BA do not check bag through on BA metal…a horror story

[defurax]

I rarely take the time to complain about airline service, but this one takes the cake! A grandiose story of BA staff f…up!

Many months ago I booked some cheap oneway tickets for SWMBO and myself FRA-LHR-CDG using expedia.ie. Our tickets were booked separately as we were flying on different days. The FRA-LHR leg was an AB codeshare on BA metal and the LHR-CDG leg was a BA operated and marketed flight. Some time ago I posted a question here about the ability of a CX checkin agent to check my bag through to CDG on a MEL-HKG-FRA on CX and FRA-LHR-CDG (on AB and BA as detailed above). I can now tell that indeed the helpful CX agent was able to do that for me, no problem. She unchecked me, did some computer stuff, a phone call and finally was able to tag my bag to CDG and my wife’s bag to FRA (her final destination that day).

When I arrived in FRA at the BA counter I presented my passport, my brand new QF WP card, my bag receipt (showing the bag going to CDG) and a printout of the expedia.ie booking. The grumpy agent (no Hi or Hello or Good morning) took my passport and told me “You are only checked to go to London”. I smiled and said that the reason I was here was to collect my BPs to LHR and CDG because the CX agent could not print them in MEL. She looked a bit annoyed that I had a AB flight number!?! Anyway, she finally gave me my boarding passes and I saw that I was on row 17 of a BA A321 and I very nicely asked if there were any seats available in any row closer to the front. The answer was AMAZING: “This is a seat that was selected for you”!!!:shock: I was just stunned! Took my BPs, went through passport control and fuming by the rudeness of the agent I was thinking of writing a complaint letter to BA… I made my way to the CX lounge and took a warm shower and decided I was on vacation so I should calm down and not write angry letters to BA.

Then today, my wife was due to fly to CDG from FRA to meet me. She doesn’t travel as much as me, but I make sure she always keep at least QF SG status to have lounge access and J class checkin when she’s not travelling with me. This was the exact situation in which her SG status would help her have a nice experience at the airport or so I thought… how wrong was I…the BA agent from hell stroke again and with much more strength this time!
So SWMBO walks to the BA counter and can’t find a J counter, but there is nobody in line anyway, so she just approaches the counter. She shows her passport and QF SG card. The agent says "you are going to London", my wife says that no she is going to Paris. The agent says this is on two different bookings, my wife says no it’s one itinerary. The agent tells her that she will have to take her bag in LHR and checkin at the BA counter. My wife protests a little bit but gives up and makes her way to the Sakura lounge. At this point she sends me an SMS telling me about the pain of having to collect her bag in London…At that moment a sudden wave of rage passed through my body and my head nearly exploded!:evil: I told her this made no sense at all for the following reasons:
1- You are flying on an AB codeshare on BA metal connecting to a BA flight, surely BA can check a bag through on with BA (a BA-BA interline agreement maybe…)
2- Who cares if it’s on 1 or 2 PNR or itineraries (which wasn’t the case anyway) it’s all BA operated and OneWorld marketed flights for F..KSAKE!

While trying to remain calm I gently told her to go see the dragon at the entrance of the Sakura lounge and ask if she could contact BA to get the matter sorted. The dragon calls BA, no one answers the phone, she tells my wife she will try again later. I’m not too convinced about the dragon's will to call BA again, so I ask my wife to put a bit of pressure on the dragon and get her to call BA desk again or call a BA gate agent. Finally, someone picks up. Dragon explains the insanity. BA staff tells the dragon to send my wife back through passport control and to the BA checkin desk (At this point I told my wife to clearly tell the BA staff this was unacceptable and ask for their names). The BA checkin agent asked my wife why she was back to the desk, she told them that all the flights were on one itinerary and all OW airlines and all BA metal and that the bag HAD TO be checked through. Miraculously and grudgingly they did it. I also have the name of the agent (which I will include in my official complaint letter). When my wife finally told them she would officially complain they did not offer any excuses or anything and stuck to the fact that they shouldn’t check bags for AB tickets…NONSENSE!!!
Let’s see if the bag arrives at CDG… I’ll know in a few hours.

This is the third time this year I get to experience awful service from BA checkin agents. Who train these people to be so rude? A special BA academy? Maybe CX or QF premium staff should offer checkin boot camp to BA agents! Is BA too good to be part of an alliance? Is having a AB codeshare on a BA flight something insulting to BA?

Anyone knows how to send complaints to BA or should I just post that on the "other" frequent flyer site...

 

[cirqueboy]

Has happened to me too, all on BA metal at that. Flying CDG-LHR-YUL on two PNR's The check in agent at CDG would not check us in or the bags through to YUL. We had to clear customs at LHR, collect our bags and check in at LHR for the flight to YUL.

