I really dislike flying with British Airways. If I have the choice, I generally take an alternative airline. But silly me, I booked them for my current trip to Munich, and now I’m enjoying a few hours at the Munich Airport because of BA’s great customer relations.
I have a late flight out tonight, since I originally thought I might need to stay late in Munich. As it turned out, I didn’t. So I headed to the airport early, knowing there were a couple of flights before mine.
At the ticket desk when checking in, I asked politely if there was a chance on getting on an earlier flight. A little typing, then a stern response. Computer Says No. No you cannot. You have a non-refundable, non-changeable ticket. I got a look like I was somehow asking for the impossible, being unreasonable for even raising the question.
Yes, I replied. I know my ticket is non-changeable. But if you have a space free on an earlier flight, couldn’t I stand by and take that if absolutely no one else was going to buy or use the seat?
No.
I was amazed. I’ve done this plenty of times with other airlines. You know the score. You have a flight between San Francisco and LA, and if you’re there early, you can usually get on an earlier flight. Why not? It helps the airline to ensure that they might have room on a later flight, especially if there’s some unexpected delay.
I asked if there was anyone else I could check with, figuring I’d give it one last shot to get home a bit earlier. I was sent over to the duty officer at the ticket desk.
That was a fun experience. He explained to me, like I was some type of idiot, that I’d booked a non-changeable ticket. If I wanted to change it, I should have bought a different type.
Yes, I explained I was aware of this. I didn’t intend on changing my ticket, nor did I need to. But if there was a seat open, does BA really not allow stand-by passengers?
No. Even if I were a gold card member with BA, they wouldn’t do that for me. You have a choice, and you made your choice when you bought your ticket to go at that time.
Wow. Damn right I have a choice. As a matter of fact, I was debating this week a flight from London to San Francisco on Virgin versus BA. I was debating it only because the Virgin price was higher. I still went for the ticket with Virgin, simply because of my general hatred of BA. It was worth the extra money not to be spending 11 hours each way with an airline I despise. Now I feel even better about the choice.
Fortunately, I’d flown business class with BA this time. So if I had to wait, at least I could wait in the BA lounge at Munich. Ooops. They ain’t got one. Instead, they gave me a piece of paper worth 8 euros to enjoy a fine meal anywhere in the place.
I shouldn’t complain. I’d already enjoyed using the laptop power on the flight across from London on BA. Oops — turns out they didn’t have that, either.
I will hand it to BA in one regard. The lounge at Heathrow has improved a bit, with a better selection of food. But it pales compared to the Virgin lounge. I have a gold card with Virgin, and going there is heaven. Showers, great menu, plenty of places to sit.
Virgin also makes me happy since they seem honestly happy to see me, and this is even in the days when I was flying economy as a regular non-gold passenger. BA’s staff feels like they hate working there, and that attitude shows.
Postscript: And so the story got better. Well, worse. The flight got delayed by a half-hour, with the blame put upon striking French traffic controllers. Then we orbited Heathrow for about an hour, with the blame again going on the traffic controller dispute producing a backlog. When we landed, there was no BA luggage to be had for anyone, from any flight. Seems that since the flights were delayed, the luggage crews had gone home.
Along with hundreds of other people, I filled out a form to have BA deliver my luggage. I love this end result. Rather than let me fly in a vacant seat on an earlier flight (which they had), BA instead decides it’s better for me to wait to take the flight I originally booked. That means they have one more customer upset over the flight delay and missing luggage. Plus, they have the cost of driving my suitcase out to me 90 miles from Heathrow.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
“Computer Says No”.
So I see you’re not just content with referencing Little Britain on the searchCast
Almost no airline lets you standby on international flights on restricted fares. This is true with AA, United, Virgin Atlantic, and everyone else.
Even many US airlines charge a fee for domestic standby now.
You do anything but moan?
You get what you pay for.
I’ve paid thousands with BA. Yeah, I’ll have a moan at them. I’ve also praised them, too.
