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British Airways Customer Service is appalling

Bermuda
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60 posts
46 reviews
49 helpful votes
British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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My husband booked a flight from Bermuda to Gatwick in World Traveller Plus. On his return journey he received a message the day before his flight informing him that he would not be able to check in online or choose his seat online due to an 'equipment change' and that he would have to call a particular number to check in over the phone and be allocated his seat. He tried for several hours to get through to the number and found it conitnually busy. Eventually after many, many attempts he finally reached a human and was checked in but informed he could ot be accommodated in World Traveller Plus but would be seted in Economy, however, he was entitled to a refund in the difference in the fare between WTP and Economy and could apply for this. That was on March 19th and here we are almost a month later and we still cannot get a response out of BA.

I tried to apply for the refund online at the BA website but was informed I could not do that but had to attend at our local BA office. Bermuda does not have a traditional BA office just an airport office open a couple of hours a day when the BA flight is arriving and leaving. I called the office and had to leave voicemail - no one called me back. I called again and left a message for the local BA manager - no one called me back. I sent them a fax with all the supporting documentation - no one responded. Eventually my husband drove to the airport and spoke with someone in the office who where very apologetic about the non response but could not help as we needed to deal with the BA Customer Relations Office in Jamaica NY. He was given the fax number for this office (no telephone number available) and told to send all documents and a covering letter to this office. The documentation and letter were faxed on April 2, no response received after a week so I faxed them again and here we are 17th April and I have still not received a response or acknowledgement from Customer Relations in NY.

Anyone any suggestions as to where we go from here?

Edinburgh, United...
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18,178 posts
13 reviews
6 helpful votes
1. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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"informed he could ot be accommodated in World Traveller Plus but would be seted in Economy, however, he was entitled to a refund in the difference in the fare between WTP and Economy and could apply for this."

Actually he is entitled to 75% of his ticket price under EU regulations.

Bermuda
Level Contributor
60 posts
46 reviews
49 helpful votes
2. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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Lexexpress - thank you can you point me to where I can find this information please?

Edinburgh, United...
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18,178 posts
13 reviews
6 helpful votes
3. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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The regulations can be found here (article 10 is the relevant one for you):

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:046:0001:0007:EN:PDF

Bermuda
Level Contributor
60 posts
46 reviews
49 helpful votes
4. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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Many thanks Lexexpress. I have copied the relevant section and agree that 75% of the fare should be refunded as Bermuda would fall under 3) when it comes to the mileage. Now I need to figure out who to approach with this as dealing with BA Customer Relations in Jamaica NY is proving to be a useless exercise as I have not received a reply or acknowledgement to the two faxes I sent them. There is no telephone number available for that department nor email just a fax number. I have sent them the original booking docs and the boarding card my husband was issued for his seat in Economy plus two covering letters.

Brooklyn, New York
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27,650 posts
5. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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I would start back again with the main telephone number.

Portland, Oregon
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37,406 posts
7 reviews
16 helpful votes
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D0t24,

As a follow up to LexExpress' completely correct information.

Under Article 10, you are entitled to compensation equal to 75% of the cost of the ticket, for the particular flight for which you were involuntarily downgraded. So if this were the return part of a round trip ticket, the compensation is only for the return portion, not the entire round trip. So in general terms, think in terms of 37.5% of the entire ticket.

Here are some further links to help you; the official EU complaint form that you can complete and send to BA, and the standard "How to Complain" page from the EU website, and the relevant page on ba.com..

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/passengers/air/doc/complain_form/eu_complaint_form_en.pdf

http://www.airpassengerrights.eu/en/how-to-complain.html

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/euclaimnor/public/en_gb

Complete the claim form and send to BA. Include a cover letter (strongly) requesting a response with say 14 days, and state that if you don't receive a response or their response is unsatisfactory, that you will commence legal proceedings. And you need to be prepared to do that using Small Claims Court.

Newcastle upon...
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39 posts
69 reviews
56 helpful votes
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Have you tried BA's US Twitter account? @BritishAirways or the UK account @British_Airways might help to hurry things along or at least confirm receipt of your documents.

8. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling

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9. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling

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UK
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49,560 posts
82 reviews
193 helpful votes
10. Re: British Airways Customer Service is appalling
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ridiculous spam reported

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