At the premium desk at LHR I told the agent about this. She just rolled her eyes and said that the agent in CDG was probably just lazy. Wow.

Seems to be that it's just too much work for them.

 

[vertisol]

This stuff really annoys me.

If it's your job to check people in and do what you can to make things easier within the airlines rules, just do your job.

It's not as though if you do your job quicker you get to go home early so what's the incentive? Plus you can almost guarantee the time spent arguing/ explaining is more than that required to do the job properly in the first place.

I hate lazy.

 

[marki]

What a horror story. Please keep us posted on the outcome of your letter of compliant.

 

[anat0l]

If it were BA employees who stuffed this up, I'd be more than fuming - I'd start firebombing.

But in this case I suspect it was contracted staff - either generic air services contracted staff or staff of another airline contracted to work for BA at FRA. In that case, I expect at minimum incompetence... and no offence to the German contingent here, but given this is in Germany, I expect any resistance to be met with an iron wall (i.e. you can throw whatever you like at it, the facade and utility doesn't change a single bit). So for your wife to rebuff the agent who begrudgingly redid the procedure without apology is far from entirely surprising; in fact, that's probably an even money bet.

That said, I'm a wee bit confused. Did you have your bags tagged all the way to CDG (in which case, for some reason, you had to claim your tagged bags back in FRA and then have them re-checked)? If this was the case (for you and your wife), then I don't see why the check-in agent should have a huge problem. Half the job is done for them (just put the bag on the belt and let it be routed to CDG). As for offering only one BP, whilst it's beyond pale why they can't check you in for the next segment, I'd probably just cop it and get the next BP either in the lounge or in LHR. You have the bag routing tag with routing through to CDG so that's not a big deal - all you need is a BP and provided the LHR layover isn't too short (or you are delayed in FRA), I'd just get it sorted down the line (especially in LHR where at least you should be able to deal with, in theory, more competent, BA-native-employed agents).

If you didn't have your bags tagged all the way to CDG (i.e. you needed bags to be tagged for routing), then I know some agents get antsy when you have some irregular things like codeshares or separate tickets (but as I understand it, FRA-LHR-CDG was all one ticket, just the first was AB marketed and the second BA marketed, but both BA operated). Still doesn't excuse why the agent seemed to display her (or his) absolute incompetence in being unable to check both you and your wife through to CDG (especially as it's all oneworld carriers), unless there was some other reason at hand that you couldn't be checked through; frankly, I'm at wits end to think of one.

Did I mention contract staff are pretty hopeless? I've been checked in at FRA by LH agents for LH flights going onto other carriers and silly routings, and never had an issue. They do look at my crazy routing with some intrigue, but apart from that they happily take my bag away and return with routing ticket, plus any reasons why I can't get my onward BPs (for valid reasons, too).

I can't quite believe that there's no J line at FRA for BA... are you sure your wife understands that BA doesn't call J "Business" but instead "Club Europe" or just "Club"? If they had no priority line at FRA I'd be highly surprised (and of course that's a service breakdown too).

What should you expect from BA as a reply? You'd be lucky to get some acknowledgement and an apology. As for compensation, probably none (but you were probably not expecting any, as you weren't entirely materially disadvantaged, i.e. lost money, time, luggage). You may get a comment saying that staff training may be reconsidered, the agent in question may be counselled, but that's it. The agent in question will be lucky to get a knock on the shoulder about the issue, but no more than that (certainly, they won't be sacked or given time off without pay). To what degree that will ensure the agent does not commit the same error again is very, very debatable.

You could post your complaint on Flyertalk's BAEC board, as there are BA employees as members on it as well as a BA representative, however you would probably have to significantly sharpen your OP and make it clearer / much more concise. And even then there are plenty on there who are used to BA complaints, so at best you'll get a torrent of "first world problems" comments (i.e. bad agents abound, just find a way around it), to "it's your fault" (with various constructions as to why it could be so). Not saying not to do this if you are that enraged, but just be ready (put up the iron wall and asbestos suit) for the torrent.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Again keeping it short, vote with your feet.....

 

[ozbeachbabe]

When I arrived in FRA at the BA counter I presented my passport, my brand new QF WP card, my bag receipt (showing the bag going to CDG) and a printout of the expedia.ie booking. The grumpy agent (no Hi or Hello or Good morning) took my passport and told me “You are only checked to go to London”. I smiled and said that the reason I was here was to collect my BPs to LHR and CDG because the CX agent could not print them in MEL. She looked a bit annoyed that I had a AB flight number!?!

You may have only been checked in as far as LHR however all she had to do was then check you in LHR/CDG - not really a huge ask IMHO. Also, how the flight was sold (marketed as an AB flight) should not come into it because if it's BA metal then BA check you in.

