How does one deal with corporate power and culture?

Mr Keith Williams,

Chief Executive,

British Airways Plc,

Waterside PO Box 365

Harmondsworth UB7 0GB

************

London ********

Tel: 020 8***********
paul.munton@gmail.com

Our (booking) reference: 8GJRBS

28 February 2011

Dear Mr Williams,

Communications with Your Passengers: Complaint No: 9699931

You kindly referred my letter of 14 February (copy attached) to Customer Services where it was dealt with by Ms K – (copy of her reply attached). She has clearly wrestled with my letter but lost the battle. The two most important issues have not been dealt with properly; they are as follows:

1.The central issue was one of a failure of communication.  Check in/bag-drop staff did not  tell us that they had changed our seating and that we were traveling on a different type of aircraft. A fact of which they could not have been  unaware. Communication with your passengers is something that your airline might see as important and it is something the airline could improve if it chose at relatively little cost. Why did your companies reply  ignore this key issue? 

2. I am baffled by Customer Services logic concerning refund of money paid for a specific seat. The issue is simple. I purchased from BA seats  23D and 23E for £50. I and my wife were made to sit in seats 37D and 37E on a different type of aircraft. Hence you owe me £50 for failing to provide the purchased goods. QED.   Or do you think that big companies like British Airways  are entitled to pursue a different ethical codes to those of ordinary mortals?

Perhaps it would be possible to have someone look seriously at these issues of communication (including that of the response of Customer Services)? Specifically can you prevent Customer Relations becoming a way of deflecting criticism rather than dealing with underlying issues and improving your company and its service to customers?

The emollient words of certain paragraphs of the letter from Customer Services are belied by your companies apparent unwillingness to understand the issues raised and by your anxiety to save £50 at the expense of the customers you profess to value.  We realise customers may seem to you and your company to be a nuisance but, Sir, we remain your customers.  It would be difficult to run your airline without us.  

Yours sincerely,

Paul Munton.

Dear Dr Munton

Keith Williams would like to thank you for your letter of 16 February 2012.  He has asked me to reply on his behalf.

I am sorry that you did not get the seats you had booked on your flight to London Heathrow, as per the online seat map.  I realise it must have been upsetting, especially as you had chosen the specific seats due to medical reasons.  Please accept my sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.

We do try and make your time in the air as relaxed and comfortable as possible, but I'm afraid we cannot positively guarantee a particular seat to anyone.  We’ve provided online seat maps so that you can see the layout of each cabin on the different aircraft types.  Please remember that these are representative of the seating configuration, but may vary according to aircraft.

I have checked our records and can confirm that you paid £50 for general seat and not for emergency exit row seat.  So, I'm afraid I cannot refund your pre-paid seating charges.

We appreciate you writing to us about the difficulties you had.  I hope you and your wife will give us the opportunity to deliver the positive British Airways experience, when you next fly with us.

Best regards

 ***** K**

British Airways Customer Relations

Mr Keith Williams,

Chief Executive,

British Airways Plc,

Waterside PO Box 365

Harmondsworth UB7 0GB

***************,

London ***********

Tel: 020 8************
paul.munton@gmail.com

Our (booking) reference: 8GJRBS

Dear Mr Williams,

To fly, to serve (and not to swerve)

I would like to make a complaint about treatment of myself and my wife (Josephine Munton) by British Airways check in/ bag drop staff at Washington Dulles airport at the bag drop for flight BA 0216 on 11 February 2012 at about 16:10hrs EST.

We had purchased seats 23D and 23E for the flight paying and extra £25 each (total £50) for this service on-line on 5^th January 2012. We had checked in on-line the previous evening 10^th February. On reaching the airport on 11 February we went straight to the bag drop as instructed and were told by the BA agent “all that is required is your names”. We were issued with further boarding passes and left our luggage. On boarding and searching for our seats we discovered that the boarding passes given to us by the agent (for 37D and 37E) were not those we had purchased. We showed the stewardess our boarding passes and asked for the seats we had purchased but were told that they were no longer available. The (helpful) stewardess told us she had made a note in her flight report about this matter.

At no time at the bag drop were we told that our seats had been changed or was any suggestion made that seating on our flight had been re-organised for any reason. We consider that a deceit was practiced upon us by the agent at bag drop and that he must have known that we had already purchased seats and checked in. We do not understand the reason he failed to communicate with us this on this matter.

This resulted in embarrassment and discomfort* for us and unnecessary trouble for the cabin crew at a moment when they were at their busiest seating passengers. Clearly the matter should have been dealt with at the bag drop and we should have been informed that our seating had been altered and given a reason and a refund of our payment should have been organised then. As we have previously had good experiences with BA we trusted the BA agent and did not check the boarding cards issued at the bag drop against our computer issued documentation.

In addition to making our complaint we would like to claim appropriate compensation.

Yours sincerely,

Paul & Josephine Munton.

*We had purchased seats that gave extra leg room because I suffer from muscular stiffness and have a single factor phospholipid antibody (lupus anticoagulant) which raises my risk of stroke. The intention was to use the extra legroom to move around more and reduce stroke risk.

Encl: copies of

1. acknowledgment of payment for seating;

2.computer issued boarding card and agent issued card.