Hopeless British Airways

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Viewing 9 posts - 46 through 54 (of 54 total)

  • ASK1945
    Participant

    Thank you Roy. Maybe I didn’t make clear – I could have just done what you did, which is what I have done with other flights this last year. But, that isn’t the point I was making. I lost the ability to move my flights to a different set (from April to July) because the “Fly by June 30th” rule set by BA was irrefutable, despite the lockdown against international travel.

    Also, the website (yes, another moan about this) does not permit any change of travel class – this can only be done by phone. By the time I did get through, no lower classes of flights for my available days were available.

    All I was doing was withdrawing my earlier comment “My own experience of BA in the last year has also been positive“, which was true until this episode.


    RoyJones
    Participant

    Your moan over having to phone to accomplish some changes etc is understood. Online you are restricted to one window, the very way internet systems work. Agents sitting at a BA (or for that matter any other airline) terminal can run multiple windows that are the enablers of unusual complex transactions – sometimes it is better to break down a transaction into more basic steps and allow the human brain to interface these processes. You may be very cognisant of what you want to do, but the internet system must be designed for use by, excuse the expression, a simpleton.


    Montysaurus
    Participant

    My wife and I have just had emails from BA EC suggesting we change our passwords as a precaution given the SITA issue. Neither of us can log in to our accounts as the site doesn’t recognise our user names and/or passwords. BA must be dealing with a lot of calls as their message centre says they can’t connect us.
    I had hoped the new CEO’s first task would be to fix their IT. I suppose the pandemic has taken his mind off IT for the time being.


    Montysaurus
    Participant

    I have also looked at my account on the app on both my iPad and iPhone only to get an app message on both to say my account access details are no longer valid and I have to log in with the new details! So I am now completely locked out of BA. It’s lucky I have no travel plans this month.


    ASK1945
    Participant

    Montysaurus

    My wife and I are exactly the same: neither of us can log-in using my desktop and laptop computers or the mobile app. We are both locked out – fortunately neither of us is travelling or booking new flights in the near future.

    I guess we are not alone!


    fatbear
    Participant

    Same for me……….


    FaroFlyer
    Participant

    [postquote quote=1094075]

    I had the same from Malaysian, and just read on Turning Left for Less that all Star Alliance members are affected as they all use SITA.

    Hardly a BA failure.


    DavidSmith2
    Participant

    I trawled through a year of BA threads to find a suitable one, rather than create a new one, but I just wanted to relay my experience which does include ‘hopelessness’ but also some positive customer service. Some elements may be helpful to others.

    I have a flight booked (Accra-London) and wanted to upgrade the outward leg from WTP to Club. The offer on the website was around 630 USD. However I tried for the last 6 weeks to book and pay for this and every time I was told that an error had occurred and to try again later. 10+ times later, I decided to call on the Silver Exec Club number.

    After 45 mins I got through to a human who was patient, helpful and sympathetic. On her system the upgrade was around 25% more than the online offer, but she checked and said she could not access the website price. We then negotiated all the reasons why my card had created the error (it possibly seems to relate to using a UK debit card when not in the UK), and tried to process payment on the phone. However this now requires you to insert your 3 digit security number through your phone keypad. My problem is that I was calling through skype and the BA system does not permit the Skype keypad to validate the security number (had I called from my UK phone and spent an hour or more on the phone it would have cost me around 200 pounds).

    So, today, BA called me back on my UK phone confirmed my request and took payment, which finally went through.

    So a moan about the website, a thumbs up to the person I spoke to, a moan about the non-availability of the online offer, a moan about the BA payment processing system, and a thumbs up to the person who called me back today, as promised, and took payment. But this is me trying to give them money for an upgrade – should it be so difficult?


    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    Quite some years back with the ongoing debate about BA´s then ying yang CW, particularly the challenge for the cabin crew, I was in CW on a flight to LHR from SIN and I asked the CSD what input cabin crew are asked to give on product development. I remember he looked at me and simply smiled which said it all really.
    Is it not simply common sense to ask the front line people to provide feedback or was that just another example, still prevalent today, of too many companies where the customer, let alone staff, are not just an after thought but not factored into the equation of great customer service?
    As far as BA is concerned on the few occasions I have flown with them I got the impression the vast majority were trying hard to provide a good standard in spite of the “hallowed chambers at Waterside” being tone deaf

    1 user thanked author for this post.
Viewing 9 posts - 46 through 54 (of 54 total)
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