British Airways and Expedia you both suck
Category BAExpedia Suck
So my Niece has just finished her Alaskan Adventure, and now she begins the adventure of getting back to blighty. She got a text message a few hours ago that her British Airways Seattle to Boston flight has been cancelled. Now my Niece is not exactly what you;d call a seasoned experienced traveller so I stepped in to help. She got her ticket through Expedia UK, When she called Expedia US their answer was "Oh sorry you booked it through Expedia UK, you need to call them" so already they suck. So I called Expedia UK, sat on hold for 40 minutes then it disconnected me, I'm now on hold again, already been 20 minutes. Expedia you suck. To run it in, I called Expedia US, and I'm on hold there too, but check it out, their hold music is "I'm leaving on a jet plane", hhmm she might not be, Expedia you suck. Surprised they don't have Blondie singing you keep me hanging on playing. Expedia US finally answered to tell me yep they can't do anything with Expedia.co.uk bookings, their call center is in the Philippines, so I asked if she could just shout over the cubicle wall to ask a Expedia.co.uk buddy to help her, she refused. She then gave me the Expedia UK number to call, I very politely said, oh here you go you can listen to that it's on my other line and let her listen to the UKs crap music for a bit, before saying thank you very much, and letting her go.
UPDATE: Check it out, Expedia UK have a wait limit of 38 minutes 45 seconds, at that point they just cut the line. Did I mention Expedia SUCK?
UPDATE2: Turns out they don't hang you up at 38 minutes, 45 seconds, they just stop all the music for 5 minutes to make you think you've been hung up. After 60 minutes on hold Expedia answered. They can get Bethany a flight on the 24th December, getting in Christmas day, but she'd be stuck in Alaska in a hotel at her expense etc. no friends there as they've all left and the college is closed.
OK so whilst the Expedia UK line is still busy, let me call British Airways on another line. Call them and this is what you get BA Suck Recording, BA suggests using their website to change the flight, yeah the problem with that is you can't actually change the flight, you can go buy some other ticket for a couple of thousand, and then you have to fight with BA to get that money back. Now I understand that there is snow, and I understand they're busy, but not even being put in a telephone queue and being referred to the website that doesn't let you do anything useful is just sucky. I supposed the BA message was with a very posh polite voice though.
Bethany's first two flights are with Alaska Airways, Fairbanks -> Anchorage, Anchorage -> Seattle. So I called Alaska Airways, "Yes she'll need to use that flight, unless Expedia can change it".
Right now I'm investigating options where she flies to Seattle still, I buy her a flight to Boston and she stays with me until she can get a flight to London, but I want to speak to BA to make sure they'll change her BA flight to one going from BOS to LHR, and she doesn't have to take the SEA to LHR flight.
UPDATE3: 5 hours of trying and still haven't been able to get hold of British Airways.
UPDATE4 We've booked Bethany a flight from Seattle to Boston tomorrow, she's spending Christmas with me and Jessie, and the rest of the family via Playstation video conference. Then on boxing day she flies back home. We're going to have to fight BA to cover the BOS-LHR flight I think, if I can ever get hold of them.
UPDATE5 Now 7AM, never got through to BA UK. BA US office has opened, called them, good news it lets me go on a queue, bad news "estimated hold time 586 minutes" Going to bed now and will leave phone going, I really want to know if it will get answered at 5pm
So my Niece has just finished her Alaskan Adventure, and now she begins the adventure of getting back to blighty. She got a text message a few hours ago that her British Airways Seattle to Boston flight has been cancelled. Now my Niece is not exactly what you;d call a seasoned experienced traveller so I stepped in to help. She got her ticket through Expedia UK, When she called Expedia US their answer was "Oh sorry you booked it through Expedia UK, you need to call them" so already they suck. So I called Expedia UK, sat on hold for 40 minutes then it disconnected me, I'm now on hold again, already been 20 minutes. Expedia you suck. To run it in, I called Expedia US, and I'm on hold there too, but check it out, their hold music is "I'm leaving on a jet plane", hhmm she might not be, Expedia you suck. Surprised they don't have Blondie singing you keep me hanging on playing. Expedia US finally answered to tell me yep they can't do anything with Expedia.co.uk bookings, their call center is in the Philippines, so I asked if she could just shout over the cubicle wall to ask a Expedia.co.uk buddy to help her, she refused. She then gave me the Expedia UK number to call, I very politely said, oh here you go you can listen to that it's on my other line and let her listen to the UKs crap music for a bit, before saying thank you very much, and letting her go.
