no wonder British Airways is in so much trouble! Have you ever tried to book anything with them over the phone?
 

I made the the unfortunate move of booking a holiday with them and have now spent hours "on hold" listening to 2 verses of one song and having a tape telling me that I am in a queue and will be answered shortly(!!!!) The latest problem is trying to prebook plane seats-phoned Sunday(on hold for 20 mins) - they were phoning back Monday( they didn't)- phoned Tuesday(on hold for 20mins)- told they had only put the query in that day and would phone me tomorrow-they didn't- phoned thursday-on hold for 30 mins at which point I gave up.PHoned office number on Friday,told them all this- promised that someone would phone me back. Guess what??!!!<BR>Anyone beat that or have any suggestions?

I read somewhere that to save money, BA laid off its res agents and uses contract workers now. That could explain the poor service.

<BR>I phoned again and actually managed to book seats. When I complained about the waiting time the girl was quite nonchalent and said that they were so busy that you HAD to wait half an hour for someone to answer! Doesn't someone think that many will NOT wait and book elsewhere? Fran, I was told that they had 30 people manning the phones. Not a lot for the size of the company is it?

I found this was the problem with all the airlines--TWA being the absolute worst IMO. That's why I've been booking over the Internet for years. <BR>Fiona, may I ask why you didn't go to BA's site and book that way?

Mel<BR>Funnily enough I have just come off their site after emailing a complaint! I will certainly use the site in future!

I once managed to make a dessert for 6 whilst balancing the phone on my shoulder waiting for B.A.'s Executive Club to answer.The girl was suitably bashful and apologetic when I told her!

LOL francis!<BR>can anyone beat that?

<BR>Maybe it is true -- "without a travel agent you're on your own"<BR><BR>

Frances<BR>I'm also good at the phone balancing trick! However,2 weeks ago, I did almost my entire housework before someone answered( apart from the hoovering incase I didn't actually hear them answer!):)

booked a holiday with airtours last year and had the same problems- I was at screaming point listening to that ****** tune on hold!

I've not tried to book BA but developed a hernia trying to do so with Lufthansa on line. You can't get there from here! It just ticks me off that the airlines are so perverse in making enemies of their customers. Don't even get me started on American Airlines! Happy flying.

so BA is not alone!! When will airlines realise that its not them thats doing us a favour by answering! WE are the paying customers!BTW I had to PAY to stay on hold- they don't even have a freephone number!

Mel<BR>have you ever encountered any problems booking and paying for holidays online? Although I use the internet frequently I have to admit to being wary of giving out credit card details.

was just on hold for 45 minutes and the lady didn't even have the answer to my question. What a waste of time.

Fiona: I've never had a problem booking on line. You get an e-mail confirmation immediately. The only downside is that you can't--on BA--book your seats online, but most airlines operate that way (except America West). Online, I've booked BA, America West and US Airways quite frequently. I also booked a Go-today package (they were really great to work with--they have a phone number you can call once you've booked online and get all the help you need if you have questions--and they DO man it:)) I've also used Expedia. Never had a problem (I'm knocking wood as I say this, however).<BR><BR>Another advantage to booking online--besides not waiting on the phone--is that they often have bonus mile deals or special "Internet only" discounts.<BR><BR>Have a great trip!

I guess I'm puzzled - is there some reason why anyone would want to sit on hold waiting for someone to speak with them instead of going online to make their reservation?

In my case calling the BA agent was a neccessity. Last year they had a special where you recieved $100 toward a hotel room but only if ypu called. No trouble with the agent, but given when I made the reservations it isn't suprising(shortly after 9/11).

This has been an eye-opening discussion. Makes me miss Sabena. People criticized them, especially the Brits, but whenever I called to make a reservation I never waited more than a few minutes and usually for less than a minute.

Mel<BR>thanks! Next holiday will be through the internet!

I too have waited over 45 minutes to make a reservation and then hung up in disgust. I found the best time to call is at 7.30 am and with a bit of luck you'll get put through to their Toronto reservations, where they are helpful and polite unlike some of their U.S. reservations agents. BA told me that they are upgrading their computer system worldwide and it will take 6 months!!!

just how much money have these airlines lost by not answering their calls? It doesn't make sense! Lets face it the poor people at the call centres usually get a paid a pittance so surely companies can afford a few more?

