BA to prevent UK callers ringing US

[Aston100]

JDB wrote:

PS from a household that has earned/used 2 x 241 since inception over twenty years ago, they remain easy to use.

Are you transitioning from forum contrarian to forum troll?

[JDB]

Aston100 wrote:

JDB wrote:

PS from a household that has earned/used 2 x 241 since inception over twenty years ago, they remain easy to use.

Are you transitioning from forum contrarian to forum troll?

@Aston100 – There really is no need to refer to anyone as a ‘contrarian’ or ‘troll’ simply because they have the audacity to disagree with you or have a more original view than the pack/consensus. @Cranzle referred to making the voucher easier to use and I mentioned our long term experience that it is easy to use.

PS. what is it you find difficult about using the voucher?

[Garethgerry]

Nothing difficult about using 241 , except if some people have advantage by phoning.

They should make it a level playing field. Simplest is to make it internet only. Except for complex intineraries, involving multiple carriers

[HampshireHog]

@JDB you really are excelling yourself today I’m afraid. Everyone and their dog knows that if you want a return flight to a popular destination or a popular holiday date the shenanigans of booking two singles or ringing up for the return is necessary, hence BA accommodating these requests.
If they fixed their IT to allow for this or had phone lines open 24/7 like several competitors it wouldn’t be necessary.
Ranting at folk with legitimate grumbles and then implying that it’s gonna be their fault if BA withdraws the concessions that have been put in place as a result of BA’s procedural failings really is scraping the bottom of the barrel I’m sad to say.

[JDB]

@HampshireHog – I think you have completely misunderstood what I said. BA is currently accommodating these calls but the more people suggest this is the only way, the more likely they will be disallowed. If people make a fuss, it’s all to easy for BA to remove the perceived problem without notice.

I’m also not the only person on this thread remarking on the unfairness of the rule busting process. I also can’t get over the selfishness of those who grab seats at midnight but then cancel them not too long afterwards because they couldn’t/can’t get themselves organised when there are seemingly plenty of people who could genuinely have used these seats.

It doesn’t affect us but I hate reading the tales of woe in from those who suffer from the absurdities of the system.

[CJD]

JDB wrote:

CJD wrote:

JDB wrote:

@CJD – it isn’t a question of improving IT, it’s deliberately designed so that a customer has a different level of access/functionality vs an employee; that’s pretty standard for lots of businesses. There is already too much gratuitous T-355 booking so I’m not sure giving the passenger the ability to hold seats would necessarily be a positive.

It removes an incentive for customers to call. If call centre agents can effectively remove flights from my basket during the online booking process, why wouldn’t I call if I wanted to book a high demand route?

I’m afraid that’s just how most airlines operate. Imagine how allowing a customer to hold seats would open up the system to bots or just someone with lots of open devices blocking nine seats on each of them. It would be total chaos.

No it wouldn’t. Plenty of organisations give you a limited amount of time to complete the booking process to stop a scenario like that.

You can’t prattle on about how people shouldn’t be phoning the call centre when BA’s systems incentivise doing exactly that, then just dismiss any suggestion that maybe this should change.

[Ihar]

Garethgerry wrote:

Nothing difficult about using 241 , except if some people have advantage by phoning.

They should make it a level playing field. Simplest is to make it internet only. Except for complex intineraries, involving multiple carriers

This! ^^^^ And it’s OK to have different views, and still respect each other 😉

[Cranzle]

Ihar wrote:

Garethgerry wrote:

Nothing difficult about using 241 , except if some people have advantage by phoning.

They should make it a level playing field. Simplest is to make it internet only. Except for complex intineraries, involving multiple carriers

This! ^^^^ And it’s OK to have different views, and still respect each other 😉

I agree. Some people are very valuable contributors, even if they have differing views.

My opinion in general is that BA appear to be continually degrading in all areas and not improving anything. And people continue to defend why BA can’t improve. The fact is competitors do manage to offer a whole host of online functionality and BA are frankly decades behind. They continue to p*iss of customers because they can. I’m sure many would agree with Al Baker that BA is a two out of 10 airline and acts like a low cost carrier at a level that most never expected BA to be. They might be profitable and the ‘envy’ of competitors, but things like forcing people to phone the call centre to carry out simple task is just shows how far BA have fallen. The fact that they were super fast at removing web functionality during covid shows that they can implement things if they wish.

I’m sure they can introduce small things immediately intended to delight customers, even at low cost, instead of continually chipping away at things. I’m sure someone at BA has delivered a flashy presentation on the fuel savings that can be had from removing cheese from the menu.

