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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)
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