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!)

It’s in the Ts &Cs. They can do it and if you’d read it you’d have known that. All airlines are the same.

Ts&Cs are not tablets of Holy Writ passed down from God. They're mere words that try and form a contract. They can - and frequently are - challenged in court.

Admittedly I'm a grumpy old bat, but being referred to Ts&Cs by a company as a get out is a red rag to a bull, and for £140, I'd happily send an LBA, followed up by a MCO action if unanswered. Then let them stand before a court and try and weasel out of it.

£140 ? £70 refund and £70 seems a fair whack for the discomfort that the original £70 was trying to avoid.

Generally, companies - especially bigger ones - really don't want their Ts&Cs challenged in court. If they are found to be unfair or inapplicable, it can cost them a lot.

I promise it isn't tanstaafl - I've got better things to do with my time. Feel free to message me, and I'll send you a copy of the flight reservation.

Having said that, I've just commented to DH that not one person has come on to say 'you know what, we had a great experience with BA when we had a problem'. That in itself speaks volumes.

No-one I know has a had a good experience with BA in the last five years.

They're shit.

Actually I did say that we had a problem due to delays and were all upgraded to first to avoid missing our connection! So yeah I’ve had a great experience recently. I’ve had quite a few instances of my seat being changed but in recent memory I’m only at 1 downgrade versus 3 first class upgrades so I’ve been lucky enough to win more than I’ve lost with so really cannot complain about BA!

We fly some specific routes involving connections and American/BA codeshare works best for us. To Australia though?! You have some many better options, I personally wouldn’t use them again.

Especially as others says Singapore is a better airline

Singapore Airlines is on a different wavelength to BA, far superior in every way, they are the best airline we've flown with, I prefer them over Emirates. Singapore Airlines dropped BA like a hot potato as a code share partner.

I’m starting to think this is a completely made up story for the purpose of bad mouthing BA.

I think you'll find more people panning them than praising them and not just on MN.

I have had numerous good experiences with Ba. Yes they don’t have to honour the booking but you should get a refund.

We have been bumped up and coming back from Japan they could not have worked harder to jiggle around seats to humour our Business class cabin when it was overbooked. We are merely blue!

We have just had an outstanding experience with them flying back from Chile and I just think your DS got unlucky.

All airlines overbook and assume no shows. Still there’s plenty more airlines for him to use. I can recommend Ba business though.

I’m starting to think this is a completely made up story for the purpose of bad mouthing BA.

I dare say the OP could have come up with a better story if she was making it up, it’s nothing like as bad as some of the stuff I’ve read on the FlyerTalk forum. But do report the thread if you’re suspicious.

I’m starting to think this is a completely made up story for the purpose of bad mouthing BA.

^^

I don't think she gives THAT much of a shit, tbh

I did on Monday night, but I've calmed down now.

Just think it's dreadful business practice not to be following up immediately in a situation when you know you've failed.

Having said that, I've now looked at other carriers, and will definitely give them a go, whereas previously I have blindly stuck with BA.

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?

Yes, there is. Every airline has a welfare number. I ring it the minute I've booked my holiday. It's rare that you get moved out of a welfare seat.

I'm sorry you're having problems OP. We had seats, welfare actually, reserved with TUI for our return flight in April. They sent a Dreamliner because of all the hassle with the grounded planes. The check in woman reallocated us seats that I couldn't access, despite there being over 100 empty seats on the plane. We argued the point, she could see I was in a wheelchair but was having none of it so DH paid €40 to sit in seats I could access.

When we boarded we spoke to the cabin manager, she was so cross with the airport staff and we'd had the refund processed before we'd even taxied out. She, also, moved us to the best seats on the plane and gave us a free drink each.

BA have been shit for years - 17 years ago I returned from Riyadh to Heathrow on my own with a 7 month old and a 4 yr old. I had reserved a skycot so i could at least lay the baby down but on getting on the plane found they had allocated all the bulkhead seats to extra legroom passengers so a skycot could not be used!
without the help of a fellow passenger who swapped seats with me from the bulkhead it would have been an awful 8 hours. As it was this meant I was sat apart from my 4 yr old - luckily we knew a few people by chance on the plane and they looked after her - BA just did not care....

BA are absolutely rubbish. A 2 airline, not the 5 they like to portray themselves as.

We flew with them long haul this summer. The aircraft was from the 70s! The seat back screens were the ones from the 90s or more likely 80s and no phone charging sockets. The staff were very nice though, not stroppy or moody and the food was not bad.

They were by far the cheapest to our destination, and it was a non stop flight, so overall not too bad.

We've flown Emirates and Qatar Airways too and they beat BA hands down on all counts and are very competitively priced if you book early.

Ts&Cs are not tablets of Holy Writ passed down from God. They're mere words that try and form a contract. They can - and frequently are - challenged in court

I was going to make the same point. This is oft-trotted out on MN, and it illustrates why these shyster companies get away with it. Just because something is in the terms does not mean that it is enforceable. And if you pay for a service you have to receive it, or a refund.

Terms have to be FAIR. And drafted in cognisance of the fact that the company is the stronger party than the consumer. .

OP

I'm curious now - you indicate you've got 17 upcoming flights booked with BA.

That's lots!

Do you book all your holidays really far in advance or something?

Is that like 4 outgoing and 4 inbound with BA for the next two years?

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!

Sorry if my info was out of date!

BA are worse than the budgets. At least the budgets tell you what you’re getting. BA pretend the are a Singapore/Emirates (because they were in the 1980s) but they are no better than the budgets, just more expensive. They are playing on their reputation from years ago.

I used to live in Aus and I would always choose Thai/Singapore/Emirates. Wouldn’t want to be stuck on a BA/Ryan Aur/EasyJet for long haul.

tan if you have concerns about the OP you report it to HQ because accusations like yours are troll hunting and against Talk Guidelines.

I had a shitty experience with BA and they didn't give a shit about us as customers so I'll never fly with them again. Seems I'm not alone!

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.

Only when faced with certain types of people.

which1
6 flights to and from Japan in October
4 flights to and from Sydney in April
4 flights to and from Singapore in May
4 flights to and from Sydney in July
Sorry - it's 18 - can't count!

Don't normally fly that often - just circumstances over the next 12 months.

Having said that, I've now looked at other carriers

They all have the same policy about moving seats for operational reasons.

Do you book all your holidays really far in advance or something?

Not all people who fly are going on holiday. Some of us have to fly for business, emigrating, visiting sick relatives on the spur of the moment etc.

Don't ever fly BA. My DP got bumped out of business class when he was being flown home from South Africa on medical insurance after being hospitalised with pneumonia. He was in terrible pain and was made to sit up 10 hours in economy so they could accommodate their gold card holders. They are a shit airline and just don't care about their passengers. The off duty pilot sat next to him was horrified and at one stage asked the captain to radio their medical team for help. He was really ill by the time they landed.

I’m starting to think this is a completely made up story for the purpose of bad mouthing BA.

I have far worse stories about BA. I understand it can be difficult operationally for them when they have to cancel a flight, but there's no need to lie to passengers, and they could make much more effort to take care of passengers who they've massively delayed.

Bowerbird5 I had a very similar experience at Heathrow with BA, and since then I've particularly made sure to warn any vaguely vulnerable family/friends not to fly BA via Heathrow, and ideally not to fly BA at all.

I fly a lot, with a lot of airlines, and I'll do pretty much anything not to fly BA after my experiences.

T5 is utterly shite.