Worst airline for customer service and value for money named – ‘proud of being difficult’

Simon Calder calls the passenger locator form a 'vortex of hell'

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In the annual survey by Which? customers were asked to rank airlines on factors including boarding, cabin cleanliness, customer service and value for money since November 2019. Passengers slammed both Ryanair and British Airways for their pandemic customer service.

More than 1,300 passengers took part in the survey which focused on the years during the pandemic.

Over 1,100 passengers who had their flights disrupted due to the pandemic were also polled to see how satisfied they were with the way the airline dealt with the issue.

Ryanair scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 55 percent and fell to 47 percent satisfaction when it came to refunds.

One in five customers told the consumer survey that it took more than a month to get a refund for a cancelled flight.

One customer said: “Ryanair is the most awkward airline to deal with that I have ever come across.

“It seems to be proud of being difficult.”

Another said the budget Irish carrier had a “total lack of transparency” for costs and “treated customers like cattle to be squeezed for the last penny”.

Around three quarters of surveyed customers named Ryanair as the airline that they would never choose to fly with.

The airline has been in the bottom three carriers of the annual Which? survey for the last decade.

Customers were also unimpressed with British Airways which had a customer satisfaction score of 63 percent.

Passengers said they had spent hours on the phone to the airline only to be hung up or passed to other departments.

Other passengers slammed the carrier for its food and drink options, seat comfort and value for money.

One irate passenger even described British Airways as “a budget style airline at premium prices”.

It wasn’t all bad news for BA as the carrier was ranked as joint cleanest with Jet2 and KLM.

Jet2 topped the table with a whopping 84 percent of passengers saying they were happy with how their disrupted flight was dealt with.

Around 90 percent of those polled said they had been offered a full refund rather than a voucher.

One pleased customer said: “The pandemic has seen Jet2 shine. Its standard of customer care exceeds that of any other low-cost airline.”

Editor of Which? Travel, Rory Boland, said: “Ryanair’s consistently terrible customer service has made it a fixture among the worst performers in our survey for many years – but the airline plumbed new depths with its handling of Covid refunds.

“BA’s reputation also deservedly took a battering when it took a hard line on refunds for passengers who could not travel because they followed Government health advice.

“Many passengers will not forget how they were treated by companies during the pandemic.”

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