Frankly, I couldn’t care less if they became ‘stricter’ at ‘enforcing’ rules like not being able to call or using/changing companion vouchers against their terms. They could just make things easier, but they really just won’t want to do that and I’m happy for them to continue to alienate me. They could use their position in the market should be used to delight customers, not to be purely (dis)functional. But I think they are just too big to change and the culture is evidently horrible.

[Ihar]

I love the oft used phrase “delight customers”. It’s the “raison d’etre” of customer service. It not only provides a fulfilling work experience, but happy customers make for easy customers.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Baker said a lot of things in the past such as QR was thinking of leaving OW and that was whilst he was chairman of OW!

I bet he was more than happy with the dividends QR got from its shareholding of IAG though.

But he’s nothing to do with QR now since his rather sudden ousting retirement from QR in 2023 (as well as from a number of other posts he held)

[Cranzle]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

Baker said a lot of things in the past such as QR was thinking of leaving OW and that was whilst he was chairman of OW!

I bet he was more than happy with the dividends QR got from its shareholding of IAG though.

But he’s nothing to do with QR now since his rather sudden ousting retirement from QR in 2023 (as well as from a number of other posts he held)

He also delivered a lot of things. BA love ‘announcements’ with woeful execution. BA First suite being an example. The third version of First before the second was rolled out. Perhaps he was ousted for not wearing a high visibility best during his interviews?

[Garethgerry]

Ihar wrote:

Garethgerry wrote:

Nothing difficult about using 241 , except if some people have advantage by phoning.

They should make it a level playing field. Simplest is to make it internet only. Except for complex intineraries, involving multiple carriers

This! ^^^^ And it’s OK to have different views, and still respect each other 😉

Don’t know why ihar took such offence to idea its all done online. My disagree but it was not an offensive statement

Don’t know why

[HampshireHog]

JDB wrote:

@HampshireHog – I think you have completely misunderstood what I said. BA is currently accommodating these calls but the more people suggest this is the only way, the more likely they will be disallowed. If people make a fuss, it’s all to easy for BA to remove the perceived problem without notice.

I’m also not the only person on this thread remarking on the unfairness of the rule busting process. I also can’t get over the selfishness of those who grab seats at midnight but then cancel them not too long afterwards because they couldn’t/can’t get themselves organised when there are seemingly plenty of people who could genuinely have used these seats.

It doesn’t affect us but I hate reading the tales of woe in from those who suffer from the absurdities of the system.

Well you said it was easy to book using 241 and I might enquire as to the routes you are booking? I do wholeheartedly agree about selfish folk booking multiple dates and then cancelling later. I believe certain Gold members used to brag about this behaviour quite a bit on this site..

[NorthernLass]

It IS easy to book using a 241 with smidgeon of flexibility. Just do a search on the “Where can I go” page on SeatSpy and you will see a plethora of options. Hence I’ve virtually never called to book, and never at T-355 (both times I’ve ever done so it was to add inbounds to F bookings, and on both occasions it transpired I didn’t actually need to).

Even at this relatively late date, if you want a sunny Xmas 2025 there is return availability in CW (and the odd F) to BDA, GCM, NAS, POS, GRU and others.

[Aston100]

It was well easy to book Amsterdam with my companion voucher today.
Not sure why people are disagreeing.

[Ihar]

Garethgerry wrote:

Ihar wrote:

Garethgerry wrote:

Nothing difficult about using 241 , except if some people have advantage by phoning.

They should make it a level playing field. Simplest is to make it internet only. Except for complex intineraries, involving multiple carriers

This! ^^^^ And it’s OK to have different views, and still respect each other 😉

Don’t know why ihar took such offence to idea its all done online. My disagree but it was not an offensive statement

Don’t know why

You mis-understand. I was saying you are exactly right “This! ^^^”. I was also referring to earlier posts in the thread when I asked that we respect each other even if we have different views. If it all moved online and seats were released at midnight UTC then everyone has the same chance.

So I apologise for completely agreeing with you, though I don’t agree with your disagreeing with my agreeing 😁

[HampshireHog]

NorthernLass wrote:

It IS easy to book using a 241 with smidgeon of flexibility. Just do a search on the “Where can I go” page on SeatSpy and you will see a plethora of options. Hence I’ve virtually never called to book, and never at T-355 (both times I’ve ever done so it was to add inbounds to F bookings, and on both occasions it transpired I didn’t actually need to).

Even at this relatively late date, if you want a sunny Xmas 2025 there is return availability in CW (and the odd F) to BDA, GCM, NAS, POS, GRU and others.

No it isn’t easy to book such as South Africa at peak times. Thank you.

[HampshireHog]

Aston100 wrote:

It was well easy to book Amsterdam with my companion voucher today.
Not sure why people are disagreeing.

Indeed, I’m sure I can book to where I don’t want to go when I don’t want to go with ease!

