Forums › Frequent flyer programs › British Airways Executive Club › I got bumped from my seat on a 2-4-1 once again. Are 2-4-1 being targeted?
I got bumped from my seat on a 2-4-1 once again. Are 2-4-1 being targeted?
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I’d say it’s very unlikely there’s foul play involved here. If you tell us the route, seat number you were bumped from & plane type there’s probably a valid reason you were moved.
If the seat isn’t functional in any way then they will move a paying passenger but would put a staff member in it if no other seats available. They don’t just shift you for the captain’s partner (although they may sit there when not in use if it’s designated crew rest).
I’m no BA apologist & as per usual they’ve compounded an issue by no/inadequate communication but their staff are very restricted in what they can do in the way of seat shifting, upgrades & downgrades so I’d always assume incompetence or valid justification over malfeasance with matters like this.
Ps. Ignore anything you read on SeatGuru, it’s wildly inaccurate.
- This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .
@Thegasman I never thought anything of it. But this is like the 3/4 time is happened to me. They didn’t give me an explanation. I only know that someone else was given that seat.
@Lady London I thought redemptions show in “U” class?- This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .
My seats also seem to have been changed from 2E/2F to 7E/7F on a 2-4-1 booking.
Will report back if I get any more information.Which flight and date? Could be a switch from a 3 to 4 class aircraft…
Maria must be very unlucky to have chosen a broken seat on several ocassions!
Sorry but that explanation does not wash especially as the IFE appeared to have been working and the cabin manager said there was apparently no problem with the seat.
Had a similar experience a few weeks back where I’d selected seats 7 days in advance based on bronze status, but upon check in our tickets were showing different seat numbers and the ones we had originally selected were occupied by someone else!
Maria must be very unlucky to have chosen a broken seat on several ocassions!
Sorry but that explanation does not wash especially as the IFE appeared to have been working and the cabin manager said there was apparently no problem with the seat.
This is the thing, I don’t think I’m unlucky. I think people don’t pay attention to it until there is a negative impact, in the same way I didn’t really pay attention to it before. For most people, a 2-4-1 redemption will be a once in a year experience and that’s why people have not really picked up on it.
Last time I was on a 241, we were moved into the first class cabin due to a plane change, no first class sold on the route and only 6 people were moved up.
To be honest this sounds familiar… we flew last week in first and my partner was moved as “the seat was broken”. We assumed her original seat was broken so this was good customer service?
When boarding there was much confusion as two people had the same seat… she was then asked if she was staff… she wasn’t. Anyway, we got the new seat and someone else was sat next to me in the “broken” seat. Except it was the seat we were moved to that didn’t have a working entertainment unit… all makes sense now!- This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .
Had exactly same problem 2 weeks ago on a 241 LHR – MIA. Both seats reserved months ago at booking but told at check in (the day prior at MAN) that both seats inop and moved elsewhere in the cabin.
Upon boarding, both seats occupied. I took it up with the cabin crew, who seemed unaware seats inop, but let it go as not their fault and didn’t want to create a difficult situation for them.
Mmmh.
Similar problem – but not flying until 22nd March – BA Silver me BA Bronze Husband ( should both be Gold but points not posted..! ), I could change his seat for 15A (was 15B) – cot row WT+ but not mine, so had to change his first then for me to change into his vacated seat 15B. I was continually blocked when I tried a direct move from 15D to 15A. On a 241 booked using my Voucher… So its a wait and see if we are still 15A and 15B when we fly.
I also don’t think there’s any foul play here. In my 30+ years with BA I never saw it, but what did happen was that the cabin tech log would be out of date as the information would be no newer than the previous sector. We often had engineers working on the seats until boarding. If they fixed them, the dispatcher would be made aware and the seat would become available at the last minute.
Staff pax with the appropriate cabin entitlement would commonly be given the choice of sitting in a seat unfit for commercial use (e.g. club seat doesn’t recline properly) rather than a downgrade.
And I never would have dared move a commercial pax to put my wife in her favourite seat!
What I think did happen was that Avios redemption seats were targeted for downgrades when BA’s overbooking profile went wrong, because BA thought they could get away with paying less compensation. I think (hope) that partly due to complaints though this site it is mainly a thing of the past
Yet another reason to buy cash tickets and spend your Avios with nectar!
This thread has a lot of assumption and accusation and precious little fact.
Firstly cabin crew can mis-speak, not everything is a lie.
You lost a seat after 7 months, without the routes and the date detail, it’s impossible to be sure, but it’s almost certain the aircraft changed several times in that period, easy to lose a seat allocation when that happens.
I don’t get the idea that there’s a free ticket and a paid for one on a 241, just two passengers on a single booking.
Losing a seat and suggesting 241 being targeted is bonkers, and the suggestion that there’s a ‘pattern’ of moving the female, please.
