Sexist BA!

[Howzaboutye]

Omg Ive just got a flight reminder email from BA. Addressed to my husband.

I booked the flight on my BA account. My credit card. I'm the lead booker.

So why the hell do they pick the male traveller to address the automatic emails to?

Oh I'm so cross.

[Ilovewheelychairs]

I had this. I wrote a complaint and asked to know why they had addressed it to my then boyfriend instead of me, when I had booked, I was the lead passenger, they only had my details. They wrote back and apologised saying it was an 'error'. That was 5 years ago now. Clearly things haven't changed!

[purplemunkey]

I doubt it’s been programmed to pick out the husband on the booking. Far more likely it’s an automated alphabetical ordering or something.

[Ilovewheelychairs]

Oh, and mine wasn't online! It was a written letter!

[NightOw1]

Yep, same thing here. All our holiday bookings were made by me from my accounts. BA flights emails came through addressed to 'Dear Mr NightOw1' & our travel insurance emails were addressed to our 1 year old son

[WorkingItOutAsIGo]

Is it alphabetical? I just booked a lot of flights for my son and his mates and I put him as the lead but all the emails are addressed to the boy who is first in the alphabet!

[WeeMadArthur]

This happened to me with the RSPB, I signed up for family membership, put my name first on the form, paid with my bank account details and the first letter arrived addressed to DH. I contacted them and pointed out that I was the one who had signed up with my money and that if DH had been with me he would have walked straight past their fundraising stall, and insisted that they address me, not him. Now their letters come addresses to Mrs &. Mr WeeMadArthur, so there is obviously something they can change. Makes me mad that they obviously took my application and chose to change the order of the names so that DH took precedence.

[emilybrontescorsett]

Unacceptable. I don't even ask customers for their title. So for example if I have spoken to Karen Smith, I address all correspondence to Karen Smith, it's really not difficult.

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

My husband works in IT for BA and has had a part in creating these systems. It is literally nothing to do with gender, it's to do with the lead passenger stated in the details that you filled in. You must have crossed wires at some point.

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

Check that all of your details are inputted correctly on your flight info

[SoupDragon]

I think it's alphabetical. It certainly was on my case. We all have the same surname and emails were addressed to the one whose initial came first alphabetically.

It makes no sense but I'm not sure it's sexist.

[SoupDragon]

it's to do with the lead passenger stated in the details that you filled in.

It absolutely isn't.

[HelloToMyKitty]

I do all the bookings for myself and DH and have never had this happen. I’d say it was a database error, but then again, I don’t have the same last name as DH so maybe that’s why

[JellyfishandShells]

@Howzaboutye

Nope I picked Ms as my title.
Nothing an IT system does is automatic. Every single input and output are mapped out.
Someone in BA has made the conscious decision not to address the emails to the lead booker.
That is why I am cross.

That's not something I have ever experienced - DH and I travel apart and separately and I've never been addressed as him when booking on my own (or vice versa - I haven't asked him,but he would certainly have mentioned it) Emails come to the lead booker - but also the other one. If there had been a disparity, I might have put it down to him being Mr Gold Card, but no........

[JellyfishandShells]

And we have the same initials as well as surname !

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

If you don't declare a lead passenger, then apparently it automatically might just pick the first person in that booking. Apparently one of the numerous things that could have happened but there are dozens of other reasons that might have happened. If you booked through a travel agent or booking.com it could be their error. It is an error and absolutely nothing to with the fact that he is the male on the booking. Writing the code so that the email went to the male on the booking would be ridiculously complicated to write and the fact that it would have to go through so many people and so many stages and not be flagged is a ridiculous idea.

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

@SoupDragon it might not make sense but it's very much an error and in no way sexist.

[AgeLikeWine]

It’s highly likely that the email is addressed to the first named passenger on the booking, who is known in travel industry terminology as the ‘lead passenger’. Airline IT systems are not programmed to favour male passengers above female ones.

It is important to denote the sex of passengers, however, due to the weight & balance calculations used for loading the aircraft. Males are assigned a higher weight than females.

[SoupDragon]

[quote SouthernskinNorthernsoul]@SoupDragon it might not make sense but it's very much an error and in no way sexist.[/quote]
Er... I know.

[durdlestairs]

A person who is Mr, with your surname, could be your son, or BIL, or FIL. Perhaps a tweet to BA to ask why will embarrass them.

Another reason to make me feel not flying with BA for my next flight was the correct decision.

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

@durdlestairs exactly, disproving that there are any sexist motives behind this error

[Howzaboutye]

Thanks for all the comments.
I am the lead passenger. We do not have the same surname.
Booked direct on BA website.

Even if it is alphabetical and not a presumption of sending to the male- they should still have addressed the email to the lead booker.

I am just so cynical as a result of many experiences of this kind of thing just being thoughtless sexism that I reckoned BA was too.
I'd like to think not.

[Rubychard]

I've had this recently with an insurance company and I logged it as a formal complaint.

Their "resolution" to this was to send me.a cheque for £25. Cheaper I suppose than investing manpower in actually investigating. No feedback into the investigation. Toying with the idea of lodging a formal complaint into how the complaint has been handled.

1950s Britain here we are!!

[imaflutteringkite]

I've just remembered I had this with the rspb too. Signed up for myself and the DD and DS. Everything that they sent was addressed to DS.

[SouthernskinNorthernsoul]

You can be assured not because there is absolutely no reason for them to have coded this. It would be more effort, for no gain. Generally, the lead passenger would be addressed in emails. If they're not, It's a mistake. Either due to a user error or a system error.

[LonginesPrime]

Someone in BA has made the conscious decision not to address the emails to the lead booker

I don't work for BA but I'd be very surprised if this kind of task was carried out manually. Why on earth would they not automate something that takes two seconds to automate and that every other company automates?

I would be the first to jump up and down if this looked like a result of sexism, but I often have family things addressed to DD as her name is before mine alphabetically. Mr comes before Ms in the alphabet and it's likely just that.