Well, it seems we’ve let British Airways know how we feel about award availability on their partner Aer Lingus. I called British Airways Executive Club on two separate occasions today to ask about Aer Lingus award space. After all, their agents are pretty awful, and they start huffing and puffing as soon as you ask them to check on award availability for more than a few dates. Their call center is actually up in Jacksonville, Florida, so I’ve been tempted to drive up there and share my, erm, “thoughts” with them on more than one occasion.
Unfortunately award availability is not as good as it was a couple of days ago, though it’s still decent enough.
On the first call as soon as I said the words “Aer Lingus” the agent responded with “we’ve been booking Aer Lingus reservations nonstop the past two days and I have no clue why.” On the second call later this afternoon, the agent immediately said “oh no, not another one of these.”
Keep up the good work, guys! 😀
Everyone here is complaining about the US call center. I can imagine what type of people these agents have to deal with.. You all will be wishing you could talk to Americans when they move the call center to India.
Exactly! I thought it took the cake when she asked me if I could tell her what the airline code was. Then she said she had a list of airline codes she could check, but it would be faster if I knew it so she wouldn't have to search. I feel bad for people who aren't that familiar with booking awards and are just at the mercy of whatever the agent tells them. That said,...
Exactly! I thought it took the cake when she asked me if I could tell her what the airline code was. Then she said she had a list of airline codes she could check, but it would be faster if I knew it so she wouldn't have to search. I feel bad for people who aren't that familiar with booking awards and are just at the mercy of whatever the agent tells them. That said, there are some really good agents out there, but then there are some that don't deserve to be on the phones!
You really have to spoon feed some agents,no?
LOL. While not on the same topic of BA, last night I was trying to use Delta Skymiles to book a trip to the Seychelles, which seems nearly impossible, btw. Anyway, the agent had never heard of the Seychelles, asked me where it was and how to spell it, had never heard of Air Seychelles and didn't know if it was a partner or not, then asked me what the airline code was for Air...
LOL. While not on the same topic of BA, last night I was trying to use Delta Skymiles to book a trip to the Seychelles, which seems nearly impossible, btw. Anyway, the agent had never heard of the Seychelles, asked me where it was and how to spell it, had never heard of Air Seychelles and didn't know if it was a partner or not, then asked me what the airline code was for Air Seychelles so she could check and see if she could book it. Well, because she was so clueless and I really wanted to explore all options, I actually went online and found the airline code, which is HM, and told her, and then she said "no that's Hawaiian Air." I assured her that it was HM, and then she looked and found it, (unfortunately it wasn't a booking partner.) By that point I just decided to end the call because the agent clearly wouldn't be able to help me, especially considering how difficult it is to book Seychelles within SkyTeam. To top it off, as we're saying our goodbyes to end the call, she thanked me for teaching her a couple of things. LOL! Just unbelievable.
It's pretty clear from Frank's comments that he is an effeminate teenager who is having troubles with his own sexuality, who has a crush on Lucky. No confident adult man - regardless of orientation - would post comments and reactions like we've seen from Frank. There are many counselling agencies that can help you, bro!
My last conversation with a BA agent ended with my asking if she could itemize the fees I was being charged, in which I got the following reply. "No I cant..... Thank you for using BA, click".
As much as I dislike blog comment filters it may be time for one here.
I would like to truly apologize. I was never intending to be offensive. I enjoy Lucky's travels vicariously and want him to enjoy them as much as he can as well. My frustration stems from the fact that I may never have those opportunities.
@Frank STFU - STFU douchebag!
Obvious troll is obvious. And the rest of you are fools for taking the bait!
I normally don't like arguing/debating on public forum because there is no end to it and finding myself responding to you Frank is pissing me off.
But man Frank people like you are sad.
Who are you to tell him what Ben needs to do with his personal life, to admin it in public? Nobody else cares to know. For peace sake, this is his work. While it is a blog that reflects on his...
I normally don't like arguing/debating on public forum because there is no end to it and finding myself responding to you Frank is pissing me off.
But man Frank people like you are sad.
Who are you to tell him what Ben needs to do with his personal life, to admin it in public? Nobody else cares to know. For peace sake, this is his work. While it is a blog that reflects on his travel, but it's part of his work.
Professional people keep work and personal things separate.
You Frank, clearly you don't understand that concept. You don't understand many things in life. To start the list, you don't know how to communicate effectively, lack of respect, poor common sense logistic....
Peace be with you Frank. Peace be with you, please!
@Frank STFU - he should be proud of his preferences. Why not admit in public?
Then email him and ask him in private! dumbass.
You failing to ask him via email in private to begin with implied you are arrogance and lack of common sense and respect to others.
@Joshua Pickles - I have nothing against homosexuals. I just want to know if Lucky is gay or simply very feminine.
Well I think Frank is an old repressed gay man in the closet.
Frank, come out of the closet and visit your parents so they can [re]teach you some common senses, manners and intelligence. seriously.
And I think Ben is awesome regardless of his sexuality. More power to him if he is a homosexual and live comfortably doing and enjoying what he does everyday.
What does it has to do with his blog and writing...
Well I think Frank is an old repressed gay man in the closet.
Frank, come out of the closet and visit your parents so they can [re]teach you some common senses, manners and intelligence. seriously.
And I think Ben is awesome regardless of his sexuality. More power to him if he is a homosexual and live comfortably doing and enjoying what he does everyday.
What does it has to do with his blog and writing "context" anayway. Everyone has their own personality which show through their writing in this case. Who cares!
And back to the blog matter: great finding as always! I hope BA Aer Lingus won't start YQ because of this.
@Frank
Thats rude.
@ aussie -- American doesn't charge YQs on award tickets, though they do on revenue tickets. My point was that Aer Lingus only charges about ~$30 YQs on revenue tickets.
@Lucky
They add YQ to AA even though they AA don't charge it...
@ Ben -- Frankly I think it will be tough for them to do so. They only impose fuel surcharges when the carriers themselves impose fuel surcharge. Aer Lingus only imposes very mild fuel surcharges, so they'd have a really hard time justifying that.
Shall we set the Vegas odds on how many days before they start adding YQ to Aer Lingus fix? I say one month.
Jess, are YOU a homosexual? I am not saying there is anything wrong with it. It would help put all of the trip reports in context.
Frank- it's rather obvious. And he's oh so dreamy.
@Frank What the fuck? Really? Piss off.
@Lucky
#Firstworldproblems
Also, a problem I wish I had. :) Been grounded myself lately while playing travel agent for everyone else in my life. Have a friend planning to fly Aer Lingus to Dublin and Dubrovnik this summer, have to figure out how to get her to obtain so Avios (not into the points game).
Lucky, are you a homosexual?
Please drive to thier office and let them know what we feel about hufing and puffing CS agents over the phone. It is getting to much lately.....
@ Frank -- Nope, not to the best of my knowledge. Their performance is judged by the length of their calls, to the best of my knowledge, which is an awful metric.
Ha... the Internet strikes again! Nice job
Do the agents get a commission or any sort of reward for the amount of tickets they book?
thx lucky, booked mine two days ago!!!
@ Nathaniel -- So it would seem. It's a two way street, I guess. :D
So does this mean BA outsources their call center jobs to save some pounds?
@ Jess -- I intend to, though I have so much damn travel planned that I haven't found time in my schedule yet while still being a responsible human being.
Are you going to be taking a trip in Aer Lingus business class so that your readers get the benefit of a trip report?