We’ll see how they respond to my recent poor Club World experience
Fri 21 Aug 16:00: Fill out online form
Fri 21 Aug 16:21: Receive email from BA with ‘case’ reference number
Wed 26th Aug 15:49 Receive email from BA (click thumbnail left to read in full)
I recently travelled BA from Mumbai to London in ‘Club World’ class. By comparison to a competitor airline I flew long-haul that same week, it was a poor experience. So poor, in fact, that I was moved to write to British Airways and offer them feedback (under their heading ‘complaints comments and claims’).
Now, we all know that BA – like many airlines – is in dire trouble in this current economic crisis. So much so that it recently asked staff to volunteer to work for a month unpaid to help ease the company’s crisis and keep it afloat (sorry ‘in the air’).
If my flight with BA last week is anything to go by, then it’s also starting to show in the customer experience. I’ve given them my feedback but what can they do? What would you do?
Working for nothing to try to save your job is one thing. Expecting customers to join you in that heroic struggle is another.
I work for BA. I have not by the way offered to work for free, imho, a poor publicity stunt by and overpaid ceo.
Penny pinching has got to the point that the inflight product (especially Club and First) is being compromised.
People are still flying (most flights almost full), they should get what they pay for. Little things like hot towels, chocolates on the meal tray, etc are small but make a big difference, considering that premium travellers pay high prices.
BA do not respond well to feedback, you’ll be lucky to be acknowledged. They refuse to listen to their own staff on where their strategy is going wrong, yet they still insist they are a premium airline!!
Would be interested to know what was so poor about your flight, as having just experienced Club World, I thought it was (on this particular flight) very good, or maybe it was just the crew that were good enough to make up for a lacklustre product!
Thanks for picking this up – and for your comment, Dee.
Without going into detail, my experience was consistent with the ‘penny pinching’ you refer to – resulting in a compromised product. I don’t envy BA’s leadership, though. How to protect quality of service and product in a context of such huge financial losses and pressures?
British Airways is not interested in its passengers. I experienced a Heathrow Hassle at 12.8.2006 and I am still waiting for repayment of 1400€ damage done to us.
You will not receive any responses from BA until you start sending them 20 emails/day.
I will certainly not fly BA ever again in my lifetime!
See my report “The Deathrow Diaries”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18326708/The-Deathrow-Diaries
Thanks for your comment, Joannes. I downloaded your ebook but kind of wish I hadn’t
A book-length revenge rant is hard to digest at the best of times. When it’s written in a 2nd language.. Well, it’s both awesome and awful at the same time 
sorry!
Anyone interested in a fun bit of literary revenge on a crap airline should read Paul Kilduff’s book about his experiences with RyanAir (or ‘RuinAir’ as he calls it).
Sorry to hear you lost out Joannes – I’ll keep you posted if I get any response from BA
I had a bad experience with BACargo and I am describing the whole situation bellow:
I am extremely disappointed with the service I received from British Airways Cargo at the Manchester Airport.
On 28th of October 2009, I phoned British Airways Cargo at the Manchester Airport in order to seek information and costs for shipping a bag from Amman, Jordan to Manchester, UK. A woman answered the phone and replied that she could not give any information or costs and that I should contact BACargo in Jordan. She told me that only they would be able to answer my request. Therefore, I gently expressed my gratitude to her and immediately contacted British Airways Cargo in Jordan.
They were really helpful and provided me the information and costs for shipping my bag.
After consulting few other air companies I found British Airways had the better price and on the next day, 29th of October 2009, I shipped my bag through British Airways Cargo in Jordan. I paid the full price they asked from me and I asked if that was all. The answer I got was that I did not have to pay anything else. I have the invoice I received from British Airways Cargo in Jordan and I it does not mention any other fees our services I should pay later. Trusting everything was clear I waited for my bag to come.