My wife and I just got back from our honeymoon after spending a lot of money with who we thought would be a trusted airline, only to realise that really the only difference in flying with British Airways and a budget airline, is that there are a few more smiles and some complementary food. When traveling in British Airways ‘world traveler’ class, you may as well be flying with a budget airline. British Airways give you as much legroom and comfort yet with around 5 times the cost, I would sooner fly with a budget airline, if only they flew to the US, Canada or further. Also, just to make things worse British Airways lost our baggage in Boston Airport and have yet to find it. British Airways offered us very little in the way of help and their customer relations is awful. For me it would be Virgin over British Airways every day of the week, and that is a sad fact when you think they used to be number one.
I agree completely. British Airways is the worst. Could it be because it is run by the government?? They are snotty, inflexible, and sometimes even threatening. I hate them. And I have to fly with them in a couple of weeks. Any suggestions?
Sorry to hear you have been the victim of another stern ‘no nonsense’ ridiculous non-refundable/non-changeable ticket terms. BA really are a no-frills carrier, they just don’t admit it.
Would welcome your views on my current BA debacle. Am i being unreasonable?
http://britishairwaysfail.wordpress.com/
Alex
its no wonder british airways are losing money. i know if 2 girls, both apparantly work “in the business” and both are getting to fly stand by by british airways to nyc for £100. when i say they both work in the business, i mean 1 of them works for a SMALL NO FRILLS AIRLINE AND THE OTHER 1 WORKS IN A TRAVEL AGENCY!
british airways is a plc its has not been run by the govement for sometime ,its simply a business that has to make money , stop moaning.
in life you get what you pay for.
As if disappointing service with increased attitude and inflated prices wasn’t enough, my luggage was lost for 3 months when traveling through Paris CDG a few years ago. Not only were BA distant and completely unhelpful during this time, but when my luggage finally did turn up, my fairly expensive guitar (which i was not allowed to take in the cabin), turned up irreparable with a carefully worded apology from BA, both for the damage to the instrument and temporary loss of luggage and also for the fact that they would not entertain the idea of compensating me.
Since then I tend to avoid British Airways at all costs but due to frequent traveling I sometimes find myself flying BA which only compound my feelings for this company.
I will be flying BA once again on a flight home to England for the holidays, only to find out that the largely unhelpful staff have decided to strike and disrupt everyone’s plans at one of the busiest times of the year.
Although I understand the timing and therefore impact of the strike, unfortunately it only once again reassures me that my opinion of this ‘flagship’ company is nothing but correct
I disagree with the unfair bitching in this post. All airlines have their rules when ticketing. My guess is that Sullivan chose the cheapest possible flight when he booked – with full knowledge about the booking being fixed and non-reroutable, non-refundable, etc. and yet, when it suits HIM, he wants it to be entirely flexible.. Why should it be? He diddn’t pay for that. Why should HE get to be the one that says that the contract HE entered into should now change…? Bizarre… I’m fine with BA; at least their staff have less attitude than so many other airlines… Sullivan sounds like a sulky child who just wants to let off steam. Sad that he thins that he has just cause!
Rick, they were totally in their rights to turn away a regular flyer who didn’t have a changeable ticket. As they did.
They didn’t have to make me feel terrible for asking. I didn’t start screaming at the ticket counter that they had to let me on. I asked politely if they had room, would it be possible for me to take the earlier flight? Instead, I got a lecture on tickets.
I didn’t need that. I’m not an idiot. I was one of their frequent flyers. I ended up at the airport earlier than I thought, and it is not at all unreasonable to ask. Airlines have flexibility; they can do whatever they wanted. This particular agent didn’t want to even try. Another agent might have.
Had that agent tried, by the way, I’d have gotten home on a flight that wasn’t in the end delayed. And BA would have had one less customer that they then had to ship luggage back to, because by the time my delayed flight got in, all their baggage people had gone home.
But that’s OK. There are other airlines that do show more customer service. I fly with them whenever possible.
