The new HFP chat thread – Saturday 13th June

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• Andrew says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:24

  Maybe this will be a new Skytrax rating level, just below 1 star: National Disgrace.
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53027776

  • BJ says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:29

    I see they have this as the top story on their news landing page today.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:23

    Don’t confuse this with the cabinet quietly giving Wee Willie Walsh the wink for breaking a couple of unions for them.

    • Doug M says:

      13 Jun13 June 10:00

      Indeed, what strange times. Tory gov pumping billions and billions into economy, and Tory led attack on BA attempting to crush employees and their unions.

  • Doug M says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:56

    Skytrax rating, seriously? They can bung them a few quid if they want a good one.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  13 Jun13 June 07:28

  Lounge art fire sale misdirection didn’t pay off then, wonder whose bright idea that was

  • Callum says:

    13 Jun13 June 07:34

    I think it’s painfully obvious that BA aren’t selling art to avoid criticism from the Transport Select Committee…

    And given virtually everyone is going to forget this ever happened, just like all the other times they’ve acted in a similar fashion, it still seems like the perfect time to do this (from the companies perspective of course, not morally) regardless of criticism.

    • BJ says:

      13 Jun13 June 08:14

      12,000 staff plus all the other staff who feel they lose their jobs indirectly due to BA is a very large amount of disgruntled family and friends who might be equally unhappy to book BA. However, even though they might not forget, many of them will likely still book BA regardless if it is the most suitable travel option available to them. I’ve been annoyed plenty of times by various companies over the years but so far the only one I have refused to use again is Sky.

      • Brighton Belle says:

        13 Jun13 June 08:27

        +1 on sky

      • Callum says:

        13 Jun13 June 08:54

        There are 70 million people in the UK alone – an absolutely tiny percentage of people will be close friends/family with one of those people. And as you mention, most of them are unlikely to change their plans because of it anyway.

        • BJ says:

          13 Jun13 June 09:20

          …then there are those, and family and friends of them, who got messed around on refunds, vouchers etc. Those who really will think the catering issue is a big deal. Union members in general who don’t like what they are doing. The list goes on and taking all together the numbers are certainly not small. At the very least this will have a substantial impact on perception of their brand value but what effect that will have on passenger numbers I have no idea. I would not expect it to be large but that doesn’t mean any loss in potential business would be insignificant. Whatever it is, it probably would be greater if BA had more competition.

        • ChrisBCN says:

          13 Jun13 June 09:24

          It would have an effect similar to zero.

        • Ian M says:

          13 Jun13 June 09:26

          It’s all well and good saying BA are a disgrace for treating their staff the way they are, but we don’t hear much about staff treatment from other airlines. Anyone would think BA are the only airline which treat staff badly, and by booking elsewhere you’re making a stand against low wages and poor treatment. But is this really the case?

        • Doug M says:

          13 Jun13 June 10:07

          Also worth remembering that World Wide sold out in 2010 I think it was to keep their own terms and sod the newcomers. Now they’re bitter at the potential loss of those terms. I genuinely feel for the BA staff here, absolutely rock and hard place, but they sold themselves out to cling to what they had, little spirit of all in it together then.
          Also, BA have been absolutely amongst the best airlines at refunding. Criticism of them for refunds is pretty unfair.

        • ChrisC says:

          13 Jun13 June 11:22

          Ian M that’s because other airlines aren’t doing it the same way as BA so the anger is less.

          Yes many, many other airlines and businesses are also making people redundant but they aren’t forcing through huge pay cuts and changes to terms and conditions on to those that remain like BA are.

      • Andrew says:

        13 Jun13 June 12:42

        I had a problem with Comet’s customer service in 1987. Never bought from them again.

        But I’m not sure what everyone is worried about…

        It’s exactly what the Labour Party, Green Party, the major unions and Extinction Rebellion have all been demanding. And you don’t campaign for the slashing of fligths without all of the consequences.

        • Don says:

          13 Jun13 June 12:53

          Exactly. There is a climate emergency or there isn’t. They can’t have it both ways. We were told every day pre-Corona that the climate emergency is fact. It’s a matter of 0 or 1. Climate sceptics are demonitised on Twitter, banned on the MSM and even Wikipedia.

          Technically it means we will look back at points blogs being as bad as a newspaper carrying ads at the time to sell slaves. Only the climate emergency is worse, capable of killing millions.

