Book British Airways to North America in First Class from £1,700

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• sunguy says:

  29 Mar29 March 12:46

  There are 2 problems here….

  The first is that Rachel bought basic non-changable/non-refundable “cheap” tickets and unfortunately, its not BAs fault that one of her carers decided to leave the job before taking the flight.

  The second is that BA have quite a number of front line agents (on the non exec lines) who are extremely dismissive of any request and very much of a “computer says no” mentality.

  Realistically, I very much would have hoped that an escalation to a manager would have produced some sence in this issue, however, I think that it all probably went too far in the wrong direction for someone to “over rule” other managers and now its got to this point.

  I completely agree with the problems of name changes creating a secondary ticketing market, however, BA should look on a case-by-case basis and something like this should pretty much be a no-brainer.

  But the problem is that once you start, where do you stop ? What about the honeymoon couple that never make it to the altar and the bride to be and her maid of honour want to go instead?

  This opens up a whole can of worms……if you arent careful, you will endup with folks booking flights in a sale in January, “officially unable to use them”, selling them (for a profit) on ebay a few weeks before the flights are due to takeoff…..and the excuse – “my employer wont let me take the time off”…. if BA then refuse, they turn out with some sob story like “I work in the NHS and its just too busy to let me go and BA refuse to let me change the flights or change the name so that my friends can go instead”….

  Therein lies the whole problem…….except in this case, they REALLY should have just done it once proof of her care requirements was established.

  • Anna says:

    29 Mar29 March 15:00

    Disabled people are protected by the Equality Act – honeymoon couples aren’t. I’m sure Rachel could provide medical evidence that she needs two companions to travel with her and that should surely be sufficient to allay BA’s concerns about the secondary ticket market.

    • Nick says:

      29 Mar29 March 15:16

      She should have called up immediately after booking and had the PNR annotated to reflect the fact it’s for her and a carer. There’s no official policy but that way at least when this became necessary later it would have been clearer what was going on.

    • Matt says:

      29 Mar29 March 18:00

      Surely everyone is covered by he equality act. That is the point of it right?!

  • william merrett says:

    29 Mar29 March 23:54

    As far as a secondary ticket market is concerned surely if you limit name changes to bookings consiting of a min of 2 people and max 1 name change per booking then you at least ensure that one of the people who originally booked travels, I’d personally also make it a requirement that you are an exec club member (no status required) in order to do this as if someone was doing something silly you could easily flag persistent behaviour.

    I think it’s reasonable to allow someone who booked a flight with a partner and they subsequently separated to be allowed to change the person they travel with once per booking.

• r* says:

  29 Mar29 March 15:34

  OT – Has anyone ever had problems with Amex MR Melia voucher redemptions? I called Melia central reservations and asked about using vouchers, they said I had to contact the hotel directly, who then said I couldnt use the vouchers for a reservation. How are you supposed to know where/when you can use Amex Melia vouchers? Do you actually have to ask each hotel until you find one that says yes and only then make the booking via reservations number?

  Additionally, its taken 3 months and 3 CS tickets to get the 20% discount vouchers added to my Melia account (they still havent been – someone on their phone line said they have an IT problem.. for 3 months?) They seem a complete shambles.

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 18:26

    The Melia question has come up before, never seen an answer though ……

  • will says:

    29 Mar29 March 23:56

    Word from melia is you now have to phone to get access to the vouchers until the IT is fixed.

    If you have a relative, with a birthday within the next few days, and they register a new melia account they’ll be given an option to choose a 20% voucher on their birthday – it’s in the form of a code 😉

  • Nick Burch says:

    30 Mar30 March 08:13

    Every time I’ve used one, I’ve rung up Melia to check availability (which varies quite a lot!), then ordered the voucher from Amex while on the phone, then completed the booking with Melia. Finally, on arrival at the hotel, bring the voucher and expect to spend an extra 5 minutes on checkin and checkout as they figure out where to record the details of it!

  • Mark1980 says:

    30 Mar30 March 15:18

    I’ve had loads of issues with the Amex Amex vouchers and several of the Melia call centre operators have no idea about the vouchers. However I have found the following to be true:
    1. Ring Melia reservations to check availability and then book.
    2. You don’t need to order the vouchers from Amex until you book.
    3. They seem to be only able to search availability / book in batches of 3 days, so if you ask them to check 4 days or more it will show no availability.
    4. The code on their system which they book into is XS so you need to ask them to search availability under that.

    Hope that helps.
    Cheers,
    Mark

    • Rob says:

      30 Mar30 March 18:03

      Thanks Mark!

