Complaints with British Airways: any ideas?

richardw

warrens wrote: »

were "bumped" off the flight when there were insufficient seats. They did not ask for volunteers

Does it say somewhere that they ask for volunteers?

ketilou

Hi! This is my first post, so hello to everyone

I am hoping that you can offer me some advice re a complaint that I submitted to British Airways a few days ago.

Long story short, my fiance and I booked BA flights last November to fly us to our wedding destination. We were due to fly on 28 March, but our flight is one of the many that is now affected by the Unite action.

We tried to move it back by two days to the day before the strike action, but by the time the BA website decided to let us try to make the change, there were no seats left. The website then stopped working (presumably because so many people were trying to do the same thing as us).

After 45 minutes on hold, we finally managed to get through to a call centre bod and changed our flights to 25 March, a full 3 days early. This means that we have had to cancel last minute wedding appointments (dress and suit fittings, hair, make up, picking up wedding rings etc, etc.). We've been charged cancellation fees, lost deposits on certain things and had to pay rebooking fees for others.

I am a frequent traveller and have flown with BA all my life. I wrote to BA to explain all of this and request that at the very least they upgrade us.

I was fobbed off with a ridiculous response from some bod telling me that they understood exactly how I and my fiance*e* felt and that they were sorry but they couldn't do anything about it.

Perhaps I am overreacting given the circumstances, but do you think that I am right to pursue this? If so, any ideas as to how I might get them to "rethink" their response?

All tips appreciated!

Many thanks!

richardw

In BA's eyes you don't matter, you are unlikely to be a business class frequent flyer and unlikely to contribute to future profits, you're just SLF, self loading freight.

ketilou

That's about the same conclusion I drew too. It's great to be a valued customer!

lullybubs

ketilou wrote: »

Hi! This is my first post, so hello to everyone

I am hoping that you can offer me some advice re a complaint that I submitted to British Airways a few days ago.

Long story short, my fiance and I booked BA flights last November to fly us to our wedding destination. We were due to fly on 28 March, but our flight is one of the many that is now affected by the Unite action.

We tried to move it back by two days to the day before the strike action, but by the time the BA website decided to let us try to make the change, there were no seats left. The website then stopped working (presumably because so many people were trying to do the same thing as us).

After 45 minutes on hold, we finally managed to get through to a call centre bod and changed our flights to 25 March, a full 3 days early. This means that we have had to cancel last minute wedding appointments (dress and suit fittings, hair, make up, picking up wedding rings etc, etc.). We've been charged cancellation fees, lost deposits on certain things and had to pay rebooking fees for others.

I am a frequent traveller and have flown with BA all my life. I wrote to BA to explain all of this and request that at the very least they upgrade us.

I was fobbed off with a ridiculous response from some bod telling me that they understood exactly how I and my fiance*e* felt and that they were sorry but they couldn't do anything about it.

Perhaps I am overreacting given the circumstances, but do you think that I am right to pursue this? If so, any ideas as to how I might get them to "rethink" their response?

All tips appreciated!

Many thanks!

In fairness to BA, the strike has been called by Unite, not an action that BA wanted. It is very unfortunate especially for someone in your position when your wedding plans are involved. However, BA can't really be expected to compensate passengers when it is the union calling the strike. Dates for the strike have been left until the last moment and now BA is left trying to rebook as many passengers as possible on fewer flights.
I realise this doesn't change the facts for you but in fairness to BA they couldn't upgrade every person effected by the strike. They are struggling just to rebook passengers onto their remaining flights.

Hope all goes well for your wedding.

malkie76

You certainly won't be getting freebie upgrades - infact, rather the opposite. Status and business travellers are getting downgrades when transferring to different flights - you are somewhat lucky to actually get a seat. (Besides, the difference between WT and WTP is small anyways, and I'll make a huge assumption that you are flying WT).

I'd contact your insurance company regarding the additional costs you've got due to moving flights, however because you've chosen to move your flight your insurance company may not want to pay anything at all.

I'm not saying that's fair, just asking you to be realistic about whats going to happen.

With the thousands of passengers currently displaced, don't expect anything other than a 'sorry' from BA, but then do remember that this situation isn't BA's fault. You could try writing to Unite ?

ketilou

Thank you for your input. I have ended with the same conclusions, although am not entirely pleased with the response from BA but suspect that a proportion of my dissatisfaction comes down to wedding nerves etc.!

I may try writing to Unite although suspect that that will only end up in a rant, probably best not to go there!

NonGeographicalMan

malkie76 wrote: »

With the thousands of passengers currently displaced, don't expect anything other than a 'sorry' from BA, but then do remember that this situation isn't BA's fault. You could try writing to Unite ?

This is complete and utter rubbish. The strike was BA's and specifically Willy Walsh's fault. The Union clearly did not want to strike in the end and wanted to settle but Walsh was determined to deprive long serving staff on higher wages of travel perks so more of them would leave. BA deliberately chose to let the strike happen and screw their passengers so they should compensate them fully for the inconvenience that their CEO knowingly and deliberately brought about.

knightstyle

One of the problems with BA and other large Airlines is that many of the staff you meet at the airport do not work for BA. They are in BA uniform but work for an anonymous air handling company so if you complain to BA they just pass the complaint on to the handling company who ignore the complaint. I tried for over a year to resolve a complaint for my 89 year old M-I-L but got nowhere.
Mind you I am still waiting for Flybe to reply to a complaint from 2 months ago. No I am not a professional moaner the BA complaint was that no wheelchair was available even after booking one when making the booking and the Flybe flight was delayed 24 hours and no help or compensation was forthcoming at all.

NonGeographicalMan

knightstyle wrote: »

the Flybe flight was delayed 24 hours and no help or compensation was forthcoming at all.

Something that even Ryanair have been told by the EU they cannot now get away with. Keep at it and take your complaint to Consumer Direct, Trading Standards, the CAA, EU Aviation regulation section or wherever else proves necessary.

Although my first flight with FlyBe still awaits me in a couple of weeks time from now just from booking I have formed the distinct impression that in many respects FlyBe is run using policies that are more unfavourable to the interests of their customers than even Easyjet or Ryanair:eek: