Dear British Airways: Please Outsource Your Call Center!

So, this may be a stupid question, but why don't you just call another BA Reservations center if you're now allowed to do so?

Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong? Ay least these should have English speaking staff who can assist you...

It's stories like this, and your Delta fiascos, that really make me think that collectively, everyone in the world should just stop traveling for a year. Let the legacy carriers (regardless of country) figure out that flyers have had enough.

I'm increasingly seeing a culture of war between airlines and their customers, and I'm generally an optimistic person. Such as, "oh, what do I care, the customer's going to yell at me anyway, so I might as well just do the minimal amount possible, so they'll go away." Or perhaps they take the approach that the customer will receive no better service at another carrier, so what's the difference?

This lackluster, apathetic approach we as flying customers tolerate, but am not sure why. Many hotel chains understand service and hospitality, so why can't some airlines get this? Do you think it's part of the general culture of specific countries or what?

Sorry Lucky to hear of your experience, but do you think perhaps documenting the experience to the BA CEO might make a difference?

Okay, so its not just me. On this note Ben, that's why I emailed you last weekend asking if we can book an award ticket using Avios points for someone else. The first agent flat at said NO! and went out for fish and chips. The second agent said I could do it, but said I cant use them for Alaska flights. I preferred the agents out of Florida, than these knuckleheads out of Finsbury Park, or wherever their call center is.

Sounds like bmi...

I stopped flying them: (1) the call center is a disaster, (2) BA charges you for selecting a seat in business class even though I qualify as Emerald with both AA and Iberia. The hard product is pretty solid and the network is great if either flying to Europe or out of London, but spending countless hours to make a reservation overshadows the rest.
AA EXP desk works much better, but the hard product is a disaster. A couple of weeks ago I had a very intellectual challenging conversation about whether or not biz class passengers were entitled to expressos in their new biz class.
It might sound heresy to you, but Iberia does not look too bad compared to BA and AA.

I work in the call center business. You might think Brits would be more expensive than Americans, but it is roughly equal and could actually be much cheaper if gov't tax credits were involved in the decision. There are many parts of the UK that have lower wages, particularly in places like the Midlands which is sort of analogous to the Midwest "rust belt" in the US. It is possible that BA outsources their call center business to a 3rd party - maybe the contract came up for renewal and the winning bidder promised to consolidate some operations in the UK while at the same time saving BA money. When call centers are transitioned from one place to another, the first couple of months can be turbulent if not properly handled.

Welcome to the British way of doing things! (I can say this... I am married to one)

And no, do not expect them to work late...and typically not on week-ends.

Sort of makes US Airways agents look like champions, eh?

I guess I got "lucky"-couldn't help it, and was able to get through in about 10 minutes. I had a very pleasant lady book my tickets. It wasn't a complicated booking, at least imho, gave me both airline e-ticket numbers, and I was on my way.

I do understand re: the call center times. Like you I'm on PST, and missed the times a few days before I had a minute to call them.

Hope it all gets sorted for you. 🙂

This is pretty insane! Is it time for a post on best/worst airline/hotel call centers?

@David - as a OW emerald you are not charged for selecting a seat in any cabin on BA. Although it is ridiculous to charge any J fare paying customer to choose a seat.

I told you to call the Japan/HK call center. Super useful, very friendly and helpful.

The quality of BA EC service has dropped since US calls were routed to the UK or South Asia.

The real kicker here was that this is the Gold line. Delta, for example, may have incompetent general pool agents but at least their agents for elites are actually quite good.

Just booked an Avios ticket and had a similar experience with an agent (after being on hold) asked if she could call me back in 5 min, took my number and then never called back. That's unacceptable in my book!

Hi BA call centres in UK are in Newcastle and Manchester same as always. All has happened is that numbers of staff in both offices have been increased. I work in newcastle and it was explained that comparatively US call centre was more expensive because as well as slightly higher (than uk) wages BA were obliged to offer health and dental plans etc. A third party call centre in delhi was opened which took over dealing with general enquiries (previously dealt with by same department that changed bookings) but new sales and changes of existing bookings are still done in UK. Unfortunately BA assumed that the change booking department wouldnt need many staff as general enquiries was thought to be the main workload.They are now playing catch up and employing new staff for the department.

I worked the reservation office at Houston and was actually outsourced to an outfit in Florida. The Florida outfit was recently outsourced to ????? Last time I called it was India! They told me they couldn't talk about my booking because I hadn't paid!! I'm looking at my bank statement and you (BA) have charged my account + $55 International Service Charge!! Could I speak to a supervisor, NO!! REALLY!! They are busy. So could they call me back? NO!! REALLY!! I checked my ticketing info and everything looked OK. Checked with my sister, I'd bought ticket for her and she told me name in payment field was hers!!! Now how the hell did that go through! Where's the checking. Based on this it makes me wonder how safe payment on line is!! BUT try and talk to a res agent about making changes will cost you (it used to be $5) don't know about that now!! I wish I'd worked in res where supervisors could say NO!! I was a supervisor and would have been fired if I refused a call!! Would have been a wonderful job without irates!!