[Anonymous]

[Cedric_Statherby]

Can anyone explain why airlines are so reluctant to be flexible when one turns up early enough at the airport to catch an earlier flight home, but without a fully flexible ticket?

Typical scenario: Day trip to Amsterdam last week. No idea how long meetings will go on for so book onto late BA flight home. Meetings actually end early. Off to airport, and arrive in time to catch an earlier flight home. Yes there are seats on it but no, none at my fare, so as well as the change fee (£25, which I might just pay to get home early to the family) they want an extra £268 for the “upgrade”. Not a chance, so I go to the lounge and proceed to while away the time drinking BA’s wine (unstintingly) and using their internet connection.

What, precisely, have BA achieved by this dog in the manger approach? Their ridiculous demand for £268 extra to change from an advance booking to a turn-up-and-fly seat merely meant that
(i) they did not get the £25 change fee
(ii) I did not have supper with my wife
(iii) their wine cellar took a heavier hammering
(iv) they have unnecessarily annoyed another Exec Club gold member

It was not as if they would have had to rebalance the catering on the flights, either – on the AMS-LHR run they don’t serve food!

Memo to BA: If it costs you nothing to do a simple favour to a regular customer, it is probably not good business sense to stick too closely to the letter of your rules and refuse

[MartynSinclair]

Cedric – I emphasize with your situation as it happens all too often, especially on day trips into Europe. I know of at least 3 versions of this story:

1. You have paid for a ticket, where the rules stipulate no changes. The ticket was priced accordingly. This is the Ryan Air attitude, you are welcome to change flights but it will cost you. Cedric, those are the rules, tough!!

2. Some airlines, Flybe are one example who will let you change their cheap fares for an admin charge, £32 (I think was recently charged). They take a more pragmatic view, if there are seats available they will move you

3. I am often in Geneva and there BA are handled by a third party, who have their rules and will not change them…………….unless you are the last person in the lounge and you have a 4 hour wait. With the right staff member on duty, they can be sweet talked into “speaking” to a colleague.

The excuses and discussions you mentioned, I have tried before. The one that works though 75% of the time (and only with no hand luggage) is just go to the gate and try to sweet talk the “red cap” or join the Q towards the end of boarding process. However, with an internet connection, food and drink freely available, it could be worse; I could be in the public areas (G-d forbid).

Going to the ticket desk, never works and will generally always cost more money than you would want to pay.

Some may argue that trying to blag an earlier flight is the same as trying to blag an upgrade and one should pay for the privilege. I would have no issue in paying, but not at a price that exceeds the original ticket price.

[Cedric_Statherby]

Martyn

All true, and all very depressing. However, it is the mark of a small mind to keep repeating “rules is rules” whenever anyone asks for something, and believe me, airlines (not just BA but BA ground staff seem more disposed to it than most) seem to be on a crusade to prove quite how small their collective minds are.

I do not think asking for an earlier flight is the same as asking for an upgrade. An upgrade (a) is a better level of service and (b) costs the airline something. An earlier flight is to all intents and purposes (and certainly as far as the airline is concerned) the same service and costs the airline nothing at all.

I remain saddened that airlines routinely cannot look beyond their rulebook and see opportunities for earning free customer goodwill. For what is meant to be a customer-orientated industry they really are very bad at putting the customer first! I suspect the truth is that airline management simply does not trust their staff enough to give them even this small amount of on-the-spot decision-making authority.

And that is the saddest thought of all.

[Bullfrog]

By allowing a frequent flyer (ie loyal passenger) to take an earlier flight on which there are empty seats allows the airline to perhaps sell seats on the later flight which would otherwise have been full.

[Gin&Tonic]

Why not buy the flexible ticket “SIMPLES”

[NTarrant]

There are a number of views on this and all very reasonable and all very defendable. Bullfrog makes a good point and from a commercial point of view that would make sense. Part of the problem is as you say Cedric that staff are not given the power to make decisions.

I remember many years ago turning up at the Aer Lingus lounge at T1 early and the girl on the desk asked if I had any checked in luggage to which I said no and was asked if I wanted to go on the flight that was boarding now. I said yes and she reissued my boarding pass and I was on my way an hour earlier. Power to the people!