After few days, I received a call from Mr. Dean S Wootton from British Airways Cargo in Manchester saying that my bag had arrived and that I could collect it after paying him £70. That was an awful surprise. I argued that I had already paid to British Airways Cargo in Jordan. However, he told me that now I had more fees to pay to British Airways Cargo in Manchester. With no regards to my reasons, he only told me that I should pay if I wanted to see my bag again. The only option he gave me was that I could get £30 reduction if I cleared my bag from Customs myself. With great difficult, I was able to clear the bag myself. Nevertheless, I was still charged £40 to get my bag from British Airways Cargo Manchester. The invoice I was given by British Airways Cargo in Manchester states that they charged me a handling fee of £30 and a Clearance fee of £10. Why a clearance fee if I did all the work myself?
I would have paid all those fees with no regret if I were informed about them before. I feel British Airways Cargo, both in Jordan and Manchester, deceived me. They should have informed me for all the charges for sending the bag when I first requested it. I think British Airways Cargo in Manchester should not have answered me that only British Airways Cargo in Jordan would be able to give all the charges I had to pay if they knew I would have to pay fees for them also.
Sometimes, it seems, as it was two different companies with no communication between them. Which I believe it is not the case. British Airways Cargo is a great company and I believe has a good internal communication and a uniform system, or not?
Therefore, I am seeking for a compensation for these extra fees that was not informed and charged in a wile way. I feel British Airways has not acted with clarity. I would have used another company if all the charges were showed to me before I shipped my bag.
I also would like to see British Airways Cargo in Manchester working properly. Answering its customers with clear and exact answers. Not only seeking profit but also concerned with the whole Company image.
Here is all the information you may need:
Air Waybill – xxx – xxxxxx
Sender`s name: xxxxxxx xxxxxx
Consignee`s name: xxxx xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dispached on the 29 of October 2009.
Freighet Prepaid – total: £130,00
I trust I will find fairness and honesty from your hand.
Yours truly,
Sandro Luiz Gomes de Oliveira
xxx xxxxxx
Email: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx
Phone
Mobile : xxxxxxxxxxx
Manchester, UK
Sandro, sorry to hear you had a bad experience with BA Cargo….but I don’t think I’ll be able to offer you any compensation for your troubles on this occasion. Mainly because I don’t run an airline called BA.
Dear Sir
Re my email on the 8th june.
We flew from Heathrow to Larnaca-BA 662.
We fully understand the promblems you are coping with,so thank you for getting us back.
We booked CLUB EUROPE using air miles.
We were but in ECONOMY (and a very poor one).
Could you amend our air miles accordinly.
ARTHUR RILEY.
BA xxxxxxxx
Dear Arthur
I’d love to be able to help you. Unfortunately (I’ll say it again): I don’t run an airline called British Airways and my name isn’t Willie Walsh.
It always amazes me how many people post here demanding I fix something or refund something. Actually, it worries me. If you can’t tell the difference between this site and British Airways I’d suggest that you’re too vulnerable to be doing things online. In short – you’re ripe for scamming.
Good luck with trying to get your air miles back
Haha, thanks for this Sam- i enjoyed reading your post. I have to submit an essay to do with the evalutation of British Airways and their customer care policies; something that has been extremely fun to do as i get to point out all the things they do wrong!
You are probably the millionth person to tell me of just how awful the airline really is
Lols.
It’s a shame, would be so nice to be able to be proud of our airline… And I’ve nothing against those people who are trying hard to do a good job. All I know is that on the same trip I got treated to luxury on Cathay Pacific and slop on BA – for the same kind of money. No contest.
Thanks for the comment, Sarah – how funny to hear that BA’s poor reputation now goes as far as college essays
My mum 73, flew BA from SA to LDN and back
Going back NO SPECIAL ASSISTANCE was given although booked way in advance – she had to take her own luggage off the belts, walked long distances
Not happy! Disgrace
Service that is offered but they cant provide
When asking can we add another 1.5kg wall art to her lugggage when chekcing in – we we told NO – unless you pay for it
Logged with customer relations this complaing – no answer and its a week later
Pathetic
My partner and I were among those caught up in the farrago that ensued following a fall of snow in London last December.