        • Callum says:

          14 Jun14 June 02:06

          Don – Who is trying to “have it both ways”? I can’t say I’ve seen any environmental organisation announce that the climate emergency is over – so what exactly are you trying to claim here?

          And no, HfP will not be viewed like slave traders are today. Think about that comparison a bit deeper for a few minutes, and hopefully you’ll see how utterly absurd it is.

• TheThunderer says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:30

  Morning. I wondered if anyone had had success getting through to BA in recent days to arrange refunds for cancelled flights? How long is it taking and what’s the best number and series of menu options? Thanks

  • Andrew says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:21

    Rang them twice this week and got through
    immediately. I just call the Exec Club number and don’t press any options, just ignore all options and then you get through to someone.

  • Harry T says:

    13 Jun13 June 20:50

    Rang the Newcastle call centre number and got through in 15 mins.

• JimBob says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:47

  Has anyone had any luck getting their Avios upgrade points refunded?

  BA refunded my cash for my cancelled trips weeks ago but no sign of the Avios used to upgrade to business and no luck getting through to them.

  • Rob says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:13

    Odd. You’ll need to call them back unfortunately.

  • John says:

    13 Jun13 June 13:12

    We had the same issue – cash was refunded in March but Avios for an upgrade to Club was not refunded. Just rang today to sort out and call was answered straight away and Avios have already been refunded.

• Chrisasaurus says:

  13 Jun13 June 08:48

  Supp question- tudyjng up a bit, who should cancel a Supp card, the Supp card holder or the main card holder?

  • Andrew says:

    13 Jun13 June 09:23

    Main card holder. You can cancel a supp off your account at any time, should you fall out with a supp cardholder and want to cut them off with immediate effect for example. It’s your account and you’re responsible for what’s charged to it.

• Eugene says:

  13 Jun13 June 10:29

  A Wizz question
  Got a cancelled OTP flight early June. No communication from Wizz. No email you can contact them on that I can see – they direct you to a premium lime at just below £3 a minute,!
  40 minutes waiting to talk and that’s about my fare cost back for them. Any longer and they’d be up on the trade even if they refunded me!
  So how do we talk to them or has anybody had a Wizz refund ? No wonder they’re the best capitalised airline in Europe…

  • Ben says:

    13 Jun13 June 10:53

    Eugene, a very small amount of research found 0330 977 0444 which is for existing customers from the UK. No premium number required

    • RussellH says:

      13 Jun13 June 11:12

      I found that one too:- and also 0330 365 4902, but the information with it said “Emergency number only. You cannot amend flight or flight information on this number”

      • Eugene says:

        13 Jun13 June 13:31

        Thanks yes I went thru all that first time around. Hence my question👍

  • RussellH says:

    13 Jun13 June 11:09

    If you are a UK resident phoning from the UK, it has long been illegal for them to use a premium rate customer service number. An e-mail at least to Ofcom is called for.
    For now:
    On Wizzair’s contact us page there is a list of countries and numbers – some are normal standard rate landline numbers and might be worth a try: Malta is 2778 1054 at normal domestic rates and will be English Speaking. Much the same for Iceland 539 0620. The UAE is to use a Hungarian no. +36 1 677 7507 – which I suspect is a standard Budapest no. There is also a local rate number for Catalan speakers… 937 370 069.

    • Eugene says:

      13 Jun13 June 13:36

      I did try Malta but came up against the same brick wall.
      Lesson learned- Wizz is not a reliable travel partner when things go wrong. Nor a worthy recipient of any of my biz when the world starts to turn again.
      I know I know But BA have given me multiple cash refunds , Avios and 2-4-1 back and extended and a Gold upgrade to boot..

• CaptainAnonymous says:

  13 Jun13 June 11:12

  Reward Air France Flights to MLE are not bookable on Virgin Atlantic’s website, despite ample availabilty on FlyingBlue. The root issue is that Virgin do not seem to have MLE in their system. Contact with first line phone support hasn’t helped, they just report they cannot see it. Any suggestions on what I do?

  • Charlieface says:

    14 Jun14 June 00:45

    Is it base level availability on Flying Blue? I think Virgin will only see that, not any higher level.

    • Nick says:

      14 Jun14 June 10:43

      I have a current booking with Air France to Maldives via Paris. I booked using Flying Club miles over the phone as the website doesn’t recognise the destination. 61k miles each way in Business.

• Roger says:

  13 Jun13 June 11:16

  I have ebookers Bonus+ cash expiring in next couple of weeks.
  Any way to stop expiry without making a booking since in current situation is not clear where would I go.

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