Bad experience on a flight- worth complaining?

[Laura2121]

I recently had a bad experience on a long-haul flight from British Airways, regarding poor customer service from a couple of the cabin stewards. After patiently putting up with the way that one steward was treating me and my elderly parents for a few hours, I raised my voice and complained to her about her level of customer service, only to then get a telling off from the cabin manager for raising my voice in the cabin- no accountability or apology for my experience at all. In fact I was even made to apologise for raising my voice, as if I was the problem. I have never had such an appalling experience on a flight before.

A quick Google search afterwards revealed that BA had recently made some policy changes as to protect their staff from customers expressing annoyance at them, so it could be that my loud complaint was ‘pounced on’ disproportionately given that the new policy had just come into force. But I am frankly appalled at the treatment I was subject to on board the flight.

I am soon taking the return flight back, and not feeling too keen about this after the poor experience I had on my outbound flight last month. I was going to complain to BA after getting back home, but it would help to know that they want to make things right before my flight home. An upgrade wouldn’t hurt either if they offer this! Has anyone had experience with something like this? Thanks!

Better than Wizz Air.

Apparently promising something in an email doesn't result in them doing it, because we shouldn't have believed them (paraphrasing slightly)
Currently with ombudsman, but on the basis they seem to not even have tried to defend it I think we will get there.

They also at one point had an automated £35 per passenger charge for being a holiday company and you had to prove you weren't to get it back after the flight. As far as I could tell, no proof was good enough...

raised my voice and complained to her about her level of customer service, only to then get a telling off from the cabin manager for raising my voice in the cabin- no accountability or apology for my experience at all.

you shouted and created a scene

and was likely very rude

because we shouldn't have believed them (paraphrasing slightly)

I bet you’re paraphrasing slightly!!

Don't ever shout on a plane. For reasons that should be obvious.

Fair point.

Some of it from the outside seems to be mindset and customer service approach. The tone of the BA staff doesn’t always land well.

I’ve had one flight crew in the last couple of years who notable were friendly and helpful - generally the vibe can be that the passengers are getting in the way. But to be fair I’ve mainly avoided BA so it could have improved.

I don’t tend to fly ME3.

Impossible to give an opinion without knowing what happened.

I'd say with BA, like most airlines, it's a mixed bag. I've had really friendly cabin staff who can't do enough for you and those who seem to think customers are a major inconcenience to their social life and would rather they didn't exist. Some of them are blatantly rude to passengers. Had similar on recent Easyjet flights, one set of cabin crew miserable and rude, on the return flight, friendly and chatty.
However, I can't think of anything that they could do on the flight that would make me shout at them.

BA has appalling customer service onboard. Just appalling - last week the flight attendants were reading books and ignoring polite requests for drinks and sitting on the jump seat (reading the book) meaning that one of the two economy section toilets were out of action so she could read her book.

dont raise your voice. Take notes with times and specifics and names and write a letter after. You’re not going to get an upgrade.

So you shouted at the cabin crew and think you are going to get an upgrade as a result? You will be more likely to be kicked off the flight.

How can anyone advise what you should do when we only know about your poor behaviour, not what your complaint was?

You shouldn’t raise your voice at anyone. Would you raise your voice to a colleague? Hopefully not as you’d be in trouble for bullying. So why do people think they can raise their voice at hospitality staff, shop staff etc?

by all means complain. Maybe they will ban you. That’s the risk. You won’t be getting an upgrade or apology. They will back their staff up.

I believe the OP had a bad experience. Traveling with elderly parents as well is not easy and I can imagine the cabin crew being all pissy and hiding behind policy.

Pissy at a passenger shouting and saying a scene? Yep

This OP has, let’s just say a posting history that would indicate that was more than a raised voice.

My recent experiences with BA have been that they’ve been very assertive in dealing with anti social behaviour which is positive as it makes a better flight for everyone. If you shouted at the crew I can see why they reacted. If you feel you have a justified complaint then make it via their head office and let them investigate.

No one can advise as you haven’t explained what your were complaining about

Strongly depends on what happened! What was the bad "experience"?

So, did you shout? It sounds like it, and as such you've shot yourself in the foot.

What was it that you wanted them to do for you that they failed to do? Or were they rude to you? No details given at all.

I was genuinely shocked on my last BA flight to encounter a member of cabin crew who was smiley.

Having said that, raising your voice is not acceptable on a flight. Escalating conflict when surrounded by people who can't move away is not on.

Your post is noticeably missing what the cabin crew supposedly did wrong. Shouting at them is not OK.

More information is needed about the 'Poor Service'

Raising your voice to anyone working in the service industry is totally unacceptable, flight crew suffer a lot with customers expectations. You might do well to remember that you are one passenger out of maybe 200/250 in economy for a long haul flight.

If your expectation is to be treated like a princess then maybe opting for a private jet would be the answer!!! if you want better than economy standards then pay the extra money to sit at the front of the plane.

I confidently predict that the op will not be back and if They are they don’t tell us the crew’s crimes that so deserved being shouted at.

I do hope another person on that flight starts a thread today about the aggressive and unruly passenger they had to endure.

Complain of you must.
My 2hr flight once meant i had to sit hearing the flight crew bitxh about work conditions i was so annoyed and wish i had my headphones on that flight.
Never happend again of course...ruined a relaxing break away.

I was senior cabin crew for Virgin Atlantic and it all depends on what they did. More information would be helpful.

There was another thread similar to this recently - a long complaint about poor service at an airport, but no clue as to what had actually happened.

Why do posters do this - leave out the most critical part of the story? I can understand not wanting to be identifiable, but give us some idea of what happened, for goodness sake!

No one can possibly advise based on such vague information.

I hate to be 'the thread police' but it's really annoying.

I'm sure the staff were rubbish but it was bad form to the other passengers to raise your voice. It's just not done. I would never raise my voice on a plane unless it was a genuine emergency.

If your our first port of call for dealing with bad customer service was shouting at the crew, YABVVU. But you're not even telling us what happened so, whatever.

The fact that you haven’t said what happened is instantly making me think you are in the wrong. More info is needed