I can't book online for some reason! I was on hold for almost an hour when I called and finally got through to BA to order my tickets for Budapest Hungary end of Januray. But it was the best rate I could find. I did get my tickets in 5 days! I did not order them fast service either, just reg mail. My Computer will not let me complete airline reservations, or go to citibank sign on page either! I still have not figured out why those pages just freeze up on me at about 29%!!! Can anyone help me with that? I called my provider repeatedly and they can't halp me!! Boo who who. Thanks for any help. Alice

alice<BR>I have tried several times unsuccessfully to book a holiday online today only to have it reject the booking! It's the first time I've tried to book online. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but at least I'm sure it's not just me!!!

Alice,<BR><BR>Did you recently upgrade to IE6? I had similar problems after I did, couldn't log into hotmail, turbotax online amoung other things. I had to uninstall IE6, redownload IE5 and reinstall. Just uninstalling IE6 didn't work, even though IE goes back to the previous version. Just an idea...

No I didn't install anything new at all. I don't know what IE 6 is. Oh is that internet exploper? I use to be able to go to these sites no problem. Then one day it just wounln't work for me. It only happens at secure sites, but not all of them! Weird! Just freezes up on me, and will not go any futher.

Alice<BR>just had the same problem! Tried to book a Virgin holiday and when I went to "submit" it would not go further. Tried twice and will try later,hoping its just a glitch.(have never tried booking online before)

Nothing is worse than Air Canada. Several years ago, they dropped special lines for travel agents. Then you had to compete with travel agents for the few phone lines. Of course, now they dropped travel agents, too.<BR><BR>It's the same with every big business these days. I decided to try Sprint for phone service. The automated line said that I had a 30 minute wait. A great way to get new customers.<BR><BR>I'n convinced that all these companies are doing this on purpose because they are trying to herd people to the internet, which customer interaction is much cheaper. The problem is that there is little alternative - they are all doing this.

interesting view ATV. And as far as I'm concerned it's working!! Now I am really considering trying to book my next holiday on the internet. I'm sure many others are a bit like me, a little reluctant to do business on the internet, but can't be bothered sith the grief you get using the phone. <BR>The BA woman who was so nonchalent about the waiting time should be reading this- and worried about her job!

Fiona--Make sure you join BA's frequent flyer program via Internet, even if you don't expect to use the airline again. Then, call the airline and have them add your FF number to your reservation. This will enable you to get online 24 hours in advance of the flight and change your seat assignment. We were able to move our seats from the center of the plane to two on the aisle in an exit row. Then, at the end of our vacation, we went to an internet cafe and changed our seat assignment for the return flight.

thanks for the tip Debbie!

Another horror story: <BR>My husband had to wait 90 minutes before getting ahold of BA. In this case, too, the phone call was necessary, an unusual situation that the website couldn't handle. Finally, BA came on the line and said they couldn't deal with it because ``Expedia has a lock on the tickets.'' BA says call expedia. <BR><BR>Expedia actually answers the phone quickly, but the Expedia lady has never heard of an``Expedia has a lock on the tickets'' situation. She calls BA to find out what the trouble is, and my husband is on hold with Expedia while Expedia is on hold with BA. Another 40 minutes pass, the Expedia lady checking every 5 minutes to see if he's still alive. Finally Expedia comes back and say's she'd made the problem go away. <BR>Geez.

Hi<BR>Glad to hear I am not the only one. I usually called from work and just sat on hold for 45 minutes. I have a question about the package in the mail. It is 2 weeks as of today and all I got was the plane tickets. I am supposed to have transfers from the airport and booked a few tours. Anyone else know if you get the plane tickets seperately? I called a few weeks ago cause they showed that I owed over $1000 when I paid in full. They also told me they were getting new computers installed etc...<BR>Lastly, with the seat request. I requested it three times but the seat # doesn't show up on my ticket. They said it would be in the system. Does that sound right?<BR><BR>Thanks!<BR>Heather<BR>

Heather BA told me that they could request seat numbers but could not guarantee them. Better to turn up early.Can't answer for BA about trips, transfers but have in the past with other companies got these with my tickets.<BR>If you paid by card it may be an idea to take the receipt away with you for proof. However, best to got back on to hold for 45 minutes to get a proper answer. Whoever answers get their name for future reference.

