Sharing recent Privilege experiences

[eurofighter]

Dear all,

I am sure there are some Privilege members here, and maybe some of those who actually work at Privilege. With you I want to share my concerns. I don't want to bash anyone at Privilege, especially the staff that dedicately has done and still tries to do their job, but I have the feeling that management has done some severe cost cutting recently.

Before: website was fully functioning; staff that only worked for Privilege, not the Brussels Airlines reservations department as well; response to any queries members might have; dedicated Brussels phone number for Gold/Platinum members.

Now: no e-mail sent through website is answered; website is sometimes quite shaky and non responsive and is not fully functional in some browsers; online reservation system has technical glitches; expensive phone lines (do you pay from the moment someone is there to help you, or already from second 1) for even the most loyal customers, and yesterday even the phone lines did not work.

I have already sent an e-mail last week, but to which I do not expect any response anyway, therefore I sent a similar but more elaborate fax yesterday explaining my experiences and what I actually wanted to achieve: simply book a plane ticket online with my miles. What is the purpose of having nearly 70.000 miles which I cannot use for the Brussels Airlines flights that are on offer.

Never mind. I hope management at Privilege sorts out the technical glitches at the not fully functional website and also reviews some of their communication policies with their customers.

[Desert Rat]

I'm facing exactly the same porblem, i'm abroad and nobody to contact,i have sent several e-mail (not to privilege but to b.airlines) and no answer at all, one day i finally managed to call someone there and they transfered me to a dead line!!!!

looks like nobody's there to help you out....sade...

[BRU-CPH]

I have the same experiences.

In the "old" days, contacting Privilege (at least by e-mail) was a pleasure. You got an answer the latest after 2 days, and the answers were mostly helpfull. Now you have to wait at least 2 days before the sent you a confirmation mail, and to wait another week for an answer.

I was recently requiring about using miles for flying to Malta. This is an SN-codeshared flight, but there are only b.flex tickets for sale on the web. I was simple asking if this meant I also had to change my miles for a b.flex ticket, which meas I have to exchange 25.000 miles instead of 15.000 miles. The answer I finaly got was very general and just repeated the information I had found on the website (quoting you can change also miles for flights with British, Finnair and AA, etc.). Not a word about how using your miles with Air Malta or any other code-share partners. At the old website (before they "upgraded" it) there was a very convenient calculating module to calculate the number of miles you needed to book a flight, or you could book it online. All this is gone. The weblinks are sending you from the one non apllicable page to the other ("Van het kastje naar de muur" in Dutch).

It is clear they really need to invest more in the Privilege department, or there will be no Privilege department anymore in the future due to the fact that all Privilege members have gone.

Nevertheless, I had bad experiences with the former telephone service, which was clearly connected to a call center abroad (at least in the weekend when I phoned). I was given wrong information and had to correct the staff.

[sn26567]

Another problem is the uniformisation of the number of miles you get in Europe, no matter the price you pay. It is 250 miles for b.light, 1250 miles for b.flex, full stop. I now often pay high rates for a b.light (after a late booking for example) and get much less miles than a cheaper flight booked in the old system.

[nldogbert]

Hi,

Wow, from the first few posts, seems that the program is reaching nearly rock bottom qua CS.

I just recently used up all my miles in the programs, only just crediting some small amount this year from my shopping at the outlet village to the account.

Anyway, it is sad to see not only the new Brussels airline is not the old SN, but seems that the FF program is also going from bad to worst. When I was with them and had to contact the center, it was manned by CS based in Spain, I believe. It was than a hit and miss. The worst experience I had was during the technical issue during the last part and beginning of the year.

Well, good luck to all trying to contact the center.

8)