No point reserving seats with BA - they steal them back!

[ajandjjmum]

DS moved to Australia on Monday, and we had reserved - and paid over £70 - for a specific seat in economy.

He was stopped at the boarding gate and told that his seat had been changed, despite him having a copy of the receipt and confirmed seat number with him.

The BA woman lied and said that he was still in an 'extra legroom' seat - he wasn't - he was in a standard row of three.

The seat he paid for was given to a 'silver' tier member of the exec club at no charge - DS is merely 'blue'.

DS was polite and understanding to the crew (more than I would have been), and accepted that on a full flight they could do nothing.

Four days later, BA haven't replied to any of the three emails, other than a generic 'holding' email - clearly don't give a monkeys.

I know the reservation of seats is something that is often discussed on this board, particularly in relation to the lower cost airlines. Just thought others might be interested to know that a paid reservation obviously means nothing to BA - the theft of which is obviously covered in the small print! So much for being the national flag carrier (yes, I know it's Spanish now!)

Yes I would 'piss and moan' Yabbers, if it wasn't explained to me. On the other hand, if people communicated in an informative and courteous manner, I would be far more likely to happily support a decision where someone was in the same position as your DD.
So you need someone’s back story in order for you to decide if they are worthy enough a cause? The staff make that decision so people don’t have to explain their circumstances to other entitled passengers.

Having said that, surely a seat that was suitable would be pre-allocated for your DD and anyone accompanying her?

Excellent. As you’re so knowledgeable about travelling with a wheelchair, I shall get you to book everything. Then you can be the one arguing with staff and being in the position where you know people will piss and moan when they are moved because ground crew can’t get their shit together and have the right equipment in the right place so DD can get on the plane without feeling like she is a liability. By the way, it took me 5 hours on Twitter DM to ensure we had the right seats on our last flight. Fancy doing that for every single holiday you book?

A friend of mine who lives in Aus and comes back to the U.K. once a year swears by Qantas, she’s also flown Virgin Aus with success. Never BA.

Do you know why his seat was changed?
I’ve had this a couple of times in the past and it’s always been explained why.

You clearly have lots of challenges in your life Yabbers, for which I am very sorry, and can understand it must leave you very frustrated.

No Pancake - just that it was occupied by a 'silver' tier member who had not paid for the seat. An explanation would certainly have helped.

Qantas are good, Air New Zealand even better. I would never bother with BA, they're like Ryanair but hiding behind their name

A friend of mine who lives in Aus and comes back to the U.K. once a year swears by Qantas, she’s also flown Virgin Aus with success. Never BA

Unfortunately Qantas and BA are a parternship and you often have to fly BA to/from the UK and then it's Qantas for the leg that's in/out of Australia, even if you book your flight direct with Qantas.

We have family in Australia and used to fly regularly - we always flew Qantas, then they partnered with BA and the poor quality of the BA leg compared the Qantas one was really noticeable!

We switched to Singapore Airlines as the prices were pretty much identical and the service is much, much better. Cathay Pacific are another airline worth looking at for UK-Aus flights.

I lost all respect for BA when we landed in a different country because of problems and the BA staff did nothing to help a lady with four children under 6 (one was a baby) and she didn’t speak any English. She didn’t know why we hadn’t landed in Heathrow and was shocked. They gave her seats on a plane to London at another terminal but she didn’t understand. They just stopped speaking to her and ignored her. I was waiting in the queue and the lady had been sitting near me on the plane. The children had been beautifully behaved and we had been on the plane for sixteen hours.
I pointed out to them that the lady hadn’t understood and couldn’t they help her. I thought they would find someone to take her and the children and help with the hand luggage. They gave her a trolley, a bloody trolley. So I asked for her to be given a phone call to London. She phoned her husband and passed him over so she now understood that she was in Germany and why. I spoke to him too and told him that the BA staff were not going to help her but I would go as far as I was allowed and to tell her that. I helped her onto the shuttle train to the next terminal and when I explained I was allowed all the way to the plane. I bought the children some snacks as luckily I had some currency. There was no way she could have managed on her own with a five year old, a 3 1/2year old, a two year old and a baby. The five year old spoke some English and told me all their names and ages. I handed her over to another airline and told them about her treatment from BA they were disgusted and surprised that I wasn’t catching the plane and that I had been allowed through security.
The lady and I parted after several hugs and she had tears in her eyes when she thanked me.
I know they will have been busy but I was disgusted by the lack of concern for the lady and children. I have flown with BOAC ( junior jet club member) and BA since I was 6 moths old. They used to be a good company but now I think you pay your money and chance your luck!

I would persist in having your money back. When you pay for extra leg room it is usually because you have long legs.

Fancy doing that for every single holiday you book?

I'm asking only because I genuinely don't know, but isn't there a special phone number for people with disabilities to call to reserve an accessible seat? I know we have called and were told if someone is more disabled, then we would be moved since my son has mobility issues but has special footware (not a wheelchair). I assume if you told them you have a wheelchair, they would allocate it to you? I can't understand why they wouldn't. I really recommend booking over the phone and asking for the contact if you haven't done that before, it might save some stress.

but somehow I expected better of British Airways!

