[AllOverTheGaff]

SimonS1 – 26/02/2015 14:49 GMT
AOTG – the examples that you give are fixed price commodities. Prices of things on the menu, rugby tickets etc don’t change price depending on when you buy them.

In actual fact, in the examples I chose, 2 of them have more right to charge me more. Example of the restaurant, because of my late arrival, they have to retain a member of management to lock up, a member of the wait staff to bring us food, kitchen staff to make us food and a sommelier to recommend and bring us wine. The 4 of us are going to spend, penny for penny, what we would have spent at our 8:00pm seating, the difference to the restaurant is they have to keep the staff on to provide us the service. Yet, that business is smart enough to understand that thanks to their flexible approach, I’ll eat there again.

The dentist has lost money because of my non-appearance, they can’t charge me for a filling and they can’t do other work to other patients. In fact, many dental practices now fine you for not showing up, however, I am sure using a modicum of common sense, the dentist would see sense and not try to charge me 4 or 5 times my original appointment, even though they’ve lost revenue – through no fault of theirs.

Secondly you could join the rugby game halfway through, whereas your flight would clearly have gone.

The flight from LGW has not gone. A fact you’ve overlooked to suit your argument.

I suppose next you will be saying the rugby ticket office should have had a member of staff on the Internet checking to see if there was a traffic accident en route and offering anyone turning up late a cheap ticket to the next international?

Yeah, that’s exactly what I’ll be saying next. Given my lateness at the rugby game is due to an over-indulgence the night before, I would expect the staff at Murrayfield to watch the internet and keep an eye on traffic.

It is quite remarkable you find the thought of an airline offering a basic level of customer service so difficult to comprehend. If you wish to remain fixated on the internet / traffic thing, by all means do so, I can think of about another 10 further examples of how airlines could be better focussed on their customers for practically zero cost, but you’d deride them and think them preposterous, after all, we all know what we get into when we buy the ticket, right?

[peterthompson]

My Wife and I recently did Business to Las Vegas and back , we normally fly
with Virgin Business but thought we would give B.A. a try ! That will be the last time we fly with B.A. , it was a totally different offering , seats/bed was worn out and hopelessly uncomfortable, blanket was the weight of a
very thin towel and the pillow ! the soles on my shoes are thicker !!!
Food was very poor outward inward we where offered just one cup of tea at breakfast and one bacon roll , crew where eager to pack up.
All in all i really do not see how that can expect loyalty from customers
with such a shoddy product, as for flag carrier i think its about time
Virgin took on that title and we all leave B.A. to continue on its spiral down
to the bucket and spade carrier it is fast becoming.

[PanzerChuks]

@SimonS1 Would have to agree with you re EK, flew them reasonably regularly between 1994-2011. Usually quite good in the air (especially their IFE) but had issues with luggage not delivered timeously on more than one occasion. After a protracted dispute re a damaged suitcase which dragged on for months found their customer service specifically at LHR patronising & poor. Subsequently switched allegiance to EY (Gold).I don’t blame @FirstClassWannabe for feeling aggrieved with BA, they don’t appear to have gone the extra mile for a long standing customer & presumably have lost his future custom!

[SimonS1]

@AOTG – if you re-read my posts you will see if have said on a couple of occasions that what is disappointing is the airline’s ability to appear sympathetic or to provide sensible responses to the OP’s communications.

The point I was trying to make about the flight is the FIRST one had left. You could have turned up at half time in the FIRST game of rugby. But I suspect you knew the point I was trying to make. If you would turn up late at a game of rugby (or after it had ended) and expect the ticket office to give me a discounted ticket for the next game in sympathy then good luck to you. I suspect more likely they will tell you to get stuffed with the same degree of sympathy as BA showed.

The LGW flight was a new purchase as you clearly know.

