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Hi,
I recently travelled in CW LHR-DOH. The IFE wasn’t working on my seat and there were no free seats. I submitted a claim and was given a £50 voucher. Is this acceptable/normal as seems a little low to me?
Thanks
AkhilHi,
I recently travelled in CW LHR-DOH. The IFE wasn’t working on my seat and there were no free seats. I submitted a claim and was given a £50 voucher. Is this acceptable/normal as seems a little low to me?
Thanks
AkhilSeriously, how is a £50 voucher insufficient! A monthly Netflix subscription is £17.99 and you could get a Sky Glass TV for about £12/month yet £50 is low for a 7hr flight? It’s also entirely predictable on BA and many other airlines that the IFE might not work so bringing one’s own entertainment seems a fairly obvious packing essential. I appreciate that maybe you are part of the younger compensation culture, but what have you actually lost by not having functional IFE, what have you suffered?
Come one @JDB. It is a voucher not even cash.
Setting the bar lower and lower for BA club product is understandable. But first meals then god knows whyRecently I’ve got a survey from BA which sounded like BA wants to give the club lax option of opting out from meal service and some other amenities.
I say £50 is not sufficient given the cash price and your should push more.
Come one @JDB. It is a voucher not even cash.
Setting the bar lower and lower for BA club product is understandable. But first meals then god knows whyRecently I’ve got a survey from BA which sounded like BA wants to give the club lax option of opting out from meal service and some other amenities.
I say £50 is not sufficient given the cash price and your should push more.
@can2 – if an IFE service were only offered if you paid £50, would you use the service or not?While IFE is part of a package of services, it isn’t just a premium class service but one offered in all cabins. How do you expect to have reasonably priced tickets if an airline is constantly having to pay out silly sums of ‘compensation’ to ‘victims’ who haven’t actually suffered from anything meaningful? We did even have someone here who sought compensation for their IFE not working although they hadn’t even intended to use it. £50, even in the form of a voucher is very generous for what’s only a mid-haul flight.
If you’re unhappy with the amount then complain to BA directly rather than asking for some sort of validation from us to do it.
On a flight back from USA recently my IFE was very dodgy and needed resetting a couple of times, then I gave up. Cabin crew were apologetic etc, but I did not seek redress as I was only looking to see what was available on the off chance I might watch something ( which is rare as I usually prefer to read )
I’m more inclined to make a fuss on what’s more important to me. (20k avios for frozen meal followed by burnt offering on replacement) initial offer 5K !)@JDB it is not that simple. I think a big crisp screen is part of the deal with a premium flight experience.
And yes when we book or redeem for Club long haul I believe the rate includes it.
If there were 2 screen/seat type in Club: one old and bad, the other new and big, yes I’d pay for the new and big screen.There is a long Flyertalk thread on what people get as compo. I would have put this down as a 10,000 Avios issue, which to be fair is probably the same internal cost to BA as £50.
I recently received £100 for a broken power socket in CW. £50 seems low.
There is a long Flyertalk thread on what people get as compo. I would have put this down as a 10,000 Avios issue, which to be fair is probably the same internal cost to BA as £50.
That’s what I’ve got the two times this has happened to me. Both times I didn’t need to ask and would not have bothered anyway as I never use the IFE.
@JDB it is not that simple. I think a big crisp screen is part of the deal with a premium flight experience.
And yes when we book or redeem for Club long haul I believe the rate includes it.
If there were 2 screen/seat type in Club: one old and bad, the other new and big, yes I’d pay for the new and big screen.And BA clearly thinks it’s part of the deal as they have a substantial catalogue of films and other programming on offer. Watching something which is entirely my choice and which I might not ordinarily watch is an integral part of the experience and a welcome change from reading/music/audio books on a long flight. I’ve also discovered a few gems I might otherwise have missed – I can thoroughly recommend American Fiction, starring the excellent Jeffery Wright, as a thought-provoking and very funny watch.
I wonder if BA has started handing out vouchers because they think they’re less likely to be redeemed than avios?
I think there are multiple angles on that. Avios can be spent or converted elsewhere, presumably costing BA hard cash, vouchers can’t. Vouchers can only be used against cash flights not towards the cost of reward flights, and also prevent using part pay with Avios.
Equally some people would prefer a £100 voucher to say 10K Avios, so it all depends on individual circumstances what might be best for the end user.
I’m off to Singapore on Friday and back from Hong Kong on the 23rd Dec.
I’m with JDB on this – so if anyone finds themselves with a malfunctioning screen, bung me a £50 note (other currencies accepted)and I’ll swap seats.
Mind you, it would need to be a window seat with direct aisle access – that’s the critical issue for me. Not food, drink or entertainment.
But would you swap for a e-voucher or some avios?!
@JDB BA have been giving out compensation for non working IFE for years. Way back in 2007 on a CW flight to Philadelphia after multiple attempts to get my IFE to work I got to choose an item from the duty free catalogue – chose a Longchamp tote bag which I gave to my mum – she still uses it today. Just looked and it now retails for £120.
I really don’t think airfares cost more today because BA is giving out compensation for non working IFE any more than it is due to compensation legally payable due to EC261. It’s just a cost of doing business.
@AJA – yes, of course BA has been compensating for defective IFE for years as these are unfortunately rather temperamental systems, seemingly worse when retrofitted. Also, of course it’s a cost of doing business like EC261 and that is factored into your ticket price. What has changed is the costly epidemic of trivial and sometimes fake claims with the principal purpose of gaining some Avios. They not only clog up the system but increase costs for everyone. There’s an irony in that when BA rejects, stints or dithers in handling claims, that’s good for passengers in general.
