Wednesday 9 April 2008

An end to the saga ..... ?

The website still listed me as being silver and so a day later I emailed the Gold Card centre pointing this out. Although no reply was received by me, when I log in I am now acknowledged as being a Gold Card member.

I am pleased with the final result but the story is disappointing in that no apology has ever been received and despite asking on several occasions for the contact details of a manager or supervisor to whom I could complain no response has ever been given. In the end I wrote 19 emails, 5 faxes, 3 telephone calls and one registered letter. Was it worth all the hassle and all the expense – probably not. However, ask me next time I am in the airline lounge at Rio and the answer is more than likely to be YES !

Monday 7 April 2008

A Good Response to my Fax

This morning at approximately 06.15 local time here in Brasil I faxed my letter to the Chairman of IBERIA.

Imagine my surprise when I happened to check my personal email just before 10.00 local time to find this reply waiting for me :

With reference to your fax dated the 6th of April, we would like to inform you that you Iberia Plus Gold card is on its way to you. We have given it the maximum priority and it will take approximately fifteen days to arrive at your address in Rio.

We are pleased to welcome you as an Iberia Plus Gold member and we would like to inform you that you have a Contact Center exclusively for your attention. If you call within Spain the number is 902 44 44 22. If you call from outside Spain the number is 00 34 91 329 8813. Our e-mail address is
oro@iberia.es .

Please, do not hesitate to contact our Center at your convenience. We will be pleased to attend your call.

Kind regards,

Iberia Plus Gold Contact Center .

Good news indeed but I have written tonight to thank them for the speedy response to the fax - but also to be sure that they will alter the website which still lists me as silver when I log in. More when they have responded to this ......

Sunday 6 April 2008

IBERIA continues to show it DOES NOT CARE

Having written to clarify my status on 25 March I wrote again on 26 March. Needless to say there have been no replies.

Today I decided to write to the Chairman of IBERIA. This is what I wrote :

Dear Mr Conte

I am writing to you because having read your career history as published on the IBERIA website, I believe that you will not only be able to assist me, but will wish to help me. I also believe that given your substantial experience in management and particularly your recent appointment as Chairman of the One World alliance, not to mention your current posts with the Association of Euopean Airlines, you will be able to sort out the difficulty I currently have with IBERIA quite quickly.

To summarise - and I will not take up your time with all the details because you read the full synopsis on my blog (
www.iberiaandcustomerservice.blogspot.com), and other websites - the following facts are relevant :

1) I took a code share flight from Madrid to London in December 2007 and no points were credited.
2) I contacted IBERIA customer service/points plus by email, fax and telephone and could not resolve the problem. My travel agent (
www.travelocity.co.uk) also got involved but eventually gave up.
3) Eventually on 18 March my points were credited.
4) However, I was still listed as being at silver level. This is something I maintain is not correct. I asked for my status to be clarified - and would have appreciated knowing if I have got it wrong. (I do not think I have).
5) I have written and asked for clarification on several occasions but never receive a reply.
6) MORE WORRYING, however, is the fact that on more than 3 occasions I have asked for the details of someone of managerial/supervisory level to whom I can take my complaint. Each time this request is ignored.

Consequently, I am writing to you and would very much appreciate it if you or one of your colleagues can investigate the matter.

This has all been very disappointing, because as you can read on the Business Traveller magazine website discussion
I wrote a very positive review of Iberia - and I still have three more flights already booked with your airline. Please help restore my faith in IBERIA and hopefully show me that your company really does care about its customers.

Yours sincerely,

etc etc

Of course I do not really expect this to get through since IBERIA seem to have ignored all my other messages. I shall send a hard copy by registered post as well - so at least I will be able to know that it definitely arrived.