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Flying back from BUD to LHR last night on a booking with a Silver as the lead passenger, the check in agent suggested that my luggage allowance was only 1 x 23kg (I’m Bronze). Any attempt to show the booking confirmation and BA’s website showing Silver benefits applicable to everyone on the same booking reference was met with a polite but firm rebuttal that the allowance showing on their system was the correct one and only the Silver member was entitled to the larger baggage allowance. The supervisor for Menzies, BA’s ground handling agent at BUD also confirmed this. Was left with no option other than to pay circa £130 in local currency to check in two circa 30 kg cases.
This isn’t the first time I’ve had (sometimes heated) exchanges with check in staff at BUD concerning luggage allowance for Silver members, even when I was Silver myself and seeking to take a second bag. My assumption, perhaps incorrect, is that an IT glitch has caused the Bronze number against my name (to collect Avios on the flights) to overwrite the Silver luggage allowance and applied the standard 1 x 23kg but I might be wrong. Had the FFN field been left empty, I suspect it would have shown 2 x 32kg for all passengers on the booking.
Does anyone have any advice how best to go about getting this money back? I don’t want to waste any more time with ill-informed of ‘computer says no’ staff. I’m flying out of T3 tonight and could approach a BA ticketing desk if a personal approach is going to yield faster results.
BUD seems to be the only airport I’ve used where luggage allowance is routinely called into question in my experience. They were insistent that only Silver/Gold and Business passengers could have a 2 x 32kg allowance.
There aren’t any BA ticketing desks at T3 just check in.
In any case this isn’t a matter for those staff who will just tell you to contact BA via one of the usual methods.
Ok, thank you. I recall some years back there were ticketing desks, I used them to enquire about upgrades to future flights but I guess they’ve been removed. What’s the best ‘usual method’ to use? Should I submit a ‘complaint’ while logged into the Club? I’ve had little cause to complain in the past. My sole complaint in the last 2 decades was an IT glitch that turned off my ability to book reward flights online for the best part of a year. I submitted an online complaint, got a reference number and never got a response to it, the issue resolved itself some months later, until then I always had to call to make bookings and ask them to not apply the phone booking charge.
Go via ba.com make a claim, it’ll probably be under checking in > baggage and just submit a short, easy to understand, factual recount of events (I was incorrectly charged X for baggage and nobody at the airport would accept my BA status, please reimburse me the fee of X). Once confirmed, you could follow up and ask as a gesture of goodwill Avios for the poor service and unnecessary stress but ultimately you should get your refund without much faff.
Talking to a person at Heathrow will not yield any result as they are unfortunately powerless, which is a shame as they could really benefit from some ground staff with ability to escalate and fix things there and then. But don’t bother! 🙂
Talking to a person at Heathrow will not yield any result as they are unfortunately powerless, which is a shame as they could really benefit from some ground staff with ability to escalate and fix things there and then. But don’t bother! 🙂
Indeed. I was hoping for a quick resolution on the spot from some experienced staff at BA’s home airport who could immediately spot the problem. Alas….
@Londonsteve – you should claim for the cost as above but it is almost certainly because of your Bronze BAC number against your booking. The Menzies staff, as with other handling agents at outstations, are obliged to apply whatever allowance their systems (fed by BA) say you personally have according to class/status/routing/fare and they don’t have any discretion because they obviously must correctly record the number and weight of bags being loaded.
@Londonsteve – you should claim for the cost as above but it is almost certainly because of your Bronze BAC number against your booking. The Menzies staff, as with other handling agents at outstations, are obliged to apply whatever allowance their systems (fed by BA) say you personally have according to class/status/routing/fare and they don’t have any discretion because they obviously must correctly record the number and weight of bags being loaded.
So this situation will arise whenever you’ve got a Bronze number recorded even when travelling on the same booking with a Silver? What about if the FFN field is left empty? Bookings where a Silver is the lead passenger should automatically apply 2 x 32kg to every passenger on the booking, indeed, this is what our booking confirmation stated which was visible in the app. I was surprised and dismayed that ground staff weren’t aware of the automatic higher allowance and even if the system was showing contradictory information, they could say that owing to their computer they’d have to charge us but we could claim it back. Instead they just insisted there’s no such thing as a larger allowance for other (non Silver or Gold) pax on the same booking resulting in an impasse and a stressful experience.
Out of interesr, were your boarding group numbers different?
I was hoping for a quick resolution on the spot from some experienced staff at BA’s home airport who could immediately spot the problem.
One can but smile…
Indeed. I was hoping for a quick resolution on the spot from some experienced staff at BA’s home airport who could immediately spot the problem. Alas….
