Airline Experience: British Airways

Airline Experience: British Airways

British Airways

I’ve been a loyal BA customer since 2007 when I first moved to London from the US. It was more a marriage of convenience than anything else. Despite their issues and challenges, they have been generally good to me during the pre-covid days. Post covid, their experience has gone back to the stone age with nothing really working and their systems all over the place.?

Experience 1: Sir, we are flying at an altitude of 38K so connection isn't guaranteed (BA 256)

While BA is one of the very last airlines to offer wifi onboard, it is anything but a great experience as the damn thing never works. I was flying from New Delhi to London on business class and had some work to take care of, so I paid for WIFI. Yes, I had to pay while travelling business class (go figure). Despite it being a charged service, I was disappointed to find out that it didn't work. I never had a minute of connectivity throughout the flight. On raising it with the crew that were serving my side of the cabin, I just couldn’t believe what I was told.

Here’s what the crew member said (Think it was some Mr. A Smith):

  • We are flying 38K feet above so connectivity can be an issue (wonder why you offer wifi mid air!)
  • It works sometimes (Yaay!)
  • We expect passengers to socialise on the plane rather than be on their devices (thanks!)
  • When we are flying over India, the country laws prohibit connectivity (Get that, but what about the rest of the flight!)
  • You can apply for a refund (I have to apply to get my money back for the lack of service!)

Experience 2: Sir, you have been upgraded (BA 256)

I had picked a window seat on this flight during web checkin. While boarding the aircraft, the ground staff goes - Sir, you have been upgraded so your seat number has changed. Excited, I board the aircraft to find out that she has moved me from my window seat (21K) to a seat (10E) in the middle of two other passengers. While I’m sure they knew what they were doing, I suspect the staff was new and had no clue about what the aircraft configuration (2-3-2) looked like. Worst yet, they should know better that they are just changing my seat within the same cabin class.?

#linkedinbookclub?#customerexperience ?#digitalhumanexperience?

#cx ?#customerdelight

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Bharat Grover

An Authentic Leader Driving Change and Transformation | Winning Hearts, Minds and Organisational Goals ????| Passion for Innovation and Customer Experience????| Ex Barclays

2 年

All those tech layoffs recently- BA should hire some of those good engineers to rewrite their software! Their CEO must be forced to sit down and use their own app to see how is it to use it!

Shailesh, I have been a loyal customer of BA till last year, though with pretty bad service since the Pandemic. [Still cannot believe that organisations like BA are using the Pandemic as an excuse when there was enough time to rejig their systems and processes]. Anyway, I am now taking them to the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) for cancelling tickets unilaterally without informing me, and asking me to pay again for the travel! And here’s the CX bit - you cannot call them and speak to them, and they have a web form to fill out and I have had no response for 4 months!

Carole Layzell

CX | EX | Digital Skills | Digital Innovation | Customer Experience | Transformation | Culture | Proactive | Insight | NED

2 年

Interested to see if they responded proactively to your feedback Shailesh? Customers understand that sometimes things can go wrong but will judge a company by the way they deal with it. I assume they did nothing and therefore it is likely your next action will be to vote with your feet and choose another airline!

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