A disabled British Airways passenger asking for a refund has declared that he feels “deflated and extremely upset” after a member of staff told him:”You chose vouchers – that’s all you’re getting.”
Clive Millard, who has been one of British Airways’ lifelong customers, branded the airline’s reaction to his complaint as “a tragic decline in the treatment of lifelong customers”.
He and his wife Penelope were looking forward to go on a golden anniversary trip to Florida, where they got married, until they heard at the end of July that their September flight was to be cancelled.
Then, Mr Millard starting going through the process of trying to obtain a refund. While waiting in BA’s telephone queue (which indicates that several people were attempting to get their refund at the same time), the call center kept telling him to go to their website for more details. On BA’s website, Mr Millard clicked on a button titled: “refunds or vouchers”. Announcing that he expected to see the option to choose a refund, Mr Millard said that it didn’t give him one and that it said that he had selected a voucher.
Due to several respiratory conditions that Mr Millard and his wife have, he said that he wasn’t insured. He called up BA, and that is when the member of staff told him that he chose a voucher, and that was what he was getting. BA issued an apology via a website called KentOnline, but this didn’t put an end to the problem.
Sophie Gray of British Airways’ Global Engagement Executive Team told him that there was nothing they could do about it, but that the voucher was available until the 30th of April 2022. Mr Millard’s constituency’s MP, Natalie Elphicke replied to the course of action taken by BA: “British Airways have not responded in the way that I would have expected from them and I will follow up again on Mr Millard’s behalf.” Then, she added:“We’ll keep fighting in the hope we do so again here for Mr Millard.”
What a mess! Remember to not get yourselves involved in a scam, and that technology can be deceptive at times. Happy Sunday (/s)! 16th of August 2020.
Aeronews24 