In addition to various sites encouraging such claims as an ATM, it’s apparent that with leisure travellers now occupying more seats in premium cabins, their expectations are excessively and incomprehensibly high vs experienced business travellers.
Apart from the costs and organisational pressure there is another unfortunate and presumably unintended consequence – when the principal nature of complaints is analysed for management, the sheer quantum of trivial ones completely drowns out the more serious ones, so the company pats itself on the back, extrapolating that they must be doing the big things right because such complaints as we get are on the inconsequential side.
Incredibly few people complain about the structural problems, such as the fact that BA operates the largest business cabins in the industry but doesn’t have a commensurate numbers of cabin crew, galley space or loos. They don’t complain that with the insufficient galley space and crew numbers, service is never going to match that of other airlines. The insufficient number of loos (and crew) means they aren’t getting cleaned properly inflight. Crew are not carefully enough recruited or properly trained, so one gets a very inconsistent level of service; people sometimes complain that ME airline crews are ‘robotic’ but it works and they understand hospitality. The superior quality of service offered by BA’s foreign based crews is very instructive; I wonder if BA management notices?
Aircraft are so heavily utilised that there is no proper cleaning or maintenance programme for the premium cabins. The detritus to be found in Club Suite seats when extended is a disgrace and the seats, shells, tables etc are looking quite tatty. That ought to be complained about every time someone encounters an issue, but it’s not on the compensation tariff so they don’t bother.
On the ground at call centres and at the airport there are plenty of structural issues as well.
I haven’t mentioned long haul Club food as that’s too controversial but as I have previously mentioned hardly anyone references the objectively defective nature of what they get as opposed to subjective gripes.
I’m afraid that, to an extent, passengers get the airline they deserve! If more people provided more considered, detailed and insightful feedback about the big stuff, things would change.
As you say, though, those are structural issues and I imagine most people would feel that a complaint about something like that would make absolutely no difference!
Presumably there has to be a minimum number of crew for safety reasons – in your opinion, @JDB, how does this compare with the number required to provide an acceptable level of service?
Yes there is a minimum number of crew (set by regulators) required for safety reasons.
It’s why for example BACF now has an extra member of CC on every plane following the increase in the number of seats because the regulators required it due to going over 100 seats. It’s also why some LCCs have seat numbers just below the thresholds so they don’t have to employ more CC.
BA used to staff the likes of F and Club over and above the safety minimum to be able to provide a particular level of service level.
But IIRC around ten years ago they reduced that number by at least one “ordinary” member of CC and the CSM was included in the “working” numbers instead of being supernumerary and so had less time to speak to passengers and actually supervise the other cabin crew. It was (and is) harder for them to monitor what CC are doing or supervise more closely new CC and so evaluations etc.
Doesn’t seem like a particularly big deal to me. Unfortunate, but not the end of the world. Appropriate compensation would be an extra few glasses of wine and perhaps a nice Port.
I think that some form of compensation should be paid, but for me a voucher is pointless.
I very rarely pay cash for flights and the vouchers can’t be used for seat booking or other extras. They also have an expiry.
Given the choice of a £50 voucher or £10 cash, I would take the cash.@NorthernLass – BA needs at least one, ideally two extra crew members in the big Club cabins in order to provide an adequate level of service, but beyond the cost considerations, this may be tricky as they have not only reduced the working space but also seem to employ many rather larger staff.
The existing crew numbers would work a lot better if they trained staff in the art of hospitality (it doesn’t seem to come naturally to many crew) and operated to a fixed service protocol but they make it up as they go along and thus often work for their own convenience rather than that of their passengers. The absence of a CSM referenced above doesn’t help. BA / crews don’t seem to recognise what might suit the majority of passengers for different departures in a way that say Iberia or Qatar do for their late departures – the opportunity of quick but full service if desired.
As there is now one crew pool, I don’t fully understand why the CE crews I come across are just much better, more professional and more cheerful than CW ones. The same divergence can be seen in the better quality of CE food vs CW food.
@phantomchickenz – as they say, with BA selecting the port, if you want a nice port, they will fly you e.g. to Marseille.I had a broken power socket and IFE screen kept closing inwards (LGW B777 CW seat) on a night flight. I didnt say much to the crew, but a week later I got an email from BA apologising and gave me 70,000 Avios ( yes SEVENTY thousand ). Very welcomed, but certainly not asked for nor expected.
Always had great compensation from BA, often without asking – food, seat, delayed luggage, etc. My bag is already fully loaded with work/entertainment/relaxation so if the IFE doesn’t work I don’t care – surely everyone else does the same??
Otherwise pay for the WiFi and use Netflix, etc and claim that back?? Perhaps the OP can say what loss of enjoyment the problem caused?? Did the OP sit twiddling thumbs for hours, or get the laptop out and watch a film/do some work instead??
I am flabbergasted at JDB’s comments about £50 being sufficient. Wow.
I am flabbergasted at JDB’s comments about £50 being sufficient. Wow.
You make it sound as though you are agreeing with me and, in fact, various other subsequent posters, but I suspect you did not intend to agree. £50 is very generous on any objective analysis of the loss to the OP, so BA has pitched it about right. How would you objectively justify a greater sum?
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