06 December 2009

Stupid Airline Trick #402

So as I am in Brazil this week - I thought I would open the file of the odd, the weird and the downright not quite sane Airline tricks.

Today's award goes to British Airways (why am I always picking on them???) for their Policy at LHR on arrivals lounge.

So I am Silver (thank you I qualified again) on BA's FF Program. As a verry frequent traveler - according to Tripit - I lead my network on the number of miles flown this year. (211,000) And I still have 3 long haul flights to go!!!!

So I chose my airlines carefully based predominately on time and location. Thus schedule and certain amenities are very important to me. I like BA because they provide a service on departure and arrival. They have been pretty innovative in the middle of the legacy carrier pack to customer services. T5 after nearly 2 years is a pretty good product - it still has some quirks. The Showers finally work properly and the service while somewhat indifferent is still a cut above the majority of US airlines.

At the moment I am working with a startup so I have to set an example of flying in the back of the bus when it works. So I was surprised to learn that the Executive Silver allows me the departure privileges BUT NOT ARRIVAL.

One of the keys to airline service is to provide a consistent level of service across the board. This shows how somewhat silly BA is for this policy. Oh BTW to make it even more bizarre - QF will allow you to do this on BA's coach ticket.

So much for the seamless service.

Now consider in context my post on BA's new seating policy and I think you get the picture.

Some customer czar is needed at BA to drive a consistent customer face.

If not then I will continue to hammer BA in this blog.

Cheers

No comments: