A confusing conversation

So I've booked some flights on British Airways over the Christmas period. I'm excited to be honest.

I booked with BA instead of the alternatives because of their customer care and because I'm a member of their Executive Club which means I can get some reciprocal benefits the more I fly. It means it's worth spending a little extra to fly with them sometimes.

Since then I've been getting a little worried about the press coverage saying that BA staff may strike over the Christmas period. It's all up in the air at the moment - pardon the pun.

As you'd expect I'm a bit edgy. I've paid a lot of money for these flights and I don't want to book accommodation until it's sorted. It's times like these you want clear communication with the brand to try and figure out what the state of play is.

 

That didn't work. No reply. So I tried again a day later:

 

... and again:

 

(Although I do admit they may not have picked that one up due to the typo.) After that, I started getting little annoyed.

They were still pumping out their sales tweets but not listening to someone who had just paid them hundreds of pounds up front for a service that may not happen.

 

I got a bit annoyed by this tweet so unfortunately my otherwise utterly professional manner slipped somewhat...

 

All I was trying to do was to speak to the brand that had entered into a contract with me. I had paid a lot of money up front for a service that was now being threatened.

After that tweet I was finally contacted via DM and within a couple of hours I had an email waiting for me.

 
(I particularly love the "Get the best from British Airways..." at the bottom. All I want to know is if I'm getting what I've already paid for.)

There are many lessons here. Firstly, I do not understand a word of that email. Do you? Is that last line of the paragraph a nice way of saying "If the flight is canceled you're buggered, but if you look in the small print of your ticket it says that right there."

What is most annoying is that since all of this started, I have had numerous 3rd party emails via British Airways and other associated sales emails from them. A search for British Airways brings up:

So, BA, I have one very simple question for you: What makes you think I would invest any time or money into your brand when you can't even tell me if the time and money I've already invested will amount to anything?

Beyond another post commenting on how to use Twitter, I think the learning from this is simple.

If you lose your core offering you have no right trying to sell some of your associated products. The reason you could sell those associated products was because of the trust you'd built up because of your core offering. When that core offering ceases, you can't trade on that equity any more.

Comments

[faris]

nice mate.