British Airways

I received a notice that British Airways had cancelled my flight for the end of July. Expected-no problem. I know I am owed a refund legally. I follow the link to manage my account. Under a link to cancel the fight it explicitly says that a refund will be offered. I continue to fill out the requested information and submit. I am automatically issued a voucher. At no point was there a warning that if I submitted I was agreeing to a voucher, and there was never a choice of refund or credit. Children of unwed mothers! They got me! I called customer service and spoke to a woman who said once a voucher has been issued there is no one that can reverse it and issue a refund. BS!

If they want people to call to receive a refund, say so. Don't lead people down a path to refund then stick them with a voucher. Isn't bait and switch a crime in UK like in USA? I will get my money back through a chargeback through my credit card. I documented every screen, but I shouldn't have to spend all the time I will on this.

I will pray tonight that the executives at British Airways reap exactly what they sow.

I was part of a party of 7 traveling from Dublin to Vancouver for a family wedding. One of the party, my daughter, had to pull out of the trip. So I tried to claim a refund as per terms. In the course of doing this I inadvertently cancelled all 7 flights and received an auto email confirming this.
In a panic I rang UK customer services and spoke with Megan who managed to halt my melt down and promised to endeavour to resolve the matter. Imagine my panic telling all my family I had cancelled the trip just a week before the wedding.
Long story short, Megan rang me at 8am the next day and confirmed that the flights had been retrieved.
Megan saved the day and was very human and understanding which is not something you expect from a big company. 10 out of 10 BA

My letter to British Airways:

Return flights from Copenhagen to London Heathrow
We were booked to fly with British Airways from Copenhagen at 18:15 to London Heathrow on 28 th July.
A series of personal unfortunate and unavoidable events meant we were unable to fly with you on that date.

My brother unexpectedly passed away at the age of 48 and was cremated on Thursday 27 th July. In the meantime I was rushed to hospital on Wednesday 26 th to have my appendix removed and reduce high levels of infection caused by endometriosis. As you can imagine, this has been an incredibly traumatic time, and of course whilst BA are not responsible for any of these events we were hoping for a level of understanding that meant we could still travel to visit a friend who could not be at the funeral due to a broken leg.

We could of course always choose to fly with a budget airline, but we always choose BA due to its reputation for being a world class airline, and to date, your customer service has always reflected this. Indeed, when I explained our very difficult situation to your staff on the phone, they were incredibly helpful and were every bit as customer focussed as we hoped they might be.

We always expected there would be some level of additional cost to change the one outbound flight, and when my doctors gave me a letter saying I was fit to fly we were quick to get in touch with your agents who assured us we could fly on Monday 31 st on BA0817 leaving Copenhagen at 16:30.

I spoke to 4 different agents on the telephone, all of whom were helpful and understanding. Dates and times of calls:
On 27 th at 16.46 this call was for 4 minutes but I have not recorded the name of the agent
On 28 th at 11.34 this call was 8 minutes and 50 seconds to Sean Luc
On Monday 31 st at 8.34am the call lasted 10 minutes (much of this was on hold, not agent name recorded)

On Monday 31 st at 09.48 I spoke with a woman at your call centre, when I was quoted a clear and firm price. We were told over the phone that the additional cost would be 2,701 Danish Kr (approx. 拢300) for both of us to change our flights. This was more than we had hoped given our circumstances, however as it was so last minute and our options were limited we agreed to this. We were informed that we could take a flight the following day for far less (1,700 Danish Kroner) and of course we could always choose an alternative airline, but due to the limited days available we made the decision to fly on the Monday at the price quoted.

I was asked if we would be using the same credit card we originally booked with I confirmed this was the case, and the woman proceeded to take the payment of 2,701 KR in total for both passengers. This call lasted 22 minutes. She explained that it may take up to 2 hours for the tickets to be issued.

Approximately 1 hour after the call, the new flight appeared on the BA App on both of our mobile phones. At this point we were happy that the flight was booked and transaction completed. The only issue was that the app would not allow us to check-in online and that we should do so at the airport.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, given that I had only recently had surgery so things take a lot longer than usual, and to ensure that we had sufficient time to check-in if there were any queues. On arrival at the check-in counter we were told that whilst we were on the passenger list, the e-tickets could not be issued and therefore we had to go to another desk operated by Menzies. At this point I was very tired, in pain, and upset that the passenger assistance we thought had been booked for me via the phone calls had not materialised or been confirmed.

When we arrived at the Menzies operated desk, I am sure you can imagine my shock, devastation and distress when we were informed that we could not fly unless we paid a total of 5,402 Danish Kroner (around 拢600), for the one flight, on top of the initial flight fees we had already paid (totalling 2,726 Danish Kroner). They staff at the desk could not understand what was wrong, we spent an hour stood at the desk whilst they made a number of phone calls (I was struggling to stand at this time). It was very clear to me that the error is a British Airways administrative error.
So due to your ineffective systems, 2 x flights for 2 people have cost us a total of 8,128 Danish Kroner (approx. 拢940).

At this point, we were in a position with no other options, which is entirely unacceptable and sent me into a state of high levels of anxiety and distress 鈥?I still have a funeral costs to cover which the financial element has caused huge problems with, but also this has negatively impacted on my physical and mental wellbeing. On another day, I may have argued louder and stronger but by this time I was too tired and upset.

I understand that you record calls for training and monitoring purposes, and therefore should have a record of your staff telling me that it would cost an additional 2,701KR for both Sebastian and I to fly, and of her taking the payment. I would like this investigated and refunded as I was put in a position of absolutely no other options at this point and feel wholeheartedly let down, misled and lied to by an Airline we have trusted. I would also like a transcript or audio recording of the call.

Given that I had an operation on Wednesday and flew on Monday, I was also told over the phone that I would be given special assistance, including help with my hand luggage etc. as I cannot lift anything. My partner and I were unable to sit together due to the debacle of check-in and booking, as we could not check in prior to paying the unreasonable increased fee, and the staff on board refused to help me with my bags. The entire experience was unnecessarily traumatic, stressful and painful.

The response from BA was just that it was my own fault. It was simply the worst experience I have ever had with an airline.

A once great company with a terrific air miles rewards system being steadily reduced by parsimonious accountants who appear to regard great service as an unnecessary overhead and innovation as an anathema to be avoided at all costs.
Avios points which replaced air miles are virtually worthless and reward seat allocation per flight very much reduced so redemption of points can take over a year.
Overall long haul flights far from being a magical experience is now uncomfortable experience with passengers made to feel a bloody useless bunch of demanding prima donna's rather than valued customers.
This starts at check in with numerous software failures creating an initial bad experience which increases over the flight duration
B.A. now stands for Bloody Awful and is getting worse Mr Walsh and his directors need to take a long hard look at their overpriced underperforming service to restore their market position.