I have this morning spent hours trying to perform relatively easy computer transactions.  Well, they should be easy but they are not.  They are not because they are structured in ways that are unfathomable to the ordinary man – not to say man over 50 – 60-even 70!

Airlines reward programs are particularly prone to making the customer give up, it is patently obvious to a donkey that British Airways, for example, do not want their clients to benefit from their reward program if they can possibly avoid it.  The reward program becomes not a loyalty earner but an aggravation which has the opposite effect.

In my case, enough was enough so I thought I’d take my Avios and invest them in the Avios company.  Guess what? This company is, even more, obscurantist that the airline.

After hours of phone calls and so-called live chats, I was driven to despair and abandoned the fight for another day.

Is this the way it’s meant to be?  I think not.  It seems the evolution of computer geeks and misguided marketeers has conspired to self-destruct what was once a good idea. Add to those low-paid correspondents who chat remotely, they are exactly that, remote and largely disinterested in anything other than automaton like responses.

Where has all the real brand loyalty gone?  Yes, it’s tough to make a buck, but should formerly well-regarded companies like BA join the race to the bottom.  Not only that they are using devices that are deliberately obscure and customer unfriendly.  Wake up this is NOT the way.