[LuganoPirate]

My son was booked on the last flight from London to AMS with BA on a cheap non flex ticket. In the end he finished much earlier than expected and went to the airport and even though they confirmed there were plenty of seats on the mid afternoon flight, he would have to pay more than the original ticket fly.

He declined, went back into London, met some friends and just made it back in time for his check-in, only to be told the plane was oversold and he was being bumped.

He was delighted, not only did he get a free night, all expenses paid in London, but he got cash compensation as well. This ended up costing BA several times the original ticket price which could have been avoided if they had put him on the earlier flight!

[MarkCymru]

I never thought that I would write this but take Easyjet if you want better customer service. You can change to an earlier flight for free. http://getsatisfaction.com/easyjet/topics/if_i_arrive_early_for_my_flight_can_i_take_an_earlier_flight_if_there_is_one

[PatJordan]

NTarrant brings me back to the good old Aer Lingus days, when lounge staff were empowered to make decisions such as change to earlier flights, upgrade, etc. Such a pity those days are gone.

The marginal costs involved were far outweighed by the goodwill generated by the company’s looking after it’s frequent flyers. After all it is they who will continue to pay (premium) fares long after the bargain hunters have gone to Ryanair or whoever.

On another note, any HR professional will confirm that empowering staff to make decisons enhances staff effectiveness.

Maybe other airlines might have a look at Easyjet: would they accomodate early arriving pax if it wasnt good for the bottom line??

Pat

[lloydah]

Last summer, flying from Syracuse to Boston on American Eagle to catch a Virgin flight home we arrived early as we were being dropped off by friends and had to keep to their timetable. About 30 mins after checking in we were called to the desk and told the earlier flight was available if we wanted it. A run through the terminal, after checking our luggage would also make the flight, and we boarded. No hassle, on a cheapo non refund etc ticket and more time in the lounge at BOS. Seemed like all the ground staff had an interest in doing a good job and keeping the customers happy.

[Cedric_Statherby]

All good comments. What is saddest is that airlines seem to be wilfully ignoring two of the most fundamental rules of running good companies:

(a) If it costs nothing, always default to giving the customer what he asks for over sticking to your rules
(b) Empowered staff are happier staff

This is not rocket science! But it appears to be beyond airline management, who appear to be so in thrall to the bean-counters that they are terrified their staff would take advantage of any “weakness”. Truly they have the management-staff relationships they deserve.

[esselle]

I agree that the beanies are running the CRM strategy. Front line staff are still the face of any airline, but over the years their ability to “help” has been replaced by the need to “process”. Worse still, their instincts to do something that benefits the customer have been ground out of them by half-blind management. Shame.

[craigwatson]

Everyone keeps saying “if it cost nothing, why not do it”, well it does cost something, if you have a non flex ticket and they allow you to go on the earlier flight, who is ever going to buy the flex ticket?

in regards to cedrics comment “Yes there are seats on it but no, none at my fare” again that is only right. If your ticket is in “s” class and only “y” is available, which if you were to go and purchase that ticket would cost £268, why should you get it for free?

the seats are broken down into about 17 different fare classes all with different cost associated with them. and as all are aware some flights are more popular than others, if you could just change at the airport as you choose, then everyone would always just book themselves on the cheapest flight of the day and change at the airport to the more expensive flight.

Now to empowering ground staff, well thats all fine and good with a small to medium size company, with a massive worldwide operation like BA it would cause chaos, and would be open to much abuse, and therefore lost revenue.

As always it seems lately everyone wants something for nothing

[seasonedtraveller]

Buying the more expensive fully flex ticket may well be the answer but perhaps Cedric, like myself and many other regular business travellers, has a travel budget to work against. Also some have a 3rd party booking agent (who books ALL company travel and has to follow company travel policy). In these cases, company policy or travel budget would determine which ticket may be purchased – this is not the choice of the traveller. When meetings end early or are cancelled, getting home earlier becomes a personal choice but who would want to spend £200+ of our own money to arrive home a few hours early?
I am surprised that BA didn’t try to acommodate the request of a Gold card holder – even BA know how customers ticket purchases may not be their choice.

For the record, BMI lounge staff have managed to get me on an earlier flight home, twice this year already, despite my having a ‘cheap’ ticket – no charge and “you’re very welcome sir, we are pleased to help” was their attitude on both occasions.

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