No member of airport staff will be able to issue you with a refund. They don’t have access to the payment system to verify BA received the payment etc etc
Just as they don’t issue compensation or downgrade reimbursement
The quickest resolution will be by either phone call or putting in a simple, concise claim via the website.
@Londonsteve – you should claim for the cost as above but it is almost certainly because of your Bronze BAC number against your booking. The Menzies staff, as with other handling agents at outstations, are obliged to apply whatever allowance their systems (fed by BA) say you personally have according to class/status/routing/fare and they don’t have any discretion because they obviously must correctly record the number and weight of bags being loaded.
So this situation will arise whenever you’ve got a Bronze number recorded even when travelling on the same booking with a Silver? What about if the FFN field is left empty? Bookings where a Silver is the lead passenger should automatically apply 2 x 32kg to every passenger on the booking, indeed, this is what our booking confirmation stated which was visible in the app. I was surprised and dismayed that ground staff weren’t aware of the automatic higher allowance and even if the system was showing contradictory information, they could say that owing to their computer they’d have to charge us but we could claim it back. Instead they just insisted there’s no such thing as a larger allowance for other (non Silver or Gold) pax on the same booking resulting in an impasse and a stressful experience.
I’m gold my wife is blue, she gets the same extra as me, it shows on the confirmation email. As @JDB has said to us all many a time check confirmation email for ticket numbers and all details as you get it. What did it say on your confirmation email
Out of interesr, were your boarding group numbers different?
Oddly enough, they weren’t. Both Group 2.
The quickest resolution will be by either phone call or putting in a simple, concise claim via the website.
Thanks. I’ve submitted a claim via the website.
@Garethgerry – the booking confirmation stated 2 x 32kg per passenger (2 of us on the booking, the lead passenger being Silver).
It’s becoming clear this is an BA IT error causing them to fail to honour the stated luggage allowance at check in. The most annoying aspect is check in staff at BUD being unwilling to recognise that this is an error based on both the booking confirmation as well as the knowledge of standard luggage allowances for Silver that they should have and even if they had to charge us to get around the computer blockage, an empathetic apology and assurance of getting refunded should have been forthcoming. Instead we were treated as being in the wrong and they doubled down while insisting that the luggage allowance showing on their screen was correct.
I’ve not received an e-mail confirmation of my claim having been submitted yesterday afternoon, it really should have arrived by now. Fortunately I screenshotted the reference number at the time.
Did you show them the confirmation email. Wouldn’t they accept this. If they didn’t then that’s not a computer error it a human being awkward (polite description)
@Garethgerry – yes, of course, in the vain hope they’d accept the suitcases and avoid having to make any payment. They kept referring to the fact that their system was showing something else and stated that the enhanced allowance only applied to the Silver lead passenger. We pointed to the language in the confirm that stated that it applied to all passengers but this was ignored and they kept pointing at their screen which told them otherwise. In fairness the check in agent was perfectly civil and was clearly stuck. The computer said no and her supervisor said that the computer is correct and our information is wrong (was the inference that we’d photoshopped the confirm?). She clearly had no discretion to override what her screen and supervisor were telling her and the only way out was to pay.
I’ve received a ‘good will gesture’ of 5,000 Avios on my account but as yet no communication about the claim. I can only assume the two are connected and someone has picked this up at BA towers.
Did you show them the confirmation email. Wouldn’t they accept this. If they didn’t then that’s not a computer error it a human being awkward (polite description)
That’s not how it works. BA’s handling agents aren’t authorised to check-in a greater allowance than the system says without additional payment. They work for lots of different airlines and don’t know the ins and outs of each scheme. There has to be a clear audit trail of bags so they can’t do you a favour or they will carry the financial cost of failing to collect from the passenger. It’s thus very unfair to tar the Menzies agent as being ‘awkward’.
A piece of paper isn’t really a proof of anything anyway – eg it might show an allowance based on a status at the time of booking that no longer applied at the time of travel. Also, I have seen, and as an experienced traveller you must have seen countless passengers incorrectly waving bits of paper to demand certain benefits to which they aren’t entitled so they don’t tend to take too much notice.
BA is hardly unique in requiring this of its handling agents and you could expect the same of punctilious airlines like QR – they will give you the allowance the system says applies to your booking, no further discussion.
If they didn’t then that’s not a computer error it a human being awkward (polite description)
There is a computer error here because if the allowance had been correct in the system the ground handling agents use (and are fed by BA), the check in agent could have accepted the cases without a demand for extra payment. I’m quite sure she personally couldn’t care less what weight they were, as long as her computer told her it was within the passenger’s allowance. The only way for her to accept them was to take payment from us which no doubt unlocked a higher allowance in their system and permitted the printing of the baggage tags.