So to summarise, IMHO BA should have been more sympathetic in dealing with the OP (especially re the change of airport) and responded more sensibly to his complaint. However the situation wasn’t of BA’s making, that is part of the risk in having inflexible tickets, and like most people on here I don’t see the airline has any responsibility in that respect.

[SimonS1]

@PanzerChuks. Completely agree. At the end of the day it’s all a matter of choice. Vote with your feet. I stopped using BA in 2005 when I was a gold BAEC member and have never returned.

Seems obvious to me but you will be surprised how many people moan about their airline but carry on using them regardless, as they can’t break their addiction to Avios, Skywards, M&M etc. Either suck it up or move on.

[AllOverTheGaff]

SimonS1 – 26/02/2015 17:09 GMT
@AOTG – if you re-read my posts you will see if have said on a couple of occasions that what is disappointing is the airline’s ability to appear sympathetic or to provide sensible responses to the OP’s communications.

I don’t have to re-read what you wrote, I absorbed it the first time. I don’t think the OP cares about BA ‘appearing sympathetic’, he / she is clearly, and rightly IMO aggrieved at BA’s profiteering at his / her expense, all of which was as a result of an accident closing one of the main motorways in England. There was nothing he / she could do to have avoided being late, yet he / she is financially walloped.

The LGW flight was a new purchase as you clearly know.

I’ve missed the 1st half of my rugby, so should I demand half my ticket price back? No. That’d be stupid. In much the same way it’d be stupid for Murrayfield to charge me 4 times the amount to watch the 2nd half of the game which I have bought a ticket for already. The 2nd half of the rugby, in this analogy, is a new purchase, as the game hasn’t taken place. Yet, because BA is an airline, it is proffered by you that stiffing FCW for 4 times the fare is fair, in addition to keeping his/her original fare and oh well, it is in the T & C’s so he / she should ‘suck it up’. No other industry gets away with this level of robbery, none. (Well, banks do…..but that’s another story for another day.)

I do agree with your sentiment later about voting with our feet, but I also think it excellent that platforms such as this give the consumer the right to express their discontent at how they’ve been treated by BA, it is this shared knowledge and experiences which helps others make an informed decision about who they spend their hard earned cash with.

[AnthonyDunn]

@ AllOverTheGaff – 26/02/2015 17:39 GMT

From your commentary, you appear to think that selling a highly priced ticket immediately prior to departure is a practice unique to BA. Airline pricing practices (on another thread right now…). Errr, I really don’t think so. And on what basis should BA (or any other airline for that matter) offer a reduced last minute fare?

Your Murrayfield analogy simply does not work: you buy a ticket for any or all of the game; it’s entirely up to you how much you choose to watch and how late you arrive/early you depart (even if that p*sses off those seated between you and the exit). When you buy an airline ticket, I don’t believe that you get to choose only x% of the journey and you are either there on time or you are not. When either I or my wife have been late for a flight (thankfully a rare event), we have had to bear the costs of rebooking etc. Annoying yes, but not the fault of the airline when I have opted to buy a non-transferable/fixed departure ticket because it is appreciably cheaper than a fully flexible one.

As someone once remarked “stuff happens….”

[AllOverTheGaff]

AnthonyDunn – 26/02/2015 18:14 GMT

From a post on this thread – by me:

I understand that almost all airlines would operate the same in the same circumstances,

The rugby analogy works fine for me, if I am late I am not charged 4 times the entry fee to watch what remains of the game and see the final result. If I am late for a flight, the same company (BA) who operate flights from a different airport to the same ‘end game’ charge me 4 times the amount of a regular fare.

And to be clear, it 100% is the fault of the airline, it is the airline which makes these preposterous rules in their ticketing which sees the customer, in this case FCW, left high and dry with zero recourse other than to be gouged for another ticket.

As far as other airlines go, it rather appears EZY offer a ‘missed flight’ supplement of some £6.00 and they’ll transfer you onto another plane FOC, that there is customer care and focus and something until now I was unaware of, I shall avail myself of this on all future bookings.