The whole country knew snow was due to arrive during the day, but we were banking on the fact that our flight was early and that we would miss it. However, as we waited, the departure boards asked passengers to “refer to airline”: a bit disingenuous since BA is the only airline that flies from T5.
All flights after 10.00am had been cancelled. We were called forward to proceed through security to the departures lounge, where, 10 minutes later, our flight was also cancelled. It should be stressed at this point that non-BA flights from other non-BA terminals were still departing. Indeed, there was a TV screen showing BBC News 24 in the lounge. A reporter was speaking to a man in T5 who was complaining that his friend had just boarded a flight in T3, while his BA flight to the same place had just been cancelled. Shortly after, the BBC had a still picture of a BA plane on a runway in a blizzard. The caption read Heathrow T5. They were saying that BA had decided to cancel all flights after 10.00am because of the weather. Only there was no blizzard. No snow at all. None. And they also cancelled flights before 10.00, just for the record.
Neither of us was prepared to take BA and BAA up on their offer of re-booking and waiting for our luggage to be forwarded to our destination. Obviously, if you cancel flights when a runway is clear, you stand no chance of flying once there has actually been snow. The problem we anticipated with re-booking is that the flights are already full of pre-booked customers, and there was no guarantee of anything leaving for days to come.
My partner found alternative flights and soon we were booked on a flight from non-BAA operated Birmingham the next day on Turkish Airlines neither of whom, thankfully, spit out their dummies at the mere suggestion of snow.
Our theory is that BA simply worked out how much money it would cost to park half it’s fleet at various locations round the world for a number of days and how much it would cost to refund all tickets. Cheaper to p*ss your customers off, it seems. I hope that they haven’t factored in the loss of repeat business they’ll suffer from us and others like us. I really hope it hits the greedy winkers hard when they look at their first quarter’s results in April 2012.
Ouch. Thanks for that story. I have no idea what decision-making process went on there. I doubt that any airline sets out to piss off its customers and lose goodwill. I’ve no doubt, however, that they sometimes do it by making stupid decisions – and that we probably have little or no idea of the complex circumstances behind those decisions. And we rarely – if ever – see the whole picture of a situation. Still, even if there was a rationale behind that decision, it sounds like it wasn’t communicated to you.
We reluctantly fly British Airways, unless it is very very cheap. Its cabin staff are generally racist and rude as were in the old BOAC days. Apartheid has gone underground in Britain but not on BA flights to India, it is blatant; our last flight BA 198 was on the 13.40 – 5/1/11 – seats no 22 from Mumbai. Fortunately, we now have a vast choice of airlines and as a regular traveller on the London Mumbai route we will definitely avoid BA and encourage all my friends to do the same. Like leopards never change their spots BA’s racist old folks will never change.
On this flight we had one charming and polite oriental young girl to thank. Apart from her there were two older women who were pathetically rude and so was their boss most abusive to my wife just because we called twice for his off hand service
Good bye
Anver Jeevanjee
I have sent BA a letter of complaint about our treatment on a recent trip to Hong Kong.
My wife has a medical problem and can’t fly unless she has an aisle seat. In order to guarantee an aisle seat we paid extra to secure our seats four months before the date of travel. When we checked in online 24 hours before the flight, we were offered an upgrade to World Traveller Plus at a reasonable price. We accepted the offered but we then discovered that the seats allocated to us were both in the middle of a row of four. This was clearly not acceptable but the website would not let us go back to our original position. We had therefore paid more than £400 for seats we had no intention of using. They claimed that they could not do anything until we were at the airport. We informed them that we would not travel if my wife could not have an aisle seat, anywhere on the aircraft not just in World Traveller Plus. We couldn’t believe that all seats had been allocated 14 hours before departure. It was not until we were the only ones left at the departure gate that they managed to find a seat. Two separate BA staff assured us that our luggage was being loaded but on arrival at Hong Kong we were informed that it would arrive until 24 hours later. So far we have had a general apology “because you found ba.com not as easy to operate as you would have liked”. We have not had a reply about the other issues.
