More evidence of British Airways prioritising Avios bookings for downgrades?

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• Anon says:

  26 Feb26 February 19:21

  Another snippet from my flight, BA had also managed to split up a couple in WTP that were on their honeymoon.

  Just before takeoff I volunteered to swap my WTP with the groom, also suggested to the FSM that a offering them a spot of CW champagne would go a long way to sweeting them up, to give him credit, he duly obilidged and they were v grateful.

  My wife also swapped her seat in CW so an other couple could be together.

  If BA want anymore help with customer services, I’m happy to be of assistance. 🙂

  • Yuff says:

    26 Feb26 February 20:33

    It sounds like BA were trying to do a parody of another David Williams and Matt Lucas comedy on your flight!
    They needed Moses on the flight to sort things out but it sounds like Omar was in charge 😉

    • CV3V says:

      26 Feb26 February 21:00

      and a complimentary read of the Daily Mail

  • Evan says:

    27 Feb27 February 19:56

    Man! Aren’t you supposed to be on holiday in Paradise???

• zaza says:

  26 Feb26 February 19:29

  Wonder how many instances of downgrading are as a result of Gold holders using status to force a seat open.

  • JamesW says:

    27 Feb27 February 13:26

    That would be very interesting to know.

  • Genghis says:

    27 Feb27 February 13:38

    For avios? Only if avios stinking rich given the double avios required.

    • Rob says:

      27 Feb27 February 15:21

      You can only book these 30 day out and – more importantly – can only book them if cash tickets remain for sale.

• Adam says:

  26 Feb26 February 21:23

  Assuming that Singapore and Hong Kong you have less chance of being downgraded. I have 4 first tickets (2 for 1) booked for September this year. I get the impression that these routes have more capacity.
  All of us will be in Silver.

• LondonFoodie says:

  26 Feb26 February 22:41

  This just convinced me not renew the Amex card. No point getting the 241 and saving all these Avios if in the end you get downgraded because plane is full. Never happened to us so far, but perhaps we booked on flights which weren’t super over-booked, or before this policy came into force. Would have been gutted if I booked a Maldives flight and got downgraded.
  I think I’m getting the HSBC card.

  • the real harry1 says:

    26 Feb26 February 22:48

    get rational

    so it never happened to you, is never likely to happen to you – but you think it’s a good reason to abandon 241

    you’re worse than my wife with SARS & Bird Flu – my gods that was 2 wonderful holidays in Paradise (Thailand) that I only just managed to persuade my mad mad mad irrational (at the time! 🙂 ) woman to take, given the silly, inflated news

    as it turns out, they were naturally wonderful holidays with zero extra risk

    • Anon says:

      27 Feb27 February 03:19

      Real Harry – understand where you’re coming from regarding people remaining rational, but we are not all Mr Spock, we are emotional beings hence why we want to experience holidays in far flung places in the first place, despite me wearing my heart on sleeve occasionally, Im actually a pretty analytical guy who also believes people should be dealt with fairly and with decency.

      So maybe a reasonable course of action is for BA to proactively form pax in advance that their high demand & low frequency flight has been overbooked?

      With flights like ours there’s no flight later that day or even the next day. I was even preselecting my preferred CW meal 48 hours before takeoff, pretty sure BA already knew then the likely situation that was to transpire.

      BA knows what flights they’ve already overbooked in similar circumstances, they also know if a 241 has been used on those flights, if they’d offered me a suitable alternative routing from EDI a few days earlier I’d of took it with appropriate compensation.

      We all know how popular Qatar business class product is, I’d of accepted that alternative if the flight & connection times from EDI suited our circumstances.

      As for advising on anyone else “irrational” enough to be concerned about been downgraded, maybe see if the cabin you’ve booked into has seats left to book from 2 weeks before you’re journey departure, if there’s nothing left phone BAEC to ask if the flight has been overbooked, at least you’d have more info than me.

      • the real harry1 says:

        27 Feb27 February 15:45

        sorry Anon – I was experiencing real pain at the flashback of my wife moaning at me non-stop for several weeks pre the SARS & bird flu holidays, coming back to haunt me 15 years later 🙂

        • Anon says:

          1 Mar1 March 05:53

          No harm done, I still like your story tho, btw I took a great trip to Hong Kong during SARS and Bird Flu.

      • LondonFoodie says:

        27 Feb27 February 22:48

        Real Harry –
        Here’s my rationale and hopefully it will show that my behaviour is rational:
        – I assume that the new rules are indeed in place, meaning that if a flight is over booked in CW, I will be the one bumped if I have a redemption flight, especially with 241
        – I know from past experience that I am most likely to book CW/F flights on popular dates to popular destinations by booking 355 days in advance and calling the service center to secure return flight.
        – I assume (maybe wrongly so) that popular flights will be over-booked in most classes
        – If my assumptions above are true, then there is a good chance that I will be bumped off my “hard earned” CW/F flight.

        So if the main reason for me paying £200 for the Amex is to get a companion voucher to redeem on premium cabins, and there is now a real risk (50%? 30%?) that I will lose this benefit, it does not make much sense for me to continue using the card in order to earn Avios I’m unlikely to use.

        Hope this makes sense and explains why this isn’t just an irrational knee jerk reaction.

• the real harry1 says:

  26 Feb26 February 22:50

  Raffles:is your website under attack by anti-BA people? Seems there are a lot of new people spouting similar nonsense.

• Polly says:

  26 Feb26 February 23:17

  Harry, l think people are slightly ! Concerned as this may be a new development BA are thinking more about enforcing. The fact that one of our main contributors was affected is quite enlightening. It may well be route focused, ie very popular limited access places like Male, or indeed a Gold card holder insisting on their rights as Gold. I think we would have had more reports over the past few years from readers if it was happening at a higher frequency. I think as BA read this, they will realise quite quickly this may well jeopardise their relationship with Amex. As the 241 is very much a big part of pushing the BAPP card. Let’s see what the legal stance is that BA might present to Rob in the next week or so. We wait with bated breath. But l agree Harry, l think it’s is most unlikely we will be downgraded with such high frequency.
  Anon, you are being very gracious about the whole episode, and both you and your wife are very generous in spirit with swopping seats etc. Have a great holiday, and we will def not be trying to use our 241 for that destination. Sounds gorgeous, but Phuket, and Bali will do us. We thankfully have never been downgraded on any of our Asia routes in F.

• reds says:

  27 Feb27 February 00:10

  Well said Polly!

  To add, we had 3X 241 in the last 3 years in J/F and were never downgraded once.

• Ian Hubbard says:

  27 Feb27 February 06:07

  The real harry1 – thank you for the early morning chuckle…………… I have been an avid reader/lurker since 2013 and it is the situation described that has provoked my post. On a positive note hopefully the routes I wish to fly will not be under the same pressure as the Maldives……………. Ps still chuckling

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