HAVING read Lois Jones’ article on her experiences with the Oneworld alliance, I have to tell you of my own experience with this system (TravelWeekly February 28).
I have not yet got to the stage of travelling on the alliance that revolves around you. I am simply trying to book two round-the-world tickets for friends. The Oneworld experience began nine days ago, when I rang four supposedly specialist agencies, asking for a fare on a London-Rio-Honolulu-Melbourne-London route.
Two were far too busy to be interested in a £2,000 booking which would require more research than your average two weeks in Tenerife and I refuse to spend that much money with anyone who wants to get rid of me.
The third simply had no idea. While the consultant was very pleasant, he did not know what to do about a route that was not written out on the piece of paper in front of him and no, he could not put me through to someone who might know.
The fourth, and by far the worst, was rude. There is no other word for it. I was quite bluntly informed that the route I requested is not possible as it is not in one continuous direction. When I pointed out that it is continuously heading west, I was told that to go in one direction I would have to fly London-Rio-Melbourne-Honolulu-London. Coming from a flight specialist, I sometimes worry about the state of our industry. The lady in question went on to tell me that “if I was stupid enough to do the route requested then that was my problem”.
Disheartened with the impression that the high-street agents created I thought I’d ring the ticket provider – British Airways. I will cut this story short but suffice to say it has taken me three phone calls, and a letter of complaint, over nine days for BA to come up with exactly the same, standard price that every other agency came up with instantly.
None of these people had any idea I work in the industry – to them I was a customer with over £2,000 to spend and the possibility of much more in repeat business. Has business picked up that much that such customers can be turned away? Or does BA need to look seriously at what appears to be a gaping hole in agents’ knowledge when it comes to selling their tickets?
Name and address withheld