I purchased an online ticket for my daughter and I to travel in December ’11. After payment I realised that she will not be an adult(12years)when we are due to embark so I rang to ask for a refund. I was told I will get a call back but did not. I also sent two emails to complain but have not got a response. MONEY IS TOO TIGHT TO MENTION. HELP!!!
Stephen – long shot, but go over to http://www.getsatisfaction.com and see if BA has a presence there. Many businesses do – and many use it to their advantage to resolve issues like this before they become online reputation problems. Let us know how you got on.
March 4th 2011
British Airways seem to specialise in having the rudest Cabin Service Directors if my flight (my 28th) from Rio to London on Jan 27th is anything to go by. In our premium cabin we were given undrinkable wine. One helpful crew member went to get an improved variety. Instead of him coming back, the CSD appeared to let me know that she personally, had decided that I was not to be given an alternative better wine. She should have told me she didn’t have alternatives instead of being so imperious and downright rude. Although British Airways have said sorry on her behalf they have refused to give any follow-up information, which makes me feel my complaint went straight into their shredder. Avoid them at all costs-dreadful airline!
I have flown to the US from Switzerland with BA many times and it has always been a rather pleasant experience, especially compared to US competitors.
I realize now however that BA customer service is an entirely different story. During the big December 2010 disaster at Heathrow, BA asked us to cancel our flight Zurich-London-Philadelphia. Something went wrong with our cancellation, and we are still battling for a refund with not much hope left. Customer service was definitely not interested in our case, we were constantly passed on and ignored.
If somebody is interested in our story, I have written it up on http://troublewithba.com (not an entire e-book, but, alas, English is indeed a second language for me as well!
On 5 January, I purchased Club World seats on British Airways to San Fransisco, staying 2 nights before flying on to Honolulu First class with American Airlines. This was all booked through the BA website.I arranged hotel accommodation around the flights and was looking forward to our holiday in September.
A few days ago,I had an e mail from BA to say that the American Airlines flights to Honolulu had been cancelled.I called customer services expecting them to re route me although not ideal but I was willing to go via Los Angeles.
Over 2 days and speaking to different representatives, the only option they gave me was to cancel the booking and then re book.
I have e mailed my complaint to them but they seem to think that by refunding my £10731 in tickets and £240 for assigned seats that that is the end of the matter.
I am absolutely furious with them, they have no idea of the hassle this is causing me.
Thanks for your comment, David. What would you have preferred / expected them to do? Worth putting it down here in print in case BA gets round to reading this.
A cautionary tale and note of assistance to all those who have suffered the misfortune of travelling with British Airways and experiencing their unique brand of so-called Customer Service:
BA are an unmitigated disgrace when it comes to customer service and they totally ruined our wedding and honeymoon travel.
My wife and I suffered an appalling trip at the hands of this company and Mr Keith Williams, CEO, and his management could not be more disinterested.
We suffered rubbish on the floor, rude and ignorant BA staff and no food in the Lounge at Gatwick. We had no working entertainment screens, broken seat tables, faulty seat controls, rude and ignorant cabin crew, burned food, an hour wait for dinner and another hour delay being served at breakfast; not to mention the insects, yes, insects, in the seat arm compartment. All this in First Class.
I suggest writing to the following in the hope you have better success than we did. We found emailing them daily was the fastest way to elicit a response. Start with an email to Mr Williams, copied to all. That should provide some response. Good luck.
keith.x.williams@ba.com
americas.communications@ba.com
amy.clasper@ba.com
andy.lord@ba.com
ben.marshall@ba.com
company.secretary@ba.com
Glenda.Midson@ba.com
gsrreplies@contact.britishairways.com
helen.blenkinsop@ba.com
Helena.Flynn@ba.com
international.media@ba.com
investor.relations@iairgroup.com
james.hillier@ba.com
Lynn.McClelland@ba.com
Mary.George@BA.com
media.relations@ba.com
media.relations@iairgroup.com
michele.kropf@ba.com
michelle.parker@ba.com
prensaintl@iberia.es
press@oneworld.com
radhika.raikhy@ba.com
Sanja.Simeunovic@ba.com
sarah.marzari@ba.com
shareholder.services@iairgroup.com
silla.maizey@ba.com
steve.sheterline@ba.com
tehreem.ashraf@ba.com
tobias.klitsch@ba.com
willie.walsh@iairgroup.com
Should you Fly British Airways?
