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Forums Daily chat thread Click here for today’s chat thread Impenetrable BA Customer Service

  • 3 posts

    I need to call BA from Japan. Silver status. Get the ‘log in to find the number’ message.

    Utterly impossible to find the silver status number… nor the Japan number… nor any number currently open…

    Of all businesses in the world, surely BA is one of the few that truly should offer a single number that’s open 24/7!!

    I don’t even need the status number. Just any number that will work for me right now at this point in time.

    That chat bot can’t even give me a single working number for Japan.

    I have given up, and reverted to a good old fashioned moan. Apologies for ruining everyone’s Sunday.

    Ps. came across the offers for what I need to do to retain Silver, it was hilariously impossible for me. On the flip side, the most recent lounge experience was hopeless. Queues for the toilets, and toilets dirtier than probably the ordinary public toilets in t5. Disgrace.

    3 posts

    I think I posted this in the wrong place… sorry about that. Was posting from Japan so the Sunday Chat thread wasn’t up and running + just my bad for not realising how this works…

    Anyhow – Here’s my update:

    Found the silver number (easier on iPad than my phone). Called and as we made Avios bookings for the adults, went through that route. 16 minutes of waiting… Only to be told my daughter’s flight was a cash booking and that they couldn’t help me. Not even with a seat change?!

    No ability to transfer me to the right people, and so.. Now back to the beginning of the queue…….. oh gosh, they answered after 11 minutes!!

    But no – apparently after round 1 of security checks, I wasn’t the authorised person. Luckily wife was present, so after not one but two more security checks (multiple questions each) we finally got to the bottom of the issue and got the seat changed.

    Although they answered in 11 minutes it took another 24 minutes of security faf, investigation, checking with superiors, etc, to get the seat changed.

    They then told us they would waive the supposed £93 seat booking fee (never got a satisfactory answer on what this was exactly… but didn’t want to push my luck!).. Kind of crazy to be told this when my 3 year old is clearly not going to be sitting separate to us!

    All up – some 1 1/4 hours spent on this malarkey. All to make sure we avoid row 31 and have a few inches of spare space for our legs under the seat in front (row 31 on the 787 is to be avoided as we learnt coming over to Japan, it has several inflight entertainment boxes underneath and in the way, including the ones for the bulkhead seats in front).

    Next time we might just fly JAL instead…

    171 posts

    First of all. Your 3 year old was never going to sit alone, as what kind of parents would dump their 3 year old while they sat together? So less drama. This is not the Sun looking for a headline.
    The security stuff, while very inconvenient is important.
    You got it resolved

    1,657 posts

    The security stuff, while very inconvenient is important.

    BA Customer Service, in a few recent calls I made, will not help when a booking made by A for passenger B needs to be dealt with. They expect and only wish to deal with B, and need to “validate you on the booking” (what kind of English is this?) which fails as A is not the passenger. This includes trying to complete a booking where taxes/fees/charges are outstanding on an Avios booking half-way through the booking/ticketing process using A’s Avios balance. That is absurd and in no way required by GDPR.

    Their training needs to cover cases where the booker is not the passenger. This is hardly a rare occurrence.

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