I've flown British Airways three times and all three times I've had a horrible experience with either their customer service people, their ticket agents or their flight attendants. I will never fly them again.<BR><BR>To those who do the phone balancing trick: I finally wised up and bought a speaker phone.

Fiona and others, I also had difficulty with BA. I recently tried to buy a ticket for my mother to visit me in San dioego from Sotland. I culdn't buy it online because I, the purchaser, was not travelling. So I called the 800 number and waited, (fortunately, it now seems, for only 20 mins!). The person I spoke to was very helpful and assured me that I would receive the ticket within one week. They had to send it to me, because I was the purchaser. (Does anyone know why they couldn't just have sent it to my Mum?)Anyway, I waited a week, no ticket arrived, so I called them back - another blissful 20 mins on hold - and discovered that the original agent had not "sent my order to ticketing". How many key strokes could that have required? The ticket would now be sent to me by FedEx and should arrive in two days - at no cost to me. Well, two days and a weekend came and went and still no ticket. I called again. I must say, I liked the "on hold" music - at first! I was assured that the ticket had been sent and they were right!It arrived the next day by regular mail. By this time, it was so close to the time my Mum would be travelling that I had to send it to her by UPS. They got it there exactly when they said they would. <BR>We were stuck using BA because my mother is 79 and did not want to have to change planes. BA now has a non-stop from Gatwick to San Diego.

I have also had nightmares with BA on the phone.<BR><BR>Last July I saw adverts for special offer prices to various destinations including Venice, where we were planning to go to the following year (this year).<BR><BR>I phoned and spoke to a booking agent, she told me the times of the flights, checked there were flights available on the time I wanted at the offer price, "picked them up" and we started to go through the slow booking process, name address and credit card etc etc.<BR><BR>At the end of that she realised that she had mistakenly only picked up one seat and not two. She tried to pick up the extra seat only to find that the special offers seats on that flight time had sold out in the time we'd been inputting my details. She tried to convince me to go for a later flight time (not what I wanted) and in the end I had to settle for booking a second seat on the earlier flight time at the next price level up, using a different booking reference number because two seperate priced tickets couldn't coexist on one booking. I had to pay an extra &pound;19 (I know it's not much but I wasn't happy and let her know it).<BR><BR>Anyway, she promised to link the bookings and said everything would be handled as though it was one booking.<BR><BR>Tickets arrived and I only checked hte top sheet. Noticed a name spelling mistake, annoying since I had spelled my name out very slowly and carefully several times to her. Phoned, on hold for ages again and they made a note on the system.<BR><BR>Just before departure I realised that they had only sent my husband's tickets (I should have checked the tickets earlier, I know). I called and spoke to an agent who said that BA had replaced their entire sales and reservations system a few months back and had "lost" lots of information and things hadn't worked properly on many bookings. <BR><BR>I spent ages on the phone (I was paying) while he did whatever he had to do so I could collect my ticket at the airport before the flight, he said it would just be a matter of the staff printing it off for me.<BR><BR>Luckily we were staying at a hotel by the airport the night before and went into the airport to collect my ticket then. It took an hour because whatever he had done wasn't what he should have done, the new system needed this that and the other in order to reprint tickets and so on. She was very friendly and apologetic but couldn't speed it up. She did however book us into emergency exit seats (husband = 6 foot 6 inches) since the flight was open and she could see us in person.<BR><BR>Altogether not excellent service at all. By the time I finished with BA I was really wishing I had gone with someone else.<BR><BR>Kavey<BR><BR>PS I have booked travel online so many times I can't count and have never had problems and have probably bought goods online more than 100 times easily. Never had any problems whatsoever. Have only used sites with proper encryption for credit card information.

I also book over the phone as I'm unsure about using the internet. It's good to hear that nobody so far has said they have had any difficulties with the net. I have always just put up with all the on holds, maybe its time to get into the 21st century!!

The people at British Airways are probably too depressed about their teeth to perk up and answer the phones!

not sure what the last post was about! Fiona<BR>If BA have occasion to phone you about arrangements you could always ask them to hold and put the radio next to the phone for 30 mins!

Thats why you go to a travel agent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!