• Cate ⛱️ says:

  29 Mar29 March 15:57

  *checks calendar to see if April 1st yet*

• Anna says:

  29 Mar29 March 17:15

  If you get chance, the FB BA Complaints page makes interesting reading, mainly because so many people haven’t got a clue about their passenger rights (or lack of). There’s one poster who had exactly the same downgrading experience as TripRep but chose not to travel at all and genuinely thought she would get all her money back.

  • Yuff says:

    29 Mar29 March 17:34

    What did happen to the compensation in the end or was it kept quiet.
    If I had been in triprep’s position I’m niot sure I would have gone on the trip. I wouldn’t fancy 10 hours in WTP, although to be fair I would try to avoid CW as well.

    • Anna says:

      29 Mar29 March 17:47

      But you would only have been entitled to 75% of the downgraded leg and would probably lose everything else, including your accommodation.

      TripRep got a settlement, the details were not disclosed but he has produced a guide on how to proceed if you suffer the same fate. There’s a link somewhere…!

    • TripRep says:

      29 Mar29 March 19:59

      Believe me, I was glad I took the downgrade and enjoyed my first 2 days in the Maldives (no further BA flights for 2 days and no guarantee of CW on that either). But yes I suppose I could of asked to fly me with Qatar.

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 18:25

    That is not an unreasonable assumption and actually would almost certainly win at arbitration.

    • Anna says:

      29 Mar29 March 18:33

      What, a downgraded person who chose not to fly at all would be entitled to a full cash refund of their ticket? CAA regulations allow for 75% refund of the downgraded leg only.

      • Cate ⛱️ says:

        29 Mar29 March 18:49

        Being downgraded is something that hasn’t happened to us so would be interested what the position is. Take it overbooking (F/biz?) or under booking in F/biz would are main drivers for this?

      • Rob says:

        29 Mar29 March 19:24

        That is compensation, which is different. If you buy a business class seat and the airline cannot offer that then surely you are due a refund.

        If you order a Mercedes S Class and you get an A Class because the garage oversold the S, are you suggesting you have no rights?!

      • Anna says:

        29 Mar29 March 19:49

        I would think the conditions of purchase are somewhat different – if you buy a car you have the right to a full refund within a certain period of time, surely when you agree to buy a “non-refundable” ticket that’s exactly what it
        is, non-refundable? I hate to defend BA but I would argue that your choice would be to accept the downgrade and statutory compensation, or request your preferred class of seat on an alternative flight. I can’t see that you’d be entitled to a complete cash refund of what you’ve paid. Though I’m happy to stand corrected!

      • TGLoyalty says:

        29 Mar29 March 23:33

        I disagree

        The traveller has purchased “business class travel” to a destination not “travel and possibly in a business class seat”. If the airline can’t provide you with what you purchased then I’d expect a full refund. The offer of a downgrade and compensation is their way of trying to salvage the situation and not lose the full fair.

        Now in most cases the 75% compensation and lower class of seat to still get you to your destination might be a fair trade but I don’t think that offer stops them being obliged to refund you if that’s not to your liking.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        29 Mar29 March 23:36

        Also when it says “non-refundable” that’s if you wish to cancel of your own free will not if the airline stops flying there/oversells/makes significant flight time changes etc

  • Lady London says:

    30 Mar30 March 05:42

    And I don’t blame her for thinking that. J and F are marketed as completely different experiences and so I would think it perfectly reasonable to be able to cancel and get all your money back. I think the advertising makes it material to travel in the class booked and paid. Even if an airline such as British Airways seems to be getting away with insisting someone travel when downgraded. It seems that despite their marketing British Airways does not find what was bought and sold as J or F as technically essential.

    It’s shoddy. If I’m taking my loved one for a romantic break in the Maldives then a downgrade ruins the whole experience.
    A downgrade on the plane even makes other money spent for the hotel etc of lesser value. Because a downgrade such as British Airways has been doing, would cloud the whole experience.

    I think it’s quite reasonable for someone to be able to get all their money back plus a sweetener and travel on another airline or not at all, in the case of a downgrade.

    • Yuff says:

      30 Mar30 March 07:52

      I agree with your last paragraph and that’s what I would expect to receive.
      If I had the choice to fly business with Qatar and a sweetener for the inconvenience or wtp and a sweetener I’d take the Qatar option, no question!
      😉

• Anthony Dunn says:

  29 Mar29 March 18:57

  Err, is it not the responsibility of the airport to ensure wheelchair access to/from aircraft using their airport?

  • Alan says:

    30 Mar30 March 11:29

    BA staff took the wheelchair at aircraft door in BCN and returned it at LHR. Whether it’s the airline or airports responsibility I couldn’t say.

    BA staff took it, BA flew it to LHR, and BA staff returned it (eventually) so I blamed BA.