There’s much about BA that needs complaint and changing, but the things suggested here, well, take a breath and move on.What I think did happen was that Avios redemption seats were targeted for downgrades when BA’s overbooking profile went wrong, because BA thought they could get away with paying less compensation. I think (hope) that partly due to complaints though this site it is mainly a thing of the past
Not so sure. One of the previous times I was moved in the past , it was done after checking-in. When we got to the gate my boarding pass made a ping and I was issued a new boarding pass with a new seat allocated. This time I was told that I didn’t pay for my seat ( I am silver) and someone else had actually paid for that seat. Again I had reserved that seat at the time of booking the flight.
To be honest this sounds familiar… we flew last week in first and my partner was moved as “the seat was broken”. We assumed her original seat was broken so this was good customer service?
When boarding there was much confusion as two people had the same seat… she was then asked if she was staff… she wasn’t. Anyway, we got the new seat and someone else was sat next to me in the “broken” seat. Except it was the seat we were moved to that didn’t have a working entertainment unit… all makes sense now!Exactly the same here! It’s not right that they lie to their customers. Or are 2-4-1 redemptions not valued as a customer? I definitely didn’t make me feel valued at all, especially when I found myself being threatened to be thrown off the flight. No apologies given!
- This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .
Whoever thinks there is no foul play, the fact that BA has been treating customers really badly in recent years in just about any conceivable way is precisely the reason why there is foul play. Nobody can claim with any certainty or authority that there wasn’t some targeting involved.
Whoever thinks there is no foul play, the fact that BA has been treating customers really badly in recent years in just about any conceivable way is precisely the reason why there is foul play. Nobody can claim with any certainty or authority that there wasn’t some targeting involved.
And what evidence is there that there was foul play? A few people posting anecdotes on a travel site, is not representative of the whole picture. I notice that after 3 pages the person still hasn’t offered the actual flight in question, not even the route. Booking seats 7 months out, how many aircraft changes will BA have made in that time? I get selling seats in that situation is sharp practice, but not anything more than that.
Proving a negative is not really possible. On Internet forums the simplest incompetence quickly becomes an orchestrated campaign against X or Y.
To be honest this sounds familiar… we flew last week in first and my partner was moved as “the seat was broken”. We assumed her original seat was broken so this was good customer service?
When boarding there was much confusion as two people had the same seat… she was then asked if she was staff… she wasn’t. Anyway, we got the new seat and someone else was sat next to me in the “broken” seat. Except it was the seat we were moved to that didn’t have a working entertainment unit… all makes sense now!Exactly the same here! It’s not right that they lie to their customers. Or are 2-4-1 redemptions not valued as a customer? I definitely didn’t make me feel valued at all, especially when I found myself being threatened to be thrown off the flight. No apologies given!
Have you never misspoken, every time you’ve been wrong was that a lie?
No previous mention of a threat to remove you from the flight, so that’s new information.
Why would incorrect records of which seats have broken IFE be more than incompetence rather than some sinister plot by the airline to target certain customers. Broken IFE on a long haul should get you a nice few Avios, I’d personally take those over some poor content supplied by the airline.
A thread built around little information, no evidence and a lot of general anger directed at BA. I’m all for anger at BA, but target the things they’re clearly doing wrong, food, service, on time performance, cleaning.
Whoever thinks there is no foul play, the fact that BA has been treating customers really badly in recent years in just about any conceivable way is precisely the reason why there is foul play. Nobody can claim with any certainty or authority that there wasn’t some targeting involved.
And what evidence is there that there was foul play? A few people posting anecdotes on a travel site, is not representative of the whole picture. I notice that after 3 pages the person still hasn’t offered the actual flight in question, not even the route. Booking seats 7 months out, how many aircraft changes will BA have made in that time? I get selling seats in that situation is sharp practice, but not anything more than that.
Proving a negative is not really possible. On Internet forums the simplest incompetence quickly becomes an orchestrated campaign against X or Y.
It’s not just the forums. We are reading in the press how badly BA treats customers almost every other week. There is plenty evidence that BA usually acts in bad faith and it’s not just seat assignments.
It happened to the poster several times when using 241 voucher. It’s not the first time. I would have expected that the OP checked her seat assignment in advance of coming to the airport, at check-in, etc. This happened at the gate.
And why would there need to be concrete evidence? Will BA admit? Will the employee in question admit? Of course not, even if they mis-spoke. There is something called the overall impact. Happens once, fine. Happens twice fine. Happens three or more times, not fine. You also can’t say that there wasn’t foul play. You can’t say that with any certainty whatsoever.
On 11/03/22 LHR-MIA we were moved at the gate due to inop seat(s), was a 241 booking and seats allocated 7 days before. Unfortunately didnt get back to the section they were in to see if occupied, UD A380. If similar happend on return I will make a point of checking.
Why is BA apparently persistently unaware of the existence of the internet.