There was your mistake. They are a shitty airline with premium prices. They don't give a flying fuck about their customers. Had shit service from them on a long-haul flight last year, well, there's another $5000 they won't be getting from me anymore. Not to mention, T5 at Heathrow should be given its own circle in Hell in an Inferno re-write.

Don't use them anymore. If you are travelling to Asia or the Antipodes, Quatar, Emirates, Qantas or Singapore Air are the ways to go.

We will be flying the London-Sydney route fairly regularly over the next couple of years (hopefully not for ever!!)

So I've just checked flight prices from the airlines mentioned on a one-way ticket, Sydney to London, on a specific date in July next year. I'm surprised, so thought I'd share -

BA 1536 AUD
Qatar 1316 AUD
Emirates 1441 AUD
Singapore 1091 AUD
Qantas 1435 AUD

Pretty obvious who's been the mug!

Am I the only one wondering why a grown man has got his mummy to complain in his behalf?

Looks like it. Others obviously a lot nicer than you!

I expected better of British Airways!

Sadly I wouldn't. We only use them for flights to London from our local airport as annoyingly they are only choice these days, we stopped flying long haul with them after consistently bad (awful) service.

Adaline is right about Qantas/BA but I usually find the Qantas staff better. Singapore Airlines is more expensive but much better. I would fly with them every time if I could. My daughter flew with Emirates this time and said they were great but not quite as good as Singapore.

Another quick cost share - when DS returns to Sydney after his Christmas visit to the oldies, the BA cost is £1,994 and Singapore Airlines £831 - flights are on the same day.

I'm gobsmacked! Especially as others says Singapore is a better airline.

I loath all this preferential treatment for frequent fliers. Fair enough give them rewards/perks but not to the detriment of other customers. Can you imagine waiting your turn at a supermarket checkout and having someone else slipped to the front of the queue because they accrue more clubcard points?

I'll stick with the budget airlines where at least everyone is treated equally shit.

I've only flown Qantas once, but we were booked in economy and they'd overbooked, so upgraded us to premium economy. It was very nice.

Flew with BA last Xmas, they really couldn't have given less of a shit. Flight from London to Manchester they wouldn't even give us a glass of tap water. We'd flown long haul from the states with two tiny kids, not a fucking thing given to us at all, no drink, snack, nowt.

Never flying with BA again, you might as well fly EasyJet, the service is the same, at half the price.

@ajandjjmum Sorry to hear about you still not having received the refund! That's rubbish, and I certainly wouldn't just let it go. I wonder if BA customer services aren't prioritizing because they're hoping you might drop it as 'it's only a small amount of money'?

And gosh @Yabbers, whatever your issues are, no need to take it out on the OP who has done nothing wrong. Her son didn't receive the service he/OP paid for, they're due a refund. Stop being so rude to her.

I'll stick with the budget airlines where at least everyone is treated equally shit.

🍻

BA is firmly committed to the race to the bottom. We are silver card holders due to lots of business travel and having reserved seats in a recent flight from Greece, they announced that our children would be seated 12 rows behind us. Were not prepared to enter into any conversation about it. So that's what happened. I haven't even bothered taking it up with them as they don't care in any shape or form. Shameful. Used to be a great airline.

We flew with BA a few months ago and I phoned up to organise the disability service for DS1 so that we could be fast tracked through security, in the first group onto the plane etc. We do this with every other airline due to his severe autism and it’s never been a problem. The woman on the phone at BA refused to give us disability access “as we only do that for people with wheelchairs”. I was so stunned that I ended the call and then phoned again the next day, spoke to someone else and asked if there had been some mistake. No, there hadn’t, in BA’s world only customers with wheelchairs have disabilities. They were quite definite about that. DH then tweeted them and funnily enough he and “I must have misunderstood” both of the entirely separate people on the phone, because of course they offer the disability access to a family with a child with severe autism. Amazing what a tweet will do.

Funnily enough CloudPop, the company DD works for spend millions each year with BA, and her boss recently had them in to complain about the service he was constantly receiving - as a 'gold' member. If they can't keep people like him happy, what chance do us mere mortals stand!

This happened to me. I don’t rate BA anyway, but we had to use them for this particular journey. Paid the fee x2 people for 4 flights with BA. My husband is 7ft tall and he does not fit in a standard seat -which I made clear to the call centre staff in 3 separate calls.

We got on the plane and he was given a normal seat despite us paying for extra legroom. He was telling the crew that he physically could not get in the seat he’d been allocated and they threatened to kick him off the plane! They totally denied that we’d even booked the extra legroom seats and made us feel like a pair of chancers. Someone kindly swapped with him in the end (as it was only a short haul connecting flight) but the staff behaved appallingly towards us.

Contacted BA and they basically told me it was tough and that no seat was guaranteed - none of this was made clear when I called to book the seats!

I would never fly with them again; their customer service is appalling and their planes are dated and disgusting. They are no better than Ryanair! Thank god for Emirates!

Good luck with your complaint OP, I hope he gets the money back.