Did you show them the confirmation email. Wouldn’t they accept this. If they didn’t then that’s not a computer error it a human being awkward (polite description)
That’s not how it works. BA’s handling agents aren’t authorised to check-in a greater allowance than the system says without additional payment. They work for lots of different airlines and don’t know the ins and outs of each scheme. There has to be a clear audit trail of bags so they can’t do you a favour or they will carry the financial cost of failing to collect from the passenger. It’s thus very unfair to tar the Menzies agent as being ‘awkward’.
A piece of paper isn’t really a proof of anything anyway – eg it might show an allowance based on a status at the time of booking that no longer applied at the time of travel. Also, I have seen, and as an experienced traveller you must have seen countless passengers incorrectly waving bits of paper to demand certain benefits to which they aren’t entitled so they don’t tend to take too much notice.
BA is hardly unique in requiring this of its handling agents and you could expect the same of punctilious airlines like QR – they will give you the allowance the system says applies to your booking, no further discussion.
This. I had empathy with the agent at the Club check in desk, I was however annoyed with the supervisor’s unwillingness to recognise the nature of the issue. I’d imagine she WOULD have had the ability to authorise an override with the opportunity to insert written justification for doing so, but she wasn’t interested. Either way, BA need to do an investigation into what’s gone wrong here because we won’t have been the first, nor will we be the last and this reflects poorly on the airline as a whole. The Hungarian F1 GP is coming up soon with teams, sponsors and VIP guests flying to BUD, many of which will be carrying plenty of luggage. Check in will grind to a halt if they need to have a debate with every second passenger about their luggage allowance when they’re flying home after the race.
A piece of paper isn’t really a proof of anything anyway – eg it might show an allowance based on a status at the time of booking that no longer applied at the time of travel. Also, I have seen, and as an experienced traveller you must have seen countless passengers incorrectly waving bits of paper to demand certain benefits to which they aren’t entitled so they don’t tend to take too much notice.
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If your email receipt with your ticket number etc is just a piece of paper that means nothing, then we are all in sh#tstreet. As we have no proof of any entitlement to any thing and are reliant on what is in BA computer that we can’t see or check. My understanding is a receipt is an important document
If your email receipt with your ticket number etc is just a piece of paper that means nothing, then we are all in sh#tstreet. As we have no proof of any entitlement to any thing and are reliant on what is in BA computer that we can’t see or check. My understanding is a receipt is an important document
You are of course correct, we’re not privy to what’s in BA’s internal system. BA’s own app (which is clearly fed from the same system) was also showing 2 x 32kg against my name, which makes it all the more egregious that the check in computers didn’t reflect this.
If your email receipt with your ticket number etc is just a piece of paper that means nothing, then we are all in sh#tstreet.
This is exactly what it is when the “Computer says no”. Your receipt will probably help you get it sorted quickly, but we’ve all read experiences of people who haven’t been (re)ticketed and denied boarding or had great difficulties.
In sales there is a saying/mantra that says “Don’t sell to someone who cannot buy”. The same applies to customer service issues – in this case the ground staff probably didn’t have the authority to override the system.
The egregious factor is despite all the b#llsh#t about empowering our employees that you hear from BA and all big companies. That shown this overwhelming evidence the supervisor didn’t have any authority, neither did they have even a simple telephone number to get hold of someone with authority. Yes you will say they weren’t BA employees they were menzies employees. However it’s BA’s responsibility to ensure when they outsource the physical job, they still give them appropriate authority.
Those that say no airport staff, even BA in Heathrow don’t have authority anymore, might be reflecting reality, but clearly having staff on ground with no authority is the antithesis of customer service.
The egregious factor is despite all the b#llsh#t about empowering our employees that you hear from BA and all big companies. That shown this overwhelming evidence the supervisor didn’t have any authority, neither did they have even a simple telephone number to get hold of someone with authority. Yes you will say they weren’t BA employees they were menzies employees. However it’s BA’s responsibility to ensure when they outsource the physical job, they still give them appropriate authority.
Those that say no airport staff, even BA in Heathrow don’t have authority anymore, might be reflecting reality, but clearly having staff on ground with no authority is the antithesis of customer service.
But it’s cheaper and BA don’t care about much other than making money. And given for many of us they’re pretty much the only show in town, we keep enabling them 🤣
I had the same issue in Oslo in December. From reading flyertalk the agent has to override the 23kg standard allowance, but a lot of them do not know how to do this. After a fruitless complaint to BA I got the money back via a S75 claim.
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