BA Is Shite

BA Is Shite

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The latest news and views on British Airways, the world's "favourite" airline.

Thursday 27 September 2007

Missing Airmiles X

I looked into my BA Executive Club account today, and guess what?

Yes, that's right, our missing airmiles from our trip to Barcelona in July have finally been credited to our account. The countless emails to BA Executive Club finally paid off.

Funny though that BA Executive Club never wrote back to tell me that the miles had been credited?

Equally strange that they have never answered the question that I repeated several times.

Namely that, in this age of security alerts etc, there is no way that an airline does not keep records of their passengers and cannot identify who flew on a particular flight. Therefore why did BA Executive Club claim that they needed proof that we were on their flight before they would credit our miles, even though our Executive Club card numbers were registered with the flight when we booked it and when we checked in?

I guess I will never know the answer to that one!

Wednesday 26 September 2007

BA To Be Sued?

An American law firm is encouraging consumers in the UK to claim compensation from companies found guilty of breaking competition rules.

The company's UK branch is looking to sue British Airways and Virgin for hundreds of millions of pounds after they were found guilty of colluding over fuel surcharges.

It's just been given permission to go ahead with a class action against both firms in the US.

While Virgin escaped punishment for alerting authorities about what was going on, British Airways was hit by a record fine of more than a £121m after being found guilty by the Office of Fair Trading. The US Department of Justice imposed another £150m.

Channel 4 News

Tuesday 25 September 2007

Time Warp

The Times reports:

"A City chum has just flown back from Singapore with BA and wonders what timezone the airline is operating in. Passengers were shown 'the latest BBC news', dating back to last Monday.

They were told UK time was seven hours ahead of Singapore – it's seven hours behind.

And they were reminded that smoking is allowed only in designated areas inside the terminal. Smoking was banned throughout on July 1
."

Monday 24 September 2007

Tuesday 11 September 2007

The Return From Beijing

As with my flight to Beijing on British Airways, my return flight to London had a number of shortcomings that the executive team at BA need to address:
  • The opening news video shown on channel 1, on the ancient inflight "entertainment" system, had no sound. I was advised that this was a fault with the tape, and that nothing could be done about it.


  • The picture quality on all channels was not that good/clear.


  • Again, no chutney with the curry. Come on guys, at least you can get this right!


  • The sandwich selection was hardly inspiring; cheese and tomato, or ham. Both of these were offered on somewhat dry white bread, that had been buttered only on one side.
The BA executive team need to take a leaf out of the late Lord King's book, and start to travel in all classes of their fleet of planes in order to meet their customers. Lord King did this, when BA was recognised as a leading world brand, it is high time that the current executive of BA did the same.

The value of BA lies in:

-Its routes
-The quality of its on board infrastructure
-The quality of its staff

The latter two qualities are being seriously neglected by the executive team at British Airways, resulting in severe damage to the brand value of the company and an increase in customer dissatisfaction.

It is time that the executive team at BA addressed these issues, in order to reverse the damage that it has inflicted on its brand value and customer loyalty.

Monday 10 September 2007

Missing Airmiles IX

Sent to BA, still chasing the missing airmiles!

"I would appreciate an update as to the status of this please.

I am on the Beijing to London flight tomorrow 11th, and will follow this up by other means if necessary when back in UK.

Thanks

Regards

Ken Frost
"

Saturday 8 September 2007

Flight from BJ

I will be on the BA Beijing to London flight on the 11th, feel free to say hello.

Thursday 6 September 2007

The Customers Fight Back

The Times reports that British Airways faces paying damages of millions of pounds to passengers whose baggage it has lost. US law firm Hagens Berman Sobolo Shapiro has filed a class action complaint at the US District Court in Seattle arguing that the airline has not given its customers notice of what it claims is an "inadequate baggage handling system" and that a £770-per-passenger limit on baggage compensation should not apply.

Saturday 1 September 2007

The Flight to Beijing

I took my flight from London to Beijing today, regrettably many of the issues that I had raised before with Britsh Airways had not been addressed:
  • The "passenger infrastructure" on the plane was worn and dated. Seat 2F near to my seat needed two crew members to physically perform a mid air repair, in order for the head rest section to work.


  • The menu offered soup, yet none was actually available. Why? Seemingly the soup was never delivered to the plane, as it could not get through security in time! This is more than a little odd, as the plane was 30 minutes late for boarding.


  • Again, despite telling BA before about this, there was no chutney onboard for the curry. I made do with marmalade.


  • The cabin temperature was too cold.


  • The crew were helpful and courteous. However, those that I spoke to confessed that they were fed up with having to apologise to customers for the failures of the company to meet the expectations of the customers.


  • I understand that the much lauded "roll out" of the new cabins and in flight entertainment systems has hit a snag. Seemingly there is one British Airways plane crossing the Atlantic that has an in flight entertainment system that does not work. That must make an "amusing" six hours for the hapless customers onboard that particular flight!


  • The inflight entertainment system was good 15 years ago, but now looks dated and well past its prime. The roll out of the new system needs to be completed with haste.
BA need to understand that the customers, and indeed the staff, are fed up with the ongoing quality issues.