Your letters and posts
Martin Hubble, Geneva
RIGID RULES Since British Airways has virtually doubled the points necessary to retain [an Executive Club] gold card, I will no longer qualify. After 21 years of continuous BA gold level status, it seems that all that mutually beneficial loyalty counts for very little. A couple of months ago, when checking in for our Geneva- London flight in economy, my wife and I were early. On asking if we could take an earlier flight, on which there were plenty of available seats, the answer was only if we paid about Sfr 300 (£203) extra each. We politely declined and duly avenged ourselves on the BA lounge. I do recognise that rules are rules and that our tickets were non-amendable, but wouldn’t a bit of flexibility have been an idea for a regular client? Especially when it would have cost the airline nothing except having to load on board two more snacks, not to mention that it would have freed up seats on a later flight. On boarding the flight in the priority lane, we were advised that
gold card members now had to wait until all those in Club Europe had boarded. This is new – and it certainly caused confusion, as most of the priority lane passengers were gold cardholders and formed quite a throng that was unwilling to return to the back of the queue, and thus blocked the Club class passengers. Flexibility in these scenarios would have generated customer satisfaction at little or no cost to the airline.
Name and address supplied
SITTING ROOM I booked BA Club World flights between Heathrow and Vancouver for myself and my parents, and paid an extra £85 per head each way to pre-book seats on the upper deck. Seven days before departure, “Manage My Booking” showed additional available seats. However, when I tried to select one I got the message that the change couldn’t be processed, and I should call customer services. After 25 minutes on hold, I was told that the seat (and, it
appeared, all the other free seats) had been “restricted” by the seat booking team, and I should try again four days before departure. So, despite paying to pre-book, and being within the seven-day YEARS
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free-seat selection window, it seems that “available” seats aren’t actually that. In that case, I would love to know why BA shows them as such.
25
BRITISH AIRWAYS REPLIES: We hugely value our Executive Club members and fully understand that it can be frustrating when they arrive at an airport in time to catch an earlier flight, but are told they are unable to be moved without paying a further fee.
Our ticket rules are transparent and enable us to provide a fair and consistent service to all our customers. It would be unfair to those who have paid for fully flexible tickets to allow those who have paid for less flexible tickets to move flights without some form of fee. Customers who have paid the premium for a fully flexible ticket can benefit from amending their flights at no extra cost.
Our customers have told us that punctuality is hugely important to them. Therefore, we are looking at a number of initiatives to help us depart every flight on time. The new process is intended to improve the speed of boarding, with customers sitting in our First and Club cabins boarding first, followed by our Executive Club members.
BRITISH AIRWAYS REPLIES: We introduced pre-paid seat selection in response to feedback – many of our customers said they wanted this option to ensure they were able to secure the seat they wanted on their flight, at the point they booked their ticket. When customers pre-pay for their seats, they are choosing from the selection available at the time. While we do everything we can to accommodate our customers’ needs, we can only offer seats that are available at the time of booking. Seats can be released or changed by other customers, or by British Airways teams, at any time, so we would encourage people to keep checking availability online.
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