More evidence of British Airways prioritising Avios bookings for downgrades?

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• Tony says:

  25 Feb25 February 05:48

  If this is official policy, it will surely be the final nail in the coffin for BAPP. Absolutely no value in 2-4-1 if they continually oversell premium cabins with a view to target those redemptions for downgrade. Who in their right mind would pay nearly £200 for a card where the prime benefit was so hit and miss?

• Simon says:

  25 Feb25 February 05:57

  I booked 2 first tickets and one cw, all using miles , at check in , I was told my brother who was in cw was being down graded as the bookings had been booked separate , they couldn’t see any ba membership which he does not have , I discussed with manager explained I was ggl and his down grade was reversed and some one else downgraded .

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:11

  If BA won’t comment perhaps AMEX will. This is their product and if true it is greatly devalued (to the point of zero to me). They have a lot more leverage and a lot more to lose.

• Anon says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:17

  Morning folks, now sat in the Conrad seaplane lounge, receiving wonderful hospitality from our very nice Maldivian hosts.

  My wife managed to get a few hours sleep in CW, I however didn’t sleep too well in WTP, mainly because I’m disappointed and to be honest feel lied to and on the recieving end of misinformation. We were fed new info by the BA rep shortly before leaving the LGW lounge that she was wrong to previously say the flight was oversold, apparently it had since transpired there was a safety problem with one of the 48 CW seats, so unsafe for Take off and landing, but a crew member might use it during the flight for rest, when I asked if I could come up to CW to use during the flight I was told that wouldn’t be possible. On boarding spoke with Flight Service Manager who honestly told us CW was full with fare paying pax, no crew in CW and there was not any broken seats, the crew have dedicated rest areas and BA had knowingly and deliberately oversold the flight. To me this series of twists and turns and trying to be fobbed off is appalling behavior.

  Oh and to top it off BA have failed to deliver one of our bags, we know they made it to LGW, my wife saw them being unloaded off the domestic flight, again this is just poor and inexcusable. Will be interesting to see the level of empathy and compassion we receive in response to the above.

  So looking forward to being back at the Conrad this pm, they really excel at fantastic customer service, wonderful hosts.

  • Genghis says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:36

    Really sorry for your experience @Anon. I know I’d be fuming. Enjoy Rangali and pick up the fight on your return. Genghis.

  • Alan says:

    25 Feb25 February 11:48

    What a truly rubbish experience – hopefully Customer Relations pull something out of the hat to make it right. On a return flight it might be an option to say you’ll delay your flight until you could both go in CW but obviously no such option outbound, esp with seaplane transfers awaiting you!

  • Lady London says:

    25 Feb25 February 19:18

    Do BA think you’re stupid? That ‘revised explanation’ was clearly an attempt to cover their a/s/s after the truth had been blurted out previously.

    That’s the same as many airlines having said on the tarmac the delay was mechanical/crew out of hours etc., later tried to say it was weather issue to avoid paying appropriate compensation.

    Does the Daily Mail read HfP?

• Ross says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:26

  Is it possible to argue that the cost of the 2-4-1 is actually the amount in £s you would have to spend in order to activate it or even the cost of any redemption for that matter? Surely with that argument, it vastly increases the monetary value of that ticket.

  • Genghis says:

    25 Feb25 February 06:40

    The value of the 241 to a collector is the avios saved but the cost is actually the Amex fees+any opportunity cost of using another card. These things aren’t free to accumulate and as such as many people chase them, they have a value. It’d be interesting to know what a court might decide.

• bertiepoppy says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:37

  My issue is why can BA not seek to turn a problem into a success by generous compensation when performing involuntary downgrades. But, until they see the light of day, which of the following three options would you all consider to be most effective in curtailing their worse excesses?

  1. A mass petition (or some other form of communication) with Amex.

  2. As above but at the IAG AGM

  3. Monthly class actions by a “no win no fee” solicitor

  I believe that the sooner there are some Court rulings (possibly here and in the US) on the matter of compensation, the sooner BA will have to fall into line. BTW is there an opportunity for Virgin to take the lead here and boast about the exemplary way they deal with this kind of thing compared to BA.

  BA employees: Do you really get paid enough to treat your passengers with such contempt?

• Nate1309 says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:54

  This is disgusting behaviour from BA. I have been bumped to a later flight on a 2-4-1 redemption to Johannesburg before as CW was oversold. But what has happened to @Anon really takes the biscuit! Hope you have a nice time in the Maldives Anon.

• Tim says:

  25 Feb25 February 06:59

  As far as I understand these are contractual arrangements, albeit made more complicated by the involvement of Avios and, in the case of 2-4-1, Amex, but neverless, they are contractual.

  An airline may downgrade, bump-off etc. only for ‘operational reasons’ legally – i.e not for commercial reasons. Anything else must be indiviidually negotiated. If the customer refuses, the airline is bound by the same laws and regulations that apply to any non-redemption customer – a re-route in the same class, food, drink hotel and full compensation as per EU tariffs.

  My advice is not to be the typical British wimp in these matters and plainly refuse to accept the downgrade. Only once customers stand up for their rights will BA reconsider this obnoxious policy.

  • Steve says:

    25 Feb25 February 07:54

    I think that would be my stance as well.

    The annoying thing about the Male trip is that it’s always full, so bumping to the next flight may not work. It’s probably the only route I can think of where staff travel gets blocked out at certain times as well, they can’t even list for it. Overselling the flight is pretty inexcusable because it’s a leisure route and I would be blazing if it had happened to me, I once went on miles to Male and it’s a real pain to get a trip there with a 241, I’d say the most difficult on the network, checking availability at 2am and 6am every day from T-355days.

    It could be possible that the 777 was swapped for one without a crew rest area and therefore a seat was used for the 3rd pilot, but I don’t know the rules on them using a club seat Vs paying passengers, im fairly certain it’s that they come second. I’ve been on flights where one of our club seats is U/S and can’t be placed in the landing/takeoff position downroute, but the local dispatchers have insisted it’s ok and tried to get Pax in it to avoid a headache for them, but I’ve only ever experienced it downroute.

    The FLY system does tend to chose what happens with regards to onloading, but it can also mess it up. I may speak to a turn around manager about it this week and see what they say.

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