British Airways responds to my question on 2-4-1 downgrade compensation

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• Genghis says:

  3 Mar3 March 05:46

  @Anon. Would you accept settlement even if there was a gag clause?

  • Anon says:

    3 Mar3 March 07:22

    Not sure tbh.

    I’ve told BA I’m trying to park dealing with compensation for this until the week after I’m back into being at home unpacking, daily routine, etc, I’ll assess how I feel and review any correspondence that BA have sent between now and then. It is within their power to choose how to resolve this for a positive outcome for them. People do make mistakes, things do go wrong, but its how they deal with them and choose to resolve them that differentiates them between mediocrity and a World Class organisation.

    I do need reasonable answers to the following.

    1) Why were we continually mis-informed / lied to (delete as appropriate)
    eg Changed aircraft, Oversold, fake story about a broken seat & crew member using it, selected for downgrade because of 241 or because completely random or some other criteria, ie were any other volunteers for downgrades sort?

    2) Why did one of bags fail to travel with us turning up almost 3 days into hols (still no recognition/explanation of this and no apology given )

    Ok I’m already stopping myself there as I can feel myself getting annoyed, I’ll appropriately channel my energy into this on my return.

    Meanwhile I’m focusing how excellent the Conrad staff and service has been and how bonny it is here, now off on the reef, snorkeling from our Water Villa, aiming to take pics of a Turtle, a shark or maybe a friendly octopus, ahhhh there, that’s more like it, cheers folks… 🙂

    • Genghis says:

      3 Mar3 March 07:29

      🙂 Good to hear you’re having a good time!

    • Lili says:

      3 Mar3 March 08:05

      Great to hear from someone directly affected. Some questions I’d like to ask is: do you have status with BA? Does your companion have status? Were you downgraded to PE or all the way down to economy?

      Honestly, stories like this one make me *seriously* reconsider the whole BA redemption and 241. We have two long haul redemptions coming up this year and I’m sick with worry I’ll end up arriving at the destination exhausted because BA decides to screw us. With the crazy sales coming up so often, and giving you way more flexibility with choosing dates (don’t have to book a year ahead!) why keep supporting company which recently seems to have a motto “to fly, to make profit at the cost of passengers”.

      • @mkcol says:

        3 Mar3 March 08:24

        If you’re sick with worry then it isn’t worth it – cancel your redemption & pay with cash.

      • Graeme says:

        3 Mar3 March 08:36

        I’m sure hundreds of millions of people each year manage to fly long haul economy and live to tell the tale, so even if the worst happens you’ll still get there. You need to put this into perspective and consider how many times this actually happens, I would imagine that the vast majority of redemptions are completed without incident (or perhaps I am naive!) .

        Look forward to your vacation and avoid reading these comments which invariably create a distorted perception due to the fact the vast majority are sharing their ‘issues’ not good experiences.

        • Chris says:

          3 Mar3 March 09:31

          Alex is that you?

  • Lady London says:

    3 Mar3 March 09:15

    Hoping Anon won’t accept a huge pile of Avios thrown at this with a gag clause so BA can keep it out of the public domain and avoid setting precedent. But sure that’s in BA’s plans.

    Value for me is replacement value of the same ticket if purchased from BA or alternative airline on the day. Possibly subtract the value of ticket for lower class offered instead. But no requirement to accept this and able to have cost of BOTH tickets purchased elsewhere instead. After all, BA insists the two tickets are one purchased unit, no? So both can be replaced at cost to provide the service The contractual consideration having been the Avios and all associated charges.

    Please someone take this to court and have this ghastly national flag carrier sorted out.

• Waribai says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:09

  Well, clearly we were wrong about BA not wanting negative press. I can’t imagine Amex will be delighted about such a response i.e. the aspirational voucher you are advertising actually has an element of luck to it and could potentially be worth zilch!

• vindaloo says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:10

  Presumably in all cases BA has refunded 75% of the taxes and surcharges for however many passengers were downgraded?

  Irrespective of the legal position, the “right” thing to do when one passenger is downgraded is surely to refund based on half the total cost of the booking. Since you can’t really refund half a 2-for-1 voucher they should return the whole voucher (and extend its validity).

  Although, having said that, it’s a moot point, because really it’s an outrage to separate passengers on the same booking in the first place. Clearly BA does so purely in order to try to pay less compensation than any right-thinking person would consider reasonable, and doesn’t care a jot about ruining its customers’ experience in the process.

  These days absolutely anything goes if it might save BA some money, and to hell with the customer. It was the same when they lost my luggage last year. They didn’t lift a finger to help, and left me with a ruined holiday and hundreds of pounds out of pocket, but there was no legal recourse so why would they go out of their way to put things right?

  • Nick says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:56

    Pretty sure that the “taxes” are non refundable per case law. not sure whether the bare piss-take elemenr of the BA charges is refundable.

• Waribai says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:17

  Over the summer my partner will be flying to Japan with our 4 year old as the companion. Very much hoping they won’t be the unlucky ones selected for a downgrade. However, in that scenario effectively there is no choice for one person to remain in the premium cabin.

• Frankie says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:22

  And no mention on whether 2 4 1s were being specifically targeted or not unfortunately.

• Hingeless says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:23

  If 2 people are in F using a 241, will they downgrade 1 pax to PE or J?

  • Mike says:

    3 Mar3 March 07:51

    Highly unlikely you would find yourself downgraded from F to PE. F seems to be the safe bet as a downgrade to J would be within my own tolerance levels. In other words, it wouldn’t be the end of the world . However, J to PE would be a disaster.

    • Rob says:

      3 Mar3 March 09:12

      Except …. F to Eco costs BA no more compensation than F to J. If J is full and two people get downgraded (one J passenger makes way for the downgraded F passenger) BA pays out more.

      • Hingeless says:

        3 Mar3 March 11:09

        And does being gold help, are they going to downgrade a gold card holder from F?

• BA Sucks says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:34

  It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. – Warren Buffett

• Robert says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:37

  I can see BA’s logic, but this kind of policy combined with the downgrading of BA’s quality of service and the reduced availability of long haul premium flights (against inflated mileage redemption) increasingly means that I’m looking to other programmes for loyalty.

  • AVM says:

    3 Mar3 March 06:59

    Found anything as good as baec out of the uk? I couldn’t unfortunately.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      3 Mar3 March 07:05

      I shifted to hotel schemes.

    • AH says:

      3 Mar3 March 07:07

      switch to starwood & transfer to AirFrance/KLM
      works great for me as its easier for me to fly from Cardiff to Schipol or Paris than it is to schlep to Heathrow.

    • Michael_S says:

      3 Mar3 March 07:19

      Star

      Very decent network to Europe, US (UA) and Asia. Much easier to keep status if you study loopholes. Decent lounge option. I’m a happy star gold for 7 years, I don’t touch BA except that now potentially worthless voucher and maybe if I go to Spain or Italy – on short haul you don’t really mind anyway

      • Lili says:

        3 Mar3 March 08:08

        Which airline within star did you choose? Does it work well for cc spend or only if you fly a lot?

        • Michael_S says:

          3 Mar3 March 08:25

          Turkish

          Initially got gold with business trips. Now I don’t fly for business at all. The key is to take economy long haul flights. Flights to US with UA, Thailand with Thai, South Africa with SAA can be as cheap as couple of hundred quids and go a lot of way towards status. Maybe there are easier alternatives though

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