British Airways contact details

ickster

Not sure why everybody is slating Defender of The Weak so much. Poor service is unacceptable. Consumer power is the only way to change this. Voting with your feet is one way, DOTW is using another. I think the fact they have failed to deal with his legitimate complaint is terrible.

Good luck DOTW, don't give up!

blindman

ickster wrote: »

Not sure why everybody is slating Defender of The Weak so much. Poor service is unacceptable. Consumer power is the only way to change this. Voting with your feet is one way, DOTW is using another. I think the fact they have failed to deal with his legitimate complaint is terrible.

Good luck DOTW, don't give up!

This is why

I'm a professional complainer, and simply do not feel anybody should put up with rubbish service or sub standard products. At the last estimate I reckon that we had claimed back/refunded/deducted from about 20,000 pounds. Of the cases filed at court over the last 12 years 16 wins and one draw.

On this particular trip BA did not live up to his standards (fair enough) BUT did he raise issues with the FA at the time to resolve this?

From the gist of his replies it seems not, he'd rather go to court and waste their time in order to get money.

I hope his flight to USA is lovely!

NafUk

Good luck Defender of The Weak in your court case. Service in this country is extremely poor and mistakes ignored. I have lived in the USA and so the levels of service here really do stand out from the USA where people will politely protest and complain. As for litigation we are overtaking the USA in that departmnent. Most of the people commenting here are the type who will just let other walk all over them becasue that is what they are used to and don't have the back bone to stand up and protest.

moonrakerz

I will repeat the gist of what I said in another post (long ago).
BA comes across as two organisations; air crew and ground crew. Once on board the aircraft I have found BA to be excellent; the people on the ground, regrettably, are often rude and arrogant.

A recent flight from Miami to Heathrow shows this up perfectly. My wife had been ill and our insurer had arranged with BA for a wheelchair to be available. When we arrived at Miami we discovered the wheelchair was not available until after check-in. I asked if we could be checked in at the (empty !) first class check-in and was told in no uncertain terms that we had to join the huge queue for economy. I sought out and complained to the duty manager who instructed the man at the first class desk to check us in. To say that this man was then "peeved" was the understatement of the year, he gave us what were the two worst seats on the aircraft, and in a very heavy sulk at that !

When we were airborne, we explained my wife's problem to the cabin crew who then gave her the use of a double crew seat in a galley area where she could put her legs up and supplied her with ice packs. On arrival at Heathrow we were told to remain seated and they would tell us when the wheelchair was at the aircraft door. What different treatment to what we had on the ground !

This was not an isolated incident, I used to travel a lot on business with BA and this type of behaviour was a common occurrence. Heathrow and Miami being the worst places. I cannot remember ever having anything resembling a complaint in the air, but I could write a book about my experiences on the ground with BA. I wrote a letter of complaint, over one incident, to Rod Eddington, I got back "a bed bug letter", not exactly the response one would expect from the "world's favourite airline". Having written that - IT IS the sort of response you expect from BA nowadays !

BA have long had industrial problems with their ground staff; whether this is due to having "bolshie" staff, or staff who are poorly treated by management and then vent their anger at passengers, I don't know; but it certainly doesn't help the airline's image !

WiseInvestor - you are doing a good job, but your colleagues on the ground are not supporting you the way they should.

franklally

We have just returned from flying Gatwick-Orlando and I am really disappointed with the service received from BA - entertainment on 4 hours late going out and none at all coming back - I would just like to have been told before we boarded coming back as it was obviously a known problem - when I asked the cabin crew why the screens were not working they said they had been trying to fix them and had been unable to and recommended we complain to BA.com on our return.

If I had known at Orlando I would have bought the children (3) some extra games and books for the journey to keep them occupied.

To their credit BA did reply to my email quickly and sent me £30 for each passenger of highlife vouchers (that you can only spend on the next long-haul journey) - I have just posted them straight back to them as I have never found anything on board I have wanted to buy and I see no point in having them.

I'm just chasing them on this as I am really disappointed in their response - I have always been more than happy with their service and loyal to them.

I think I'll look at flying Virgin next time.

LondonSurgeon

I have been a longtime lurker and have finally decided to post as I am really quite shocked by this particular forum posts. I thinks that anyone is allowed to complain if they feel they have had a bad service. I am sure all of us have let things ride rather than complain, especially on flights.

I have flown BA many times over my lifetime and have to say that the service is the worst of any long haul carrier. Ther service is always poor and the attendants are rude and racist. I have made many complaints both on board to the pursurs and crew and also on the ground. Never have I received an apology!

Most of the time you get this attitude as shown in this forum that BA is superior to everyone else and the staff don't really care. I have now stopped flying BA, last flight was over 3 years ago, preferring to fly with airlines who do care about their passengers, e.g. Malaysian airlines, staff are attentive and go round every half an hour, even during night flights (try and catch a BA staff on flight during the day!); Singapore airlines, Emirates.

At least Easyjet and Ryanair have an excuse of being cheap and cheerful!

Sam_Bee

franklally wrote: »

To their credit BA did reply to my email quickly and sent me £30 for each passenger of highlife vouchers (that you can only spend on the next long-haul journey) - I have just posted them straight back to them as I have never found anything on board I have wanted to buy and I see no point in having them.

You just sent back £120 worth of vouchers? That's a lot of booze! I hope you requested they send it to you in cash form instead.

I reckon I have problems with inflight entertainment on 30-50% of flights, so have by experience always packed enough books / alternate entertainment. To think it's only 10 years ago we all flew without seat backs TV long haul. What on earth did we used to do for entertainment?

Sam_Bee

defender_of_the_weak wrote: »

Sam

thanks for that. In short I upgraded 3 flights to World traveller Plus last October (not very money saving but it was our anniversary) and it was awful.

Fast bag drop - 15 minutes

Fresh Contemporay Meals - Wouldnt give it to a starving dog

Friendly attentive service - No one about for most of the time, and judging by the surly service when they turned up they hadnt been spending thier time with ranulph fiennes

Complimentary drinks - in any flavour so long as its orange (or water, must have put the wife on the even cheaper service side of the plane.

Been complaining since the return in November and will file in court this week. As an old hand at this its surprising how often the word court sparks a reaction. Tried it 5 minutes ago with Bryant homes and although the girl in the office has never received our letters she has now agreed to reimburse for the leak and cost of drying the carpets

Defender of the Weak, I am very interested in the progression of this case. Can you keep us up-to-date?

franklally

To think it's only 10 years ago we all flew without seat backs TV long haul. What on earth did we used to do for entertainment?

I was thinking this when I was composing my rant to BA.

It's just that its expected now and I'm just very disappointed that I am not valued as a customer - which is niave of me a suppose.

BTW on checking the vouchers they had only sent me £100 in total - for 5 of us travelling although it said in their letter £30 for each - I don't know how they worked that out...

wolvoman

There's some incredibly naive posts in this thread. One bad flight with a carrier and it seems that's enough of a sample size to prove something.

When you fly week in, week out that's when you learn who are the best carriers to fly with and from my experience BA is right up with the best in that regard.

And BA make no secret of the fact that their target market is Traveller Plus, Club and First passengers.