BA compensation for Brunch now Avios instead of cash voucher

[CarpenterFish]

Lady London wrote:

It’s not about compensation nor suffering.

The OP was on an exceptionally long flight to a prestige part of the world for these flights and was in a Premium cabin.

Trapped on an aircraft for that length of time unable to exit to go down the street to a different restaurant that would serve palatable nutritious food, the OP has made a complaint that service ot a reasonable level has not been provided. In fact has been insultingly neglected.

British Airways has been caught out trying to go too cheap in an un-clever way. The resulting menus do not make sense and their nutritional quality is highly questionable.

Payments from BA to passengers who booked BA on the basis of completely different publicity, or who on other routes due to work timetables might not have been able to eat before the flight or soon after it,especially the BA publicity bout “luxury” in Premium classes, have every right to complain and the amount from BA should have a large OK we boobed / got caught out trying to be too cheap, or punitive element.

6000 avios is absolutely nothing in this context.

@lady London please consider taking your custom elsewhere if the new offering does not suit. These airlines need positive or negative customer feedback to help them evolve.
As for compensation, absolutely not, unless you want to pay more for your tickets.

[Gosia44]

It’s not about starving. Just not the experience I expect paying for two return tickets in Club. I don’t see visiting a departure lounge as some sort of school canteen before a field trip. Perhaps I expect too much..

[Tracey]

ekposh wrote:

I have had my fair share of troubles with BA with dodgy IT and waiting months and months for refunds so I’m not a huge fan.

But I have to say, people complaining about this and getting compensation I find totally wrong. It is what it is and you’re getting food, just not what you like. Should Ryanair pay out because I don’t get anything?

It’s a service change and it’s been announced. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere. I don’t think it’s great that the offering is what it is. But I don’t think anyone should be due compensation and frankly am surprised they’re giving people anything at all.

Anyway, an unpopular view perhaps.

It wasn’t announced at the time tickets were bought, so people aren’t getting the service they paid for at the time.

Not everyone has the opportunity to eat in the lounge before a flight.

[ed_fly]

ekposh wrote:

I have had my fair share of troubles with BA with dodgy IT and waiting months and months for refunds so I’m not a huge fan.

But I have to say, people complaining about this and getting compensation I find totally wrong. It is what it is and you’re getting food, just not what you like. Should Ryanair pay out because I don’t get anything?

It’s a service change and it’s been announced. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere. I don’t think it’s great that the offering is what it is. But I don’t think anyone should be due compensation and frankly am surprised they’re giving people anything at all.

Anyway, an unpopular view perhaps.

perhaps you should write to BA

[ekposh]

ed_fly wrote:

ekposh wrote:

I have had my fair share of troubles with BA with dodgy IT and waiting months and months for refunds so I’m not a huge fan.

But I have to say, people complaining about this and getting compensation I find totally wrong. It is what it is and you’re getting food, just not what you like. Should Ryanair pay out because I don’t get anything?

It’s a service change and it’s been announced. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere. I don’t think it’s great that the offering is what it is. But I don’t think anyone should be due compensation and frankly am surprised they’re giving people anything at all.

Anyway, an unpopular view perhaps.

perhaps you should write to BA

I would if I thought I’d get a reply within 6 months 🙂

[marshy11]

ekposh wrote:

But I have to say, people complaining about this and getting compensation I find totally wrong. It is what it is and you’re getting food, just not what you like. Should Ryanair pay out because I don’t get anything?

It is not what is advertised. Club World food is still being described on their website as – In Club World you can choose your main course, served with a starter, dessert and cheese. During your flight you can choose from snacks, plus hot, cold and alcoholic drinks, all delivered to your seat. Our signature afternoon tea features on some routes – I expect to get what is advertised as being included. I appreciate that won’t always be my first choice but I do expect three courses and cheese because that’s what they say I will get

ekposh wrote:

It’s a service change and it’s been announced. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere. I don’t think it’s great that the offering is what it is. But I don’t think anyone should be due compensation and frankly am surprised they’re giving people anything at all.

It may be a service change – it has not been communicated to me at all – if I were not a forum reader here and at FT I would not know about it. When I booked it was sold as a CW flight with CW food. If that has changed I would like them to tell me. They haven’t.