[Garethgerry]

I booked a Cape Town this morning, took two nights of trying. First night unsuccessful. Slight problem it didn’t recognise my stored credit card because I was in south africa. By time I’d taken only an extra minute to realise and solve problem, all 8 tickets on both flights had gone. Had to be quick this morning

No extra tickets generated in CW for Amex on these high demand routes.

If you want a specific high demand route on relatively specific dates it is hard, not to do it but to get availability.

I wouldn’t spend money on Amex for pot luck on where I can go

[NorthernLass]

@HampshireHog, at the risk of sounding like @JDB, Amex doesn’t issue you a voucher to use to book flights to South Africa (or anywhere else). They give you a voucher worth a healthy 6-figure number of avios if used wisely, dependent on availability.

It would just take all the fun out of redeeming it if I had to get stressed and resentful about not getting a specific route. I wanted off-peak CW seats to MIA a couple of Christmases ago, but they went too fast for booking online at midnight. Instead I found F seats to IAD, started my holiday in the CCR and had a wonderful stay in Washington DC before connecting to Florida. It wasn’t “pot luck” because we still got to where we were spending the bulk of the trip and we’re always open to a few days in another place at the start or end.

@Garethgerry – you rarely see “extra” availability at T-355, but apologies if you were speaking generally.

[Not Long Now...]

We’ve used our voucher for South Africa for the last 8 years, barring 2 COVID non events. Mix of JNB and CPT, and open jaws, depending on what was available at the time. Never booked more than 10 months out. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the 11ish hours to S.A. being in club that matter to me, if I then have to take a £50 hour and a half connection, I still think that’s a good deal.
One other year, never did manage to get a return, but picked up a cash premium economy JNB-LHR one way for £450. Flexibility is the key! ( OK, I know, I’ve not got kids so not limited to holiday periods, but have done a couple of over Christmases)

[NorthernLass]

While my son was at secondary school we spent 2-3 weeks in the Caribbean each summer, flying in CW, for about the same cash outlay as my friends shelled out for 2 weeks in the overcrowded Med, all thanks to avios and the 241 (and discovering HFP in 2015!)

[HampshireHog]

NorthernLass wrote:

@HampshireHog, at the risk of sounding like @JDB, Amex doesn’t issue you a voucher to use to book flights to South Africa (or anywhere else). They give you a voucher worth a healthy 6-figure number of avios if used wisely, dependent on availability.

It would just take all the fun out of redeeming it if I had to get stressed and resentful about not getting a specific route. I wanted off-peak CW seats to MIA a couple of Christmases ago, but they went too fast for booking online at midnight. Instead I found F seats to IAD, started my holiday in the CCR and had a wonderful stay in Washington DC before connecting to Florida. It wasn’t “pot luck” because we still got to where we were spending the bulk of the trip and we’re always open to a few days in another place at the start or end.

@Garethgerry – you rarely see “extra” availability at T-355, but apologies if you were speaking generally.

I would suggest that you are likely in the minority if you are content to travel anywhere, I’m flexible on dates but have no interest in travelling to either the Caribbean or North American. Consequently, there aren’t many alternative destinations on BA’s route map to get me where I want to go.
I rebut your suggestion that I somehow expect BA to provide me with seats on a route and day of my choice, I’m merely stating the obvious that high demand destinations and dates are tricky to book. I don’t want to go to a third tier US city in January tbh.

[Garethgerry]

I specifically want to use it for South Africa at a specific time within say a week and back before 90 day visa runs out. BA best flight to SA and considerable saving.

I think many people have a specific destination in mind when buying 241 and saving or buying avios.

If 241 becomes impossible, which it never has but has once taken 3 days of trying. Luckily gold priority rewards is about same cost as cash ticket but fully refundable. A back up. A heads I win , tails I break even scenario.

[Aston100]

The simplest & fairest solution would be to make all seats on all flights available for Avios.
That would of course make no business sense to BA and would never happen.
I’m sure they’re hoping lots of people waste/expire their Avios and/or companion vouchers due to inability to fly where they want & when they want.

I personally am inflexible about destinations (no interest in returning to the US, and the Caribbean isn’t my cup of tea) and am often restricted to English school holiday dates.
I don’t think I saw anything in my brief scan through the BAPP t&cs about needing to be flexible on dates & destinations in order to use the companion voucher.
So to me, the t-355 midnight mayhem i a chore I really could do without, but really have no choice if I want to use a companion voucher.

That said, I have used my Avios on Qatar more than BA, and even without the companion voucher have often felt like I got better value for money.
Of course Qatar and their unofficial black out dates (English school holidays for a start) for normal priced Avios seats is another matter.