their work? All companies across the world in the last few years have made cuts and BA is no exception and certainly in a more volatile position, with their high running costs and with extended competition from the Middle East and Asia.

[VintageKrug]

I think the odds of getting bitten on both legs of a longhaul flight on different aircraft, different seats with a significant gap in between are very small indeed.

That would suggest it was the passenger themselves, rather than the aircraft or airline which was the common link.

After all, she is from the USA “Home of the Bedbug”!

Has she considered the possibility that the insects were brought on board BY HER???

And it’s very strange that no other passengers, or even her travelling companion, were similarly afflicted.

If you read the blog, there’s quite a large focus on getting upgraded (she was on one sector, and seemed to expect it on the second) and refunding a non-refundable ticket; as with many these days she is very focussed on “compensation” throughout the piece.

Rather than getting treatment (cortisone cream, anyone?) she seems very focussed on getting something from BA.

Bed bugs rarely bite under clothing, normally only on exposed skin. There’s no way an untrained eye could differentiate the blogger’s skin concerns from the bites of a flea/noseeum or even an allergic reaction of some sort.

To be honest, her quite modest skin complaint doesn’t look like the very inflamed and irritating bites you see pictured in relation to bed bugs, and those bitten tend to be in some considerable discomfort (the blogger certainly doesn’t seem to be in discomfort, apart from the discomfort caused by not being able to sleep fully flat) here is a pic confirmed to be caused by bed bugs:

http://www.bedbugsnewyorkcity.com/bed-bug-bites/bed-bug-bites-newyorkcity.jpg

It doesn’t really tally with her pics.

None of us were there, so it’s hard to corroborate her account of BA customer service employees, but that account certainly doesn’t align with my experience (albeit I don’t visit India very regularly).

One also has to consider that there was absolutely no evidence the blogger caught the bedbugs on a BA plane, and given her obviously litigious tone, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for more junior employees not to admit liability, though there’s a difference between offering compassion and not admitting liability.

I would imagine the amount of different excuses those who work at airports hear every day in order to blag an upgrade might well have inured staff to such incidents.

I would put it down to “cultural differences”. I notice here in the US, people say “sorry” at the drop of a hat, whereas that’s not the cultural norm in Europe and many other countries; it’s not rude or thoughtless, it’s just how things are.

It’s acknowledged that there is a worldwide “uptick” in Bed Bugs, most famously in NYC, and no airline is immune from outbreaks or other infestations. Tarantulas, anyone..?

Other airlines have had similar incidents:

http://upgrd.com/matthew/bedbugs-inflict-united-airlines-passenger.html

The bottom line is that aircraft do not “develop” bed bugs by themselves; they have to be brought aboard by someone/something….

It does sound pretty grim, but bed bugs are very very hard to exterminate, and in the course of carrying tens of millions of passengers per year, I am surprised this sort of thing doesn’t occur more often.

I don’t imagine any amount of regular on board cleaning would eradicate bed bugs, if indeed that’s what caused the skin complaint; if a hotel room is contaminated, they usually rip everything out including carpets and incinerate the lot.

BA has removed the two 747s from service pending investigation.

[MartynSinclair]

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable for more junior employees not to admit liability”

One of the issues that undoubtedly caused frustrations was the manner that the BA staff handled the situation. Whatever this lady was after, sympathy, upgrade, compensation; and whatever caused the problem, aircraft infestation or whether the lady herself was the cause, the situation remained that she was continually attacking the situation and the BA representatives were not customer focused enough to neutralise the problem.

Any face to face Customer Service interaction, especially over issues that could be subject to a PR onslaught, needs to be nipped in the bud and resolved extremely quickly.

In this case, the results are that a website has been created, the newspapers have picked up on the story and and 2 aircraft have been taken out of service, albeit temporarily.

If there are going to be Customer Services staff and managers facing passengers, they need to have the skill set and most importantly authority to deal with the problem rather than offering the “I have no authority, please write a letter” routine.

As for the bugs themselves, I think a clue could be where the aircraft had been in the previous 72 hours. A small bag of fruit left in the overhead bin could have casued the problem. There is more than one type of bug that can leave bites. Without medical confirmation, the rash could also have been casued by something as trivial as new washing powder or unwashed new clothes.

[hemispheres]

VintageKrug writes concisely, raising many valid points.

I reckon the ‘bug’ in this case is the passenger, ‘a serial complainer’.

I’m currently in the USA. Whilst an apology may be a little easier to obtain, I have found it to be totally superficial & insincere on many occasions.

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

As the thread starter, may I gently focus us back to the two generalizations, since whether or not the lady was bitten onboard or not is largely irrelevant, as she was only one customer of many flying over a period, whereas many more will experience aircraft per the pictures Potakas posted and customer service encounters.

1) BA aircraft are no longer cleaned to the standard they used to be (NB: I am not seeking to link cause and effect with relation to this incident)

2) The customer service teams are not empowered

VK, I have been informed on two occasions that customer service staff are not empowered to deal with problems and unless I am very naive, they were telling the truth, as they were both decent people and looked very uncomfortable; subsequent letters brought multiple hundreds of euros compensation.

Martyn, you wrote “If there are going to be Customer Services staff and managers facing passengers, they need to have the skill set and most importantly authority to deal with the problem rather than offering the “I have no authority, please write a letter” routine.”

I think you have cut to the heart of the matter, thanks for your clarity of thought.

More opinions would be welcome, are BA playing a dangerous game with their brand?

[CallMeIshmael]

Unfortunately it is a familiar first line of BA defence, endorsed by VK … shoot the messenger, or in this case the passanger… (unless they hold a loyalty card)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360492/Bed-bug-Airways-BA-grounds-jumbo-jets-businesswoman-tells-long-haul-flights-left-covered-bites.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

.. discredit anyone who criticises is not the culture of leading customer centric organisations as it encourages a blame culture within and is a barrier to accountability-responsibility-ownership.

BA have eventually admitted an infestation, better late than never.

BA appear to be aware of the endemic knee jerk defensive reaction but will they effect genuine change?

http://www.babusinesslife.com/Tools/Persuasion/How-to-make-people-happy.html

It is one of the beneficial idiosyncrasies of the English language that ‘Sorry’ serves both as an expression of compassion or empathy as well as being an expression of apology and culpability. Thus using Sorry is not necessarily an admission of guilt/liability. Saying sorry is therefore an appropriate first step. Empowering front line troops is an essential second step.

[MartynSinclair]

C M I – this only reinforces the need to ensure that any airline employees who are customer facing, DO HAVE authority and skills to access, deal and manage the issue rather the standardised, “put it in writing” reponse that seems endemic with all service related problems.

[Binman62]

I posted link to this article/blog originally on the 24th…

http://www.businesstraveller.com/discussion/topic/BA-s-cleanliness

[DisgustedofSwieqi]

Binman

I missed your post, so thank you for sharing it here.

[Binman62]

All…..Page 55 of Daily Mail Feb 26 2011….Headline Bed Bug Airways…..BA Grounds two jumbo jets after …….

Seems the story is entirely true and that BA were forced into fumigating at least one aircraft and have offered the passenger a full apology.

Seems that rather than going to customer relations best bet is to set up a web page or face book page…BA then responds.

Rather puts a dent in VKs usual strong defence of BA

[Tete_de_cuvee]

Ex-management employees can benefit from BA’s largesse long after their departure from the company. This largesse maybe repaid by unerring public support whatever the circumstances.

[Author]

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