[SimonS1]

It has always been the case that last minute, walk up, single fares are the most expensive. The OP hasn’t been gouged, he/she paid exactly what I or anyone else would have paid for the same ticket. Airline tickets have always been priced on the basis of supply and demand, the fact that other airlines were full indicates that. There is no such thing as a “regular fare”. Regular travellers (or most of them, it would appear) know that.

There are occasions when the airline will be sympathetic and change a non flexible ticket (eg death in the family, with a certificate) but traffic problems are not amongst them.

The OP missed the earlier flight. It was unfortunate, but not the airline’s fault. The ticket the OP purchased was non-flexible (and the price would have reflected that). The good news is that many insurers will cover delays on the roads/trains so that is the place to recover any cost. The £6 supplement you mention on EZY is an insurance premium charged for exactly that purpose.

[AviationGeek]

FirstClassWannabe – “Listen and make things better now”
The BA staff at LHR may have achieved the first part (easy enough), but not so much on the second. That said, as mentioned further up the thread, many staff don’t have much decision making power, so this may be tricky to do.
The Customer Relations team seem to have not really listened (standard replies not addressing the issue at hand) and made things … well, better if you’re happy with the Avios, not so much looking at you being just sent off to LGW to fend for yourself and clearly unhappy with it.
I hope your travel insurance covered you for your extra expenses.

[MrMichael]

A couple of weeks ago I had a cheapest flight booked with Jetstar Australia from Sydney to Sunshine Coast. MrsM and I missed the flight by thirty minutes due to a misunderstanding on who was carrying the small carry on bag with the iPad in it. On arrival at the airport we instructed the driver to return to our downtown hotel hoping to get the thing back, we didn’t, and arrived back at SYDNEY just after our flight closed. We expected to be stung for two full fare singles but were pleasantly surprised when the agent took pity on us dozy Poms and put us on the next flights with no further payment.

Did we expect it…No
Were we pleased ..Yes

We were lucky, very lucky, we had missed our flights through no fault of Jetstar, no fault of the airport either. We were fortunate. If we had paid the full wack to get to Sunshine Coast I would have had absolutely nothing to complain about. In fact, I think Jetstar were almost as dozy as us for giving the flights away that we rightly should have paid for. Has it created a more loyal customer…yes…..would I buy shares in Jetstar….No.

[CathayLoyalist2]

Mr Michael, a no brainer in my opinion. The Jetstar lady didn’t incur any cost by helping you out but gained substantial goodwill . Of course companies can stand behind their T&C’s but isn’t it appreciated when someone goes that ‘extra mile’ when they don’t have to but elect to do so. Companies either have a customer culture or they don’t and we have a choice in deciding who we fly with

[AllOverTheGaff]

CathayLoyalist2 – 27/02/2015 06:15 GMT
Companies either have a customer culture or they don’t and we have a choice in deciding who we fly with

+1

[Swindoneric]

“Companies standing behind their T and C’s” or indeed procedures. Describes my experience with BA last night perfectly. Flying Zurich – LHR – Edi. Delayed leaving Zurich to load hand baggage into hold. Arrived Heathrow on time but parked at a remote stand. No bus to T5 for 20 minutes. Dashed through connections centre to be told I was now “standby only”. Got to gate. 20+ minutes queue to board (no discernible priority queue) to be told that I was now at the back of the plane in a middle seat. No apology for delays, no assistance, just a culture of “we’re getting you there, what more do you want?”.

[SimonS1]

Indeed CathayLoyalist – vote with your feet. We all have a choice.

Unfortunately many people don’t though, either due to addiction to FF mileage or just plain old inertia. I said it the other day but threads like this always remind me of that character ‘Binman’ who used to post on here – every flight he took with BA seemed to involve some form of disaster and from the looks of FT it still does.

Cultures take a long time to change, the combination of HAL and BA at Terminal 5 is a powerful combination of the civil service mindset at work.

[Author]

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