[AndrewT]

It’s also impossible to take your business elsewhere when you’ve already booked a non-cancellable ticket. Where it’s a significant change to the service advertised at the time of booking it should be handled accordingly.

[ed_fly]

ekposh wrote:

ed_fly wrote:

ekposh wrote:

I have had my fair share of troubles with BA with dodgy IT and waiting months and months for refunds so I’m not a huge fan.

But I have to say, people complaining about this and getting compensation I find totally wrong. It is what it is and you’re getting food, just not what you like. Should Ryanair pay out because I don’t get anything?

It’s a service change and it’s been announced. If you don’t like it, take your business elsewhere. I don’t think it’s great that the offering is what it is. But I don’t think anyone should be due compensation and frankly am surprised they’re giving people anything at all.

Anyway, an unpopular view perhaps.

perhaps you should write to BA

I would if I thought I’d get a reply within 6 months 🙂

just put ‘compliant about Brunchgate compensation’ as the title of your correspondence and you’ll get a swift response with some Avios / voucher 🙃

[JDB]

@AndrewT – is it really such a “significant” change? Swapping one type of food for another or a missing small first course. Swapping steak for pasta would seem a greater step, yet many choose that cheaper option.

Anyway if you or @marshy11 or @Tracey believe that you have some sort of contract with BA and the airline is in breach of that, your remedy would be in the form of damages. The element(s) not provided have a value of £5-10 at most. You would have no entitlement to any more and even that sum is questionable. If you get more by making a fuss then that’s goodwill.

[NorthernLass]

I’m just a humble leisure customer, but it seems to me that all the complaints and goodwill payments could be avoided if BA would just reinstate the facility to pre-select meals! They might then realise they have a glut of sourdough and eggs they can’t get rid of.

[memesweeper]

JDB wrote:

[quote]… your remedy would be in the form of damages. The element(s) not provided have a value of £5-10 at most. You would have no entitlement to any more and even that sum is questionable. If you get more by making a fuss then that’s goodwill.

For most contracts that is correct @jdb – you cannot normally claim for mental distress or loss of amenity – English law rarely allows damages of this type to be successfully claimed for contract breach. But there are some exceptions, such as where it can be established that an important object of the contract was to give pleasure or relaxation, for instance holidays, and BA’s own promotion of the luxury of CW dining might well squarely put itself in the crosshairs of a loss of amenity claim. For a flight costing upwards of a thousand pounds this might be a substantial sum, and the amount of money BA did or could or didn’t spend on the food would be immaterial. IANAL.

[AndrewT]

Interesting to note that that the BA website still says:

Business – Club World
In Club World you can choose your main course, served with a starter, dessert and cheese.

Whether the change is significant is a matter of opinion but not really the point. On some routes they are clearly and deliberately failing to provide the advertised service.

[JDB]

@memesweeper – the “loss of amenity” that you reference is in reality no more than swapping a lunch main course for a brunch main course and on late departures, the removal of a very small first course for a meal where many don’t dine at all. What on earth are you suggesting is an appropriate measure of damages? I’d love to see anyone argue that they were previously travelling on BA for the haute cuisine or even “pleasure” and that’s no longer available or going to be the case. I would also like to see you successfully argue that the food is an important part of an airline contract; it’s too ridiculous for words.

It all makes great fodder for journalists and usual complainers to kick up a fuss as a matter of principle, but anyone who had to make an independent decision about any level of compensation would see the changes as de minimis.

[JDB]

AndrewT wrote:

Interesting to note that that the BA website still says:

Business – Club World
In Club World you can choose your main course, served with a starter, dessert and cheese.

Whether the change is significant is a matter of opinion but not really the point. On some routes they are clearly and deliberately failing to provide the advertised service.

Fine, BA has failed to update its website, so BA pays you £10 and the breach of contract/failure to provide the advertised service you allege is remedied. End of story.

[AndrewT]

Or BA have a different view and pay £60 – 150. I agree that is clearly unsustainable and won’t last, but it is the current reality so why try to pretend otherwise?

[JDB]

AndrewT wrote:

Or BA have a different view and pay £60 – 150. I agree that is clearly unsustainable and won’t last, but it is the current reality so why try to pretend otherwise?