I don't now whether the FRA/LHR & LHR/CDG flights were ticketed separately however it shouldn't matter anyway as BA & AB are One World so separate pnrs should not be an issue.

Anyway, she finally gave me my boarding passes and I saw that I was on row 17 of a BA A321 and I very nicely asked if there were any seats available in any row closer to the front. The answer was AMAZING: “This is a seat that was selected for you”!!!:shock:

I was just stunned! Took my BPs, went through passport control and fuming by the rudeness of the agent I was thinking of writing a complaint letter to BA… I made my way to the CX lounge and took a warm shower and decided I was on vacation so I should calm down and not write angry letters to BA.

It's not a case of a seat in row 17 being specifically selected for you & you only but merely the seat number that the system spat out at the time of checkin. Even if you did pre-allocate that seat yourself there is certainly no reason to stop you or anybody else changing seats, nor should there be.

Even other OW airlines can display a BA seat map eg if flying SYD QF SIN BA LHR (after you have been checked in) & select any other available seat eg row 5 on a 737, row 28 on a 744 or even row 1 on an all whY 767) & issue you a new boarding pass.

In some cases BA will assign a seat in the last row of the plane even when there are heaps of other forward seats available for the pax - so why shouldn't someone be able to move if there are other seats they are entitled to sit in.

So SWMBO walks to the BA counter and can’t find a J counter, but there is nobody in line anyway, so she just approaches the counter. She shows her passport and QF SG card. The agent says "you are going to London", my wife says that no she is going to Paris. The agent says this is on two different bookings, my wife says no it’s one itinerary.

The agent tells her that she will have to take her bag in LHR and checkin at the BA counter. My wife protests a little bit but gives up and makes her way to the Sakura lounge. At this point she sends me an SMS telling me about the pain of having to collect her bag in London…At that moment a sudden wave of rage passed through my body and my head nearly exploded!:evil: I told her this made no sense at all for the following reasons:

1- You are flying on an AB codeshare on BA metal connecting to a BA flight, surely BA can check a bag through on with BA (a BA-BA interline agreement maybe…)
2- Who cares if it’s on 1 or 2 PNR or itineraries (which wasn’t the case anyway) it’s all BA operated and OneWorld marketed flights for F..KSAKE!

Exactly right. Who cares if either BA flight is on a separate pnr or not - it's BA to BA!

BA staff tells the dragon to send my wife back through passport control and to the BA checkin desk (At this point I told my wife to clearly tell the BA staff this was unacceptable and ask for their names). The BA checkin agent asked my wife why she was back to the desk, she told them that all the flights were on one itinerary and all OW airlines and all BA metal and that the bag HAD TO be checked through.

Miraculously and grudgingly they did it. I also have the name of the agent (which I will include in my official complaint letter). When my wife finally told them she would officially complain they did not offer any excuses or anything and stuck to the fact that they shouldn’t check bags for AB tickets…NONSENSE!!! Let’s see if the bag arrives at CDG… I’ll know in a few hours.

I don't see why your poor wife had to go back through passport control to checkin for heavens sake as IMO it was nothing that couldn't be sorted out over the phone. I would have though the lounge angels/dragons would have had the common sense to instruct the CSA to issue a new bag tag (like they should have done to begin with) so the bag could be retagged behind the scenes by baggage services staff.

I don't see why even if it was a BA metal flight issued on AB ticket that they can't issue boarding passes and/or through check bags as even if it was an AB ticket for a flight on AB metal they should still be able to do it because AB are OW!

 

[defurax]

What a horror story. Please keep us posted on the outcome of your letter of compliant.

So BA did apologise! Not sure how generic the response is, but at least it mentions FRA...

Dear ...
Thank you for your email dated 28 September 2013. I apologise for the delay in replying to you. I am concerned to learn that you were unhappy with the level of service you received from our staff at Frankfurt airport. I can understand how upsetting this must have been, especially as you found our staff to be rude and unhelpful. I know this is not the kind of service you would expect when travelling with British Airways. Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.
We expect everyone at British Airways to be friendly and efficient, and to make our customers’ journeys as easy and enjoyable as possible. The attitude you describe is completely unacceptable, and certainly not the image of thoughtful service we strive to portray.
We fully acknowledge we need to improve our performance in the way we deal with our customers. This includes looking at our customer care too, as we want to offer a consistently polite and thoughtful service across our business. We have reported your complaint to the manager of this area so that it can be raised with the staff concerned.
Thank you again for contacting us and giving me an opportunity to address your concerns. We're sorry for what has happened and can promise you that we take a serious view of this whole episode. It is helpful to have our customers' views on this important aspect of British Airways service. I hope you will give us a chance to restore your confidence and serve you better when you next fly with us.
Best regards

 

[Isochronous]

Apology means nothing without a voucher.