UPDATE: Check it out, Expedia UK have a wait limit of 38 minutes 45 seconds, at that point they just cut the line. Did I mention Expedia SUCK?
UPDATE2: Turns out they don't hang you up at 38 minutes, 45 seconds, they just stop all the music for 5 minutes to make you think you've been hung up. After 60 minutes on hold Expedia answered. They can get Bethany a flight on the 24th December, getting in Christmas day, but she'd be stuck in Alaska in a hotel at her expense etc. no friends there as they've all left and the college is closed.
OK so whilst the Expedia UK line is still busy, let me call British Airways on another line. Call them and this is what you get BA Suck Recording, BA suggests using their website to change the flight, yeah the problem with that is you can't actually change the flight, you can go buy some other ticket for a couple of thousand, and then you have to fight with BA to get that money back. Now I understand that there is snow, and I understand they're busy, but not even being put in a telephone queue and being referred to the website that doesn't let you do anything useful is just sucky. I supposed the BA message was with a very posh polite voice though.
Bethany's first two flights are with Alaska Airways, Fairbanks -> Anchorage, Anchorage -> Seattle. So I called Alaska Airways, "Yes she'll need to use that flight, unless Expedia can change it".
Right now I'm investigating options where she flies to Seattle still, I buy her a flight to Boston and she stays with me until she can get a flight to London, but I want to speak to BA to make sure they'll change her BA flight to one going from BOS to LHR, and she doesn't have to take the SEA to LHR flight.
UPDATE3: 5 hours of trying and still haven't been able to get hold of British Airways.
UPDATE4 We've booked Bethany a flight from Seattle to Boston tomorrow, she's spending Christmas with me and Jessie, and the rest of the family via Playstation video conference. Then on boxing day she flies back home. We're going to have to fight BA to cover the BOS-LHR flight I think, if I can ever get hold of them.
UPDATE5 Now 7AM, never got through to BA UK. BA US office has opened, called them, good news it lets me go on a queue, bad news "estimated hold time 586 minutes" Going to bed now and will leave phone going, I really want to know if it will get answered at 5pm
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Comments
Posted by Bethany At 04:14:11 AM On 12/19/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Dad At 12:03:44 PM On 12/19/2010 | - Website - |
Below is Heathrow's NOTAM:
A3737/10 (AGA) Heathrow
N51°29.00 W000°28.00 5nm
Sunday, 19 Dec 2010 09:37 to 22:00
Elevation: SFC - 99900
RWY 09R/27L CLOSED DUE SNOW
A3732/10 (AGA) Heathrow
N51°29.00 W000°28.00 5nm
Sunday, 19 Dec 2010 06:33 to 23:59
Elevation: SFC - 99900
AD CLSD TO ALL ARRIVALS. NO DEPARTURES FROM TERMINALS 1 AND 4.
MINIMUM DEPARTURES FM TERMINALS 3 AND 5, ON PRIOR AGREEMENT WITH
AIRPORT OPERATOR
Posted by Rich Tyler At 01:25:31 PM On 12/19/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Rich Tyler At 01:26:24 PM On 12/19/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Patrick Picard At 04:22:39 PM On 12/19/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Dad At 04:07:44 PM On 12/20/2010 | - Website - |
You should see the pictures of people at Heathrow !
Posted by Rupert At 08:29:54 AM On 12/21/2010 | - Website - |
When I got stuck in London (which is not, lets be honest, the worst thing which can happen to someone) I found I had to call the US line to get through. Once I did, it was resolved and I got a ticket for the next day.
My other issue with BA is that redeeming miles for a flight seems to cost nearly as much as just paying for the flight by the time you add in all the fees, surcharges, and whatnot. I guess I'll switch back to AA (which has a similar flight schedule) or just suck it up and start taking the red-eye on another carrier.
Posted by Andrew Pollack At 11:49:40 AM On 12/24/2010 | - Website - |
Posted by Tim Hepworth At 06:24:53 AM On 01/04/2011 | - Website - |