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

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• Mozo says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:37

  I started collecting avios when they were paper air mile vouchers around 35 years ago.

  I have never redeemed any.

  I have a 241 first class flight to Singapore in 4 weeks to celebrate 30th wedding anniversary.

  I won’t be particularly happy if we get bounced and it takes me another 35 years to earn enough points to try again!

• MarkC62 says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:43

  Good luck with the claim. BA, and any other airline for that matter, should be made to pay the same compensation no matter how you have paid for the ticket. IMHO, they hould be made to compensate in cash based on the full flexible fare for that journey / cabin booked as that is almost what an Avios booking gives you. If you hit them where it hurts, in the pocket, then they are unlikely to downgrade involuntarily. Like so many things in the Travel Industry, the law needs to toughen up and stand on the side of the consumer. I am not a legal brain but my tickets issued after a 2-4-1 redemption say confirmed – I then assume that means just that – that my journey class & route is confirmed so isn’t it breach of contract if they downgrade you from involuntarily? When is confirmed not confirmed!

• Phil G says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:48

  BA have responded to me by saying they would never target an avios or 2-4-1 redemption seat for downgrade, and anyone who has been downgraded was picked at random.
  ” There are occasions where our customers make a booking and then don’t turn up for their flight. We have an overbooking policy, which helps us avoid flying with empty seats and means we can keep the cost of our fares down. Ultimately this also means we can fly a lot more passengers to their destinations. We collect data about how many people don’t turn up for each flight and we use this information to tell us if we should book more passengers than there are seats.

  I’m afraid we do get it wrong sometimes and more passengers turn up for their flight than we expected. We normally ask for volunteers so people who are happy to accept compensation are downgraded first. If no one steps forward, we have to choose customers at random. However, we can confirm that we try to stay away from families, so we’re aren’t separating parents and their children. I hope this clears up any concerns you may have had.”

  AMEX have responded by saying it is nothing to do with them but here’s 5000 avios for asking.

  • @mkcol says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:35

    Looks like a cut & paste response from BA.

    • Nick says:

      3 Mar3 March 09:09

      Why shouldn’t it be? It’s a general question and at least gives BA’s view on whether 241 is prioritised for downgrade- they say it isn’t.

• Leigh says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:54

  Called amex to express my thoughts on ba this morning and im considering not renewing the card next month.

• Nick Anon says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:57

  If BAs argument is that the companion voucher is at no cost… I might call up and ask for one…

  Once I’ve got and used my 241 that’s it, I’m out, I will not fly BA again, even if it costs more elsewhere. When will they realize that they are the National Carrier and the worlds airlines (used to) look up to their high standards, and high standards are what customers want. Alex Cruz – just hurry up and re-brand it to EasyBrit we all know you want to.
  BA – too big to fail?

  • Mr Dee says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:30

    Nothing is too big to fail, if people consistently see disappointed with a company they will stop using it, overtime we will see the effect if people are not happy with BA

    • Nick Anon says:

      3 Mar3 March 10:10

      During the recent financial crisis the banks were propped up by government (taxpayers).
      Alex Cruz is acting like those bankers and must think that because his company is sooo big he can do whatever he likes, screw the customer, just make money, screw reputation, just profit.

• Simon says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:59

  I sense this is being blown out of all proportion……. What percentage of 241s have ever experienced this problem??? And what percentage of regular seat purchases have had issues?? Ive used more than 20 Comp Vouchers and never had any problerms.

  • Tony says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:04

    Surely the issue isn’t the frequency, which you’re quite right is minimal, but the fairness in compensation when it does occur?

    • Simon says:

      3 Mar3 March 08:50

      Very true Tony. But this is a lot of hot air for a situation 99% of people will never ever have to worry about….. Sometimes life isn’t fair.

      • Darryl says:

        3 Mar3 March 09:43

        Sometimes it isn’t and you can’t do anything about it, why not try and fix the situations where you can do something about it though…

  • Mike says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:50

    Simon like you I historically used a lot of BA Companion tickets without problems. But this has now changed and I and many others recently were downgraded. It seems BA now have introduced a policy when down-grading to prioritise passengers using Avios. This is now a major issue and has not been blown out of all proportion.

    • Simon says:

      3 Mar3 March 13:05

      Do we know this for sure? Or assuming it based on a few data points?

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 09:11

    The new FLY passenger management system seems to have changes downgrade prioritising – as has EU261.

• Alastair France says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:04

  In the cases that we are aware of, has there been any “calling for volunteers” that anyone is aware of? If BA are just bumping 241s withiut calling for volunteers (who would, of course, get some monetary compensation) then we can be pretty sure this is a penny pinching exercise (and very likely a major own goal).

  • Liz says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:14

    They obviously didn’t call for volunteers in Anon’s case as he was prevented from checking in 24 hrs beforehand – looks like he had already been targeted which makes the whole thing even worse!

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 09:10

    No. The full statement BA gave me said they always ask for volunteers. This is not true, as Anon will confirm. EU rules mean asking for volunteers is commercial suicide because those who have the paid the most are most incentivised to volunteer and get the 75% EU comp plus whatever bribe BA offers on the day.

• Sundar says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:12

  All the best Anon and enjoy the ocean and holiday for now.
  Just a thought ? Would an argument for Section 75 apply ? Surely the service has not been as good/expected and BA are not compensating….Similar to someone who recently got paid by Amex for Southwest train delays ?
  BA is cost-cutting royally, I have a broken luggage case that I am dealing with them and subsequent insurance claim hopefully…
  It has to realize that this will be at loss of customer if we avoid it actively.

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