When EU261 requires BA to provide a passenger whose flight BA cancelled, a seat on another airline’s flight, because BA doesn’t have another flight for a very long time and the passenger requests to be put on the next available flight, BA is apparently completely unaware that there is this thing called the internet. BA is just as capable as the passenger of using the internet to provide the ticket but forces the passenger to do it, and shell out money BA hopes or at least couldn’t care less that the passenger doesn’t have as BA is still sitting on the money he paid but BA isn’t flying him.
BA is responsible for providing the ticket to reroute the passenger. And if they claim they can’t issue the rerouted ticket the passenger has a right to, in their systems then they can use the internet, same as the passenger has to, to obtain the rerouted ticket and avoid the passenger having to shell out.
BA also forgot about the internet when they deliberately selected passengers who were travelling on a 241, when choosing someone to offload or downgrade. They forgot the internet lets people share information about how often it was the passengers travelling on a 241 that were being picked on by BA. Pre-internet, passengers would not have so easily been able to share this information. However the internet helped everyone work out what BA was doing.
It’s not too far a stretch to think that BA hasn’t stopped choosing 241 passengers in priority for another form of bad treatment : whether they paid for their seat selection or not, we’re all going to be able to work out pretty soon that 241 passengers are being targeted in priority to vacate the seat they reserved, sooner than other passengers.
If I’d paid BA’s extremely high seat reservation fees 7 months earlier and then got moved I’d demand cost+8%+bank rate until the date their repayment hits my account.
To be honest this sounds familiar… we flew last week in first and my partner was moved as “the seat was broken”. We assumed her original seat was broken so this was good customer service?
When boarding there was much confusion as two people had the same seat… she was then asked if she was staff… she wasn’t. Anyway, we got the new seat and someone else was sat next to me in the “broken” seat. Except it was the seat we were moved to that didn’t have a working entertainment unit… all makes sense now!Exactly the same here! It’s not right that they lie to their customers. Or are 2-4-1 redemptions not valued as a customer? I definitely didn’t make me feel valued at all, especially when I found myself being threatened to be thrown off the flight. No apologies given!
Have you never misspoken, every time you’ve been wrong was that a lie?
No previous mention of a threat to remove you from the flight, so that’s new information.
Why would incorrect records of which seats have broken IFE be more than incompetence rather than some sinister plot by the airline to target certain customers. Broken IFE on a long haul should get you a nice few Avios, I’d personally take those over some poor content supplied by the airline.
A thread built around little information, no evidence and a lot of general anger directed at BA. I’m all for anger at BA, but target the things they’re clearly doing wrong, food, service, on time performance, cleaning.
I’m sorry but this was a blatant lie. Even the purser wasn’t aware there was anything wrong with the seat.
If you read the threat I have mentioned earlier that I was threatened with being thrown off the flight, this is no new information. However, I don’t see how this is relevant. The fact is that this has happened to me 3/4 times. This thread was always about gauging people’s experiences. If you are happy with the way BA has treated you so far, I’m happy for you but there is no need to belittle other people’s experiences. I never thought there was foul play until a few more stories were coming out from other passengers.
@MariaJ, sorry if I’ve missed it but just out of interest were they paid seats or could you choose them free as Silver? I’m just wondering if this is actually what BA is targeting, rather than 241s, as they then aren’t (presumably) liable for refunds (which can be over £100 per seat!)
I think we would have heard an awful lot more about this if there were any form of targeting. We have been travelling on 241s in F and J twice a year for 20 years without any seat changes or downgrades. I do check regularly and set alerts, just in case. My son, travelling with us on Avios has even been upgraded to F twice from J when travelling with us and once from Y travelling on his own.
It just seems to be bad luck and I think the excuse of the seat having some technical issue is an easier message for BA staff to communicate than the fact that someone with status or a family group has been given your seat. It does seem that on US routes in particular, there continue to be a lot of aircraft changes and these sometimes do seem to knock out seat allocations or move them to something less suitable. That seems to be inefficiency rather than anything sinister.
- This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .
@LL. You know full well that BA are aware of both the Internet and EU261 responsibilities. You also know they get it wrong to save money, for every person that CEDR or MCOL for what they’re owed they’ll be hundreds if not thousands that give up at the first refusal. It’s not ignorance it’s economically the right thing, given there’s almost no downside to them denying. Until such time there is better regulation in regard to enforcement, the widespread rejection makes most sense.
I’d guess BA are in top quarter of airlines at accepting EU261, good luck going after many of the others.
None of the targeting 241 passengers has ever been established as fact. It’s an area of travel sites where a number of cases has been extrapolated into certainty by those that have had poor experiences with overselling and aircraft changes, and those that like to hate on BA. But all a bit random.
I’d never criticise the advice you give to people in regard downgrades and cancellation, but feel you have to choose your battles and there’s a lot about this thread that doesn’t feel right to me.
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