Service above and beyond

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Sometimes the little things make a difference. I had a happy experience today, which it thought I would share. This forum does sometimes get mired in negativity, so perhaps I could encourage others to post details of little things that have made a difference where someone went “above and beyond”.

    Now, this isn’t a spectacular story by any means. I checked in this morning at the Airport Express station in Central. I am now sitting in CX’s The Wing lounge at HKG. About an hour after arriving in the lounge, I realised I no longer had my Marco Polo Club (frequent flyer) card – and of course the last time I used it was at check-in. So I approached the reception desk in the lounge, explained that I am connecting on to BA flights, and I know from past experience that BA can be a bit difficult about allowing access to lounges without producing the card (and sometimes even with the card – a while ago there was a mismatch between their systems and my actual status which took a while and a couple of phone calls to resolve). I have no problem with that – the oneworld rules state a card must be produced, and I think that’s completely fair. So I asked if they could print something off confirming my status. No such luck, sadly, since we are well outside office hours. However. ten minutes ago, I was paged in the lounge. My card had been found (at the check-in desks on Hong Kong Island), sent to the airport and through to the lounge, and delivered back to me. So now I should have no problems, and don’t have to worry. I have no idea how much effort was involved in this endeavour, but I really appreciate it. I am sure other posters have much better stories to share, so spread a little bonhomie and tell us about these little happy experiences where someone (or some group) did something unexpected to make life a little easier


    travelworld2
    Participant

    Mine’s similarly inconsequential but made me feel good about the world.

    Last April I had to travel to a funeral in Devon from London with an overnight in Bristol en route. This involved collecting no fewer than 14 tickets and vouchers from the ticket machine on Paddington station (there were six trains involved with seat reservations and so on).

    I picked them up and sat on the train as it pulled out, looking at the tickets. It turned out that I had not 14 but 13- the Bristol –Exeter leg was missing. I’d clearly dropped it.
    The following morning I cursed my carelessness and bought a replacement at Bristol and thought no more of it.

    Three days letter, back at home, I got a letter from First Great Western. Someone had found my ticket and handed it in at the station. FGW had tracked it back to the booking and suspected I would have bought a replacement ticket at Bristol. I that were the case, I could return the replacement ticket (which by lucky chance I hadn’t thrown away) and they would refund it. Which is exactly what they did.

    I was very grateful both to the member of the public who had found and handed in the ticket and to FGW, who really didn’t have to do that. If only the rest of my life were like that…


    LuganoPirate
    Participant

    Nice thread Ian. I had to change my recently booked trip with LH to extend a few days and then book a ticket for my son (in a different class) on the same flights and slightly change our itinerary. Wonderfully helpful lady at the LH office in CPT quickly got me sorted, my ticket changed for no extra money and my son all booked with our respective seat selections.

    I’ll be reporting shortly in the trip itself.


    andystock
    Participant

    On the CX theme again, having a bit to eat in the Plaza lounge at HK got to the gate and as I was flying in economy received 3 apologies for boarding premium passengers before me, once boarding the plane a member of cabin staff showed me to my seat in economy an opened the overhead locker. Did not even get that service in BA Club World!


    thebigseats
    Participant

    CX happiness from me too. A few months back we were connecting in Hong Kong onwards to HKT in Business Class. Our departing flight was late & we were destined to miss our connection. Fear not. We spoke to the In Flight Manager & when stepping off the air bridge in HKG there was a table set up with everyones connecting BPs waiting for them & 2 CX staffers handing them out. Better still despite missing the last CX/KA flight of the day direct to HKT, we were booked on CX to BKK & then TG Business. Excellent, seamless perfection.


    canucklad
    Participant

    A very pleasant topic indeed Ian, and very timely as I was considering starting a similar themed topic.

    Why, you might ask, well I would nominate the lovely Crystal in AC’s marketing department.

    A while ago Tungchungguy started a thread about missing tags, and I posted lamenting the disappearance of my 2010 Vancouver Olympic commemorative tags whilst transiting LHR.

    I decided to take a punt and e-mail AC and see if they could possibly replace the stolen tags, The customer relations said they couldn’t but suggested I contact their marketing department

    Step in the lovely Crystal, she advised me that they didn’t have any 2010 ones left, but if I wanted she would send me Sochi tags…. Result…. Last week my Sochi tags arrived, and as a wee Brucie bonus, a 75th anniversary 3D effect tag as well …very funky.

    Then last week, out of the blue, I received another e-mail from the lovely Crystal, who informed me that whilst cleaning their office, they found 3” 2010 tags” and she would send them onto me as well.

    The fact that she remembered little old me, in her busy work life suggests that she qualifies as someone who demonstrates “Service above and beyond”

    In the grand scheme of things, pretty trivial, but it did cheer me when I opened the jiffy bag with Canada Post on it !

    Oh, and I didn’t mention my status level either!


    SergeantMajor
    Participant

    I was on a flight to Miami some several years ago, flying F.

    Had been in Duty Free and after liberal sampling of the wares, smelled like a bordello.

    Decided to have a thorough wash of hands and arms in the sink in the lounge, and removed my Mont Blanc holiday watch, which I placed on the side of the sink unit (green marble, as I recall). Completely forgot about it until on board the plane.

    This was probably in T3, as it was an American Airlines lounge, in the days before BA had its own lounge (MIA was, I think, the only BA flight to depart that terminal, all to do with BA keeping tabs on BAA as that flight got it access to BAA’s terminal management committee or some such).

    Alerted the crew, and a steward very generously offered to go and fetch it (I could not leave the aircraft myself for security reasons). Luckily it had been found, and I was able to be reunited with my not inexpensive watch.

    So departed with a watch I thought had surely been lost.

    Flight proceeded to go tech, so changed aircraft after taxiing out, then diverted to Nassau due to weather at MIA (lucky, actually as it gave me time to sober up after the very generous pourings, as well as pen a few old skool letters with the Smythson speedmark logo’d writing paper BA used to stock on board) , and ended up at my destination around 4am local, 9am my time, not having slept properly in over 24 hous.

    It was without doubt one of the best flights I’ve experienced, with a terrific crew and one which contributed to my loyalty to BA.

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