I should have arrived at the airport three hours early for my British Airways flight to Verona however when I got to Victoria station to take a 35 minute train to Gatwick airport, a water main had just exploded and flooded all the train tracks. I quickly jumped on another train going to East Croyden where I then got a replacement bus service to the airport. I could have still made my flight but 2 miles outside the airport the traffic completely stopped. When I finally got into the airport I had 20 minutes before my flight, but British Airways wouldn’t let me fly, which is understandable enough.
But the understanding stops there. British Airways then charged me a hefty £60 to change my flight to the next day. Hundreds of people missed their flight because of the transportation problems that was no fault of their own, but British Airways charged them all £60 to transfer their flight to the next day. However other airlines were a lot more understanding, like Easy Jet, which didn’t charge their customers anything.
I asked British airways, who are always advertising how much they understand their customers and care for them, where did they get the arbitrary charge of £60, why did they have to charge so much, and why did other airlines like Easy Jet not charge their customers anything? They wrote back in a cold robotic way and basically told me to piss off.
British Airways definitely made a lot of money that day. And I actually originally paid £20 more to fly with them because I bought into their brand and thought they were more reliable and understanding. But from my experience, and other people I have talked to since then about their negative experience with British Airways, I think those days are over and I think they need to change their brand song from the Flower Duet to John Lee Hookers ‘I need money’ song. At least I’m giving my money to Easy Jet next time.
Well, I’ve had better experience with BA internal flights (Edinburgh to London) recently.
What would you have liked to have happen that would have made it ok for you (given that BA aren’t responsible for water mains)?
I have always been travelling with British Airways on economy for short haul flights and business/first for long haul flights, but yesterday on a short haul flight I was traumatised on BA0916 at 7.10pm from London to Frankfurt on Friday evening 20/1/2012
All was well as I do not expect much service from BA, I was peacefully on my designated chair reading a book. The flight attendant came around and asked if we wanted drinks. The guy next to me ordered 2 drinks and he was given 2 drinks. When it was my turn, I asked for Diet Coke and water. However I was given diet coke only.
I repeated my order and the air stewardess said I am only entitled to 1 water and that I have to wait for her to serve the whole cabin before she can get me water. She then served the guy next to me. He got 2 drinks! I think I was discriminated against and I had to request water 2 times and the only one who is not allowed 2 drinks. She finally then gave me the glass of water I wanted when the guy next to me told her that I have requested a glass fafter twice.
Still upset that I was discriminated against for whatever reason, I went to get her name which is S******. She insisted that she did nothing wrong as 1 person is entitled to 1 drink. I can clear see that 1 person is allowed 1 drink when there is passenger seating at the rear with 3 drinks!
I think she has been impolite to me for whatever reason, she has deliberately ignored my request for 2 drinks and for whatever reason she is discriminating against me. Maybe because I am a minority woman, I do not know. Her attitude is not one that is suitable for service industry. There was no apologies from her for not hearing my 2 initial request she just said that she can refuse me 2 drinks if she wanted to. This I can accept if everyone was served 1 drink only.
I am very traumatised with her action and she challenged me to bring this up to higher authorities. I wanted to ask why was I discriminated against for just water?
Hi Chu, thanks for your comment. Have you given your feedback to the ‘higher authorities’ at British Airways? I have to say that ‘traumatised’ seems quite a strong word to use. You also use the word ‘discriminated’ four times and suggest that she discriminated against you on the basis of race or ethnicity. What evidence do you have for this claim?