I have at no point tried to pretend otherwise. I have merely pointed out that it’s not only a ridiculous sum but also unsustainably high, so don’t expect it to continue for long. If anything gets rolled back, they will still cut, just more subtly. It also as some others have said feels rather entitled, greedy and opportunistic to expect £150 for this allegedly terrible suffering they have endured.

When in dispute with any organisation, many pay handsomely to get rid of complaints for their nuisance value. That’s what’s happening now while the issue is ‘live’. It’s not BA’s view of the value of the catering changes.

[DB Cooper]

ekposh wrote:

Do people on here really believe that they will starve and need to bring sandwiches on an 8 hour flight where you are fed? And can gorge on food in a lounge. Please.[/

Food in lounges can be nice and also disgusting or none existent depending on location. Likewise on board👍

[memesweeper]

JDB wrote:

@AndrewT – is it really such a “significant” change? Swapping one type of food for another or a missing small first course. Swapping steak for pasta would seem a greater step, yet many choose that cheaper option.

Anyway if you or @marshy11 or @Tracey believe that you have some sort of contract with BA and the airline is in breach of that, your remedy would be in the form of damages. The element(s) not provided have a value of £5-10 at most. You would have no entitlement to any more and even that sum is questionable. If you get more by making a fuss then that’s goodwill.

For most contracts that is correct @jdb – you cannot normally claim for mental distress or loss of amenity – English law rarely allows damages of this type to be successfully claimed for contract breach. But there are some exceptions such as where it can be established that an important object of the contract was to give pleasure or relaxation, for instance holidays, and BA’s own promotion of the luxury of CW dining might well squarely put itself in the crosshairs of a loss of amenity claim. For a flight costing upwards of a thousand pounds this might be a substantial sum, and the amount of money BA did or could or didn’t spend on the food would be immaterial. IANAL.

[DB Cooper]

ekposh wrote:

Do people on here really believe that they will starve and need to bring sandwiches on an 8 hour flight where you are fed? And can gorge on food in a lounge. Please.[/

Food in lounges can be nice and also disgusting or none existent depending on location. Likewise on board👍

[quote quote=715447]Earlier this week I was on BA2159 LGW to Grenada (via stop down in St Lucia) in club world seats 1J and 1K
Scheduled for 10:05 departure. Had to suffer the dreaded Brunch. We were first to be served at 12:25pm.

I have submitted a complaint thinking I might receive £150 compensation but it seems BA are using Avios to compensate now. I’ve already got oodles of Avios being a Gold Exec member and would have preferred the flexibility of a cash voucher but it is what it is.
I’m assuming cash compensation won’t be forthcoming but if it appears I’ll let you know.

BTW the flight attendants were saying how embarrassing it is to serve brunch at lunchtime especially to premium customers.

BA email reads…..
We’re sorry to hear about your recent experience with. This isn’t what you should expect, and we understand why you needed to complain.

Please rest assured that your feedback has made a difference. Your comments have been shared with the relevant team and we’ll be using them to help us do better next time. We’d also like to thank you for your patience while we got back to you.

We’ve added 6,000 Avios to the Executive Club accounts of each person travelling with you and we hope this goes some way towards making up for your experience. You can exchange Avios for flights, upgrades, hotels and more – please see ba.com/avios for more information.

Once again, please accept our apologies. We hope to welcome you on board soon.

Fair enough to give Avios but you should be getting some more. The service change is odd to say the least and the crew agreed👍. BA need to know when their customers are dissatisfied and rightly so. Maybe they will listen and change back and then even improve on that . There was certainly room for improvement not to get even worse☹️

[memesweeper]

JDB wrote:

What on earth are you suggesting is an appropriate measure of damages?

I don’t know, I’ve not been affected. It might be 1p. I’ve not experienced the product first hand lately so have no insight to share on that. My point was to refute the unqualified statement you made about the maximum value of an award based on the trivial cost of the food. In certain cases (eg “spoiled experiences”) claims can substantially exceed the value of the missing component of the contract. IANAL.

BA just might be throwing compensation money/avios at people precisely because the delta between the advertised product and the actual delivery has become undefendable. BA is not known for throwing out compensation quickly or being generous about it. Draw your own conclusions.