• Anthony Dunn says:

  29 Mar29 March 19:03

  As an aside: can you explain the fixation, fascination, determination to see BA downgraded? This has now taken on the self-same shoulder-chipped posture as those who denigrated the UK automotive industry for decades before contributing to its demise.

  Ask yourselves, with Brex**it heading towards us and the ability to compete internationally of CRITICAL importance, just what is it that the knockers wish to achieve here? Personally, I use BA, CX, AY, QF, QR and AA (all One World carriers) and find BA not to be the best but far from being the worst. It is interesting that there are just about no other cultures that I am aware of that appears to take such immense delight in tearing down its own companies and institutions as is found in what, for a short while longer, is the UK.

  Quite astonishing.

  • TripRep says:

    29 Mar29 March 19:53

    Anthony – my focus is to promote excellence and damn shoddiness.

    I don’t own BA or its parent company IAG, its therefore not mine to denigrate. BA have though behaved poorly with myself in the past, so there could be bias there. Maybe its just possible the majority of people use BA on here hence why you see more comments about them.

    I am against poor customer services, regardless of the company. I tend to give balanced reviews, promote great service and be critical when appropriate. Personally my recent trip to Singapore and returning from KL with BA was very good, particularly the level of service given to me by on CE domestic connections. As I mentioned at the time, I alsoeven got to sit on the flight deck of a 787 thanks to the fantastic pilots.

    I posted because I was reading this article on a BA promo, whilst seeing them mentioned on UK news channel and in my view they should be shamed for how they responded, only offering something substantial when it was going to be on TV.

    I feel this is constitent with my experience with BA, excellent front line crew, poor management practices.

  • Lady London says:

    30 Mar30 March 06:00

    Err…yes we can explain @Anthony Dunn why there might be an interest in seeing British Airways downgraded. Perhaps it’s because a number of us have ourselves been treated badly by them?

  • Alan says:

    30 Mar30 March 10:02

    The British car industry was not “talked down” – it produced sub-standard cars for years. It was miles behind the Japanese and German manufacturers and was probably on a par with the Italians in terms of build quality (but was way behind them on styling and driveability).

    I see no problem with calling out a company that takes its customers for granted and thinks it can get away with shoddy product “because its British”.

    Hopefully, with Brexit and the “ability to compete internationally of CRITICAL importance” the British companies will actually raise their game, not just expect to compete because no-one wants to criticize them

• Jody says:

  29 Mar29 March 19:16

  Sorry, very off topic. Trying to book the premium security at Gatwick North for £1, but that offer seems to have gone? The article on here said it was available to book until 31st March. Have I just been unlucky and it has been pulled early?

  • Rob says:

    29 Mar29 March 19:21

    A handful of people had trouble seeing it even when logged in to MyGatwick. No logic I’m afraid.

  • Kinkell says:

    29 Mar29 March 19:40

    I went through Gatwick north bog standard security. 3 weeks ago……it was as slick as I’ve ever encountered. No queue, straight onto a belt, very polite staff. Done and dusted in what felt like seconds. Absolutely no complaints at all from me. Save your £1 !

    • Genghis says:

      29 Mar29 March 20:01

      And I went through Premium at South week before last and was as long as the standard queues. Save your money.

  • Olly says:

    29 Mar29 March 19:50

    Jody,

    I did it a few days ago and just done a couple of dummy runs for both terminals okay so you might find it okay if you try again.

• Cat says:

  29 Mar29 March 20:02

  Hey, OT and slightly odd question – can the account holder on a BA AMEX 241 booking board the return flight without their companion there? I know it doesn’t work in reverse. I’m flying out with my sister, but she wants to take a different plane back – will this create problems for me?

  • TripRep says:

    29 Mar29 March 20:07

    IIRC I think someone on here has done that before, Rob may remember..

    • Rob says:

      29 Mar29 March 21:28

      Not a problem at all.

      • Cat says:

        29 Mar29 March 21:38

        Oh, good! Thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    29 Mar29 March 20:11

    If saying using the 241 for a return but the people fly on different flights back to the UK, I don’t believe so. But you can use the 241 for a single ex-British Isles excl ROI.

    • Cat says:

      29 Mar29 March 20:54

      Genghis, that’s what I meant. My sister wants to travel back with her OH to help look after my niece on a Ryanair flight.

  • Darren says:

    29 Mar29 March 20:25

    Could you not 241 outbound only and return using avios only?

    • Cat says:

      29 Mar29 March 20:41

      I already booked it 5 months ago – my sister doesn’t want to leave her OH holding the baby (well, toddler) alone on Ryanair for both legs of the journey.

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