I stopped working for this crap company 3 months ago after 2 and a half years of shit treatment… I had taken some leave and they duly deducted that from my last wage. I have since joined a much better airline and voila…3 months later a letter has landed on my doormat asking me to pay £600.00 within 14 days or risk extra charges and debt collection..you are all right, Bastard Airlines is the best acronym. Hope they go bust.
I guess your situation could have been handled better by the agents but they must get no end of idots trying to change inflexible tickets.
If BA allowed people onto flights earlier than the one booked then everyone would just book the last flight of the day and effectively get a flexible ticket at the inflexible price.
So there were problems (beyond BA’s control) later on, that’s just bad luck.
Get over it!
British Airways are by far the worst airline I have ever flown with. I recently had to travel with them from Cairo to Toronto and they cancelled my flight a few hours beforehand because of weather conditions, but did not even notify me properly of my options for a new flight. They then rebooked me on a Delta flight on their website without my knowledge and I only found out about it accidentally by logging on to their site again for an update, but by the time I called them to confirm they had closed their airport office and would not issue me a paper or electronic ticket to confirm the new booking. They in effect booked me on a flight I couldn´t even take. Then when I obviously missed that Delta flight they tried to suggest it was my fault and tried to evade booking me a new flight home. In the end, I got them to organise an Air France flight following a big delay…Air France lost my bag to top it all off. Of course, snooty British Airways came up with some stuffy and inflexible policy reasons to completely avoid responsibility. I usually fly with Qantas whenever I can, and I can only say that in comparison, British Airways are atrocious. I will never fly with them again as long as I can avoid it. Right now I feel like I would rather swim or fly a magic carpet than give a cent of my money to British Airways.
El,
I flew with BA on Jan 7th from Rome to London. Not only was my original flight cancelled due to “weather” when every other airline was flying, but the flight I was rescheduled on was 3 hours late (yet, that is not enough time for them to refill the water, since there was NO water on the flight: for drinking or in the sink). After sitting on the runway for 90 minutes because we were so late, they could not get a gate for us, and sitting in front of the baggage reclaim for 3 hours until the flight disappear off all the reclaim screens nowhere to be found, I tracked down someone from BA who said that the baggage is actually in the airport, and they will put it out as soon as they are good and ready. Not just me, the entire flight was baggage-less. And the flight after us. 20 hours to get from Rome to London, and no luggage. It only gets worse, b/c today is Jan 22, and I still have no luggage. 2 suitcases packed for a 3-months long trans-continental trip, 15 days without it, and BA caps its compensation at GBP1,100! The suitcases along without any content cost that!
The most frustrating thing is that they “found” the bags 48 hours after we landed in Heathrow. Since then the bags had been in the process of being delivered. To my multiple inquiries about ETD, or offers to pick up the bags if they tell me their physical location, BA was blaming the contractor they employ to deliver the bags. Well, here is the cherry on top, BA is saying they cannot reach their contractor. Apparently, Rico Logistics is not returning BA’s calls/emails.
I want to start a business, get a contract with BA, get their money and then just not pick up the phone. By the time they get around to actually doing something about it, I would have finished furnishing my villa in the Bahamas.
NEVER AGAIN WILL I STEP A FOOT ON A BA FLIGHT! I hope the company and everyone who works for them evaporates, so they cannot go on poisoning other firms with their incompetence!
BA AS A COMPANY TO WORK FOR ARE S***.
BA AS AN EMPLOYER IS S***.
THE ONLY THING THAT I WOULD RATE BA FOR IS IT’S CREW….
THEY ON THE WHOLE ARE FANTASTIC AND A DELIGHT TO TALK TO
ON LONG FLIGHTS.
WILLIE WALSH IS A THUG AND MY MONEY IS ON HIM LEAVING THE COMPANY
SOONER RATHER THAN WHEN HE IS SCHEDULED TO TAKE OVER THE
MERGER OF BA AND IBERIA.
BA is now another budget airline, yet even easyjet letsyou change your ticket for £25
Cant wait until Willy and the board go bust
There are a lot of PREMIUM BRANDS left thankfully, but BA as inferior as the flagtheyfly on the tail