[Lady London]

memesweeper wrote:

JDB wrote:

[quote]… your remedy would be in the form of damages. The element(s) not provided have a value of £5-10 at most. You would have no entitlement to any more and even that sum is questionable. If you get more by making a fuss then that’s goodwill.

For most contracts that is correct @jdb – you cannot normally claim for mental distress or loss of amenity – English law rarely allows damages of this type to be successfully claimed for contract breach. But there are some exceptions, such as where it can be established that an important object of the contract was to give pleasure or relaxation, for instance holidays, and BA’s own promotion of the luxury of CW dining might well squarely put itself in the crosshairs of a loss of amenity claim. For a flight costing upwards of a thousand pounds this might be a substantial sum, and the amount of money BA did or could or didn’t spend on the food would be immaterial. IANAL.

I think a complaint to the ASA from people who are locked into a nonrefundable flight, and then do not receive the advertised service at the time of booking, should deserve the ASA’s attention as it has ‘class action’ merit as there will be many passengers to whom BA hasn’t provided the service advertised.

I believe the ASA has some level of teeth. Can they fine companies who make decisions not to provide the luxury service they’re still advertising and used to provide, and haven’t notified any change to, after passengers are locked in like this?

Of course it’s ‘bad faith’ action by BA for many other passengers exposed to BA’s advertising of the catering they offer particularly in Premium Classes, if they are locked in to the booking they made because of BA’s advertising or even based on previous flights they’ve taken with BA advertised the same way. Noting that no one has received an enail from BA “the catering on your flight is changing: here some options: [should include the ablity to refund even a nonrefundable flight, customer to choose a cash or avios bonus, etc].

People can be locked into taking a flight they technically might theoretically cancel by all sorts of things, particularly difficult to change other arrangements made around existing flight, or the increased cost of having to find a replacement flight. This is why if BA really wants to enforce this rubbish on customers who booked when service was what was promised they should put their hand up and offer more than the cost of food but a meaningful “Sorry” amount.

But to go formal externally to the ASA think, we’d need a nonrefundable ticket case to make sure and complaint made after customer had been surprised by not getting the advertised service on the flight once taken.

[Mikeact]

This is a decent read…read what we used to be given…(good old days !)

Flavour of Flight….The Food and Drink of British Airways

[JTIII]

JDB wrote:

JDB

@jdb you seem quite fixated on the perceived difference in cost between the expected ingredients and the sub par ones – unless you think the difference between a cheap restuarant brunch main and a roast dinner would also be £5-10? That might be true in Wetherspoons but unlikely on e.g. The Orient Express

The difference in cost of ingredients is irrelevant, as you don’t go to a Michellin starred establishment and complain the brocolli side dish is 30x the cost – you’re paying for the ‘experience’. In a premium cabin, part of the experience is premium catering, which is what is expected here. If it wasn’t, they’d just have the same catering as economy.

Consider – Would you be perfectly happy if they swapped the entire catering for a loaf of bread, unlimited tap water and some multivitamin/mineral pills to make up the butritional deficit – and shaved ~£40 off the price ‘to compensate’? Do you think the majority of premium passengers would have the same response?

Finally, for infrequent travellers, premium cabins are mostly about the experience, so compensation is due when you’re rug-pulled on your expectations. If it wasn’t.

[JDB]

@JTIII – BA has not offered “premium catering” on long haul Club in the last decade or more, so I’m not sure why you would expect it now, nor in fact be able to draw much of an objective difference between what was offered a few months ago and what’s on offer today. People are incensed on principle and a sense of entitlement.

Improving punctuality, reducing delays, cleaning aircraft and better, more consistent service on the ground and in the air would seem far more important than making a fuss about a minor menu change but journalists know good is a good hot button issue.

[notrob]

I do love that the BA apologists here lack any ability to empathise with people who are genuinely disappointed at the catering downgrade. BA Club catering has it’s moments – not perhaps as many as you would hope, but if you have booked a trip for a special occasion the meal is part of that experience (Let’s be honest, eating is also something to keep you occupied.

But this is the internet where it is somehow acceptable to call people out as naïve because they happen to value something more than you do.