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!)

@which1 I have more than that many between how and Christmas 🙄 None of them are for a holiday. Sadly.

- a fairly natural reaction from a good Mum I would say.
I'm assuming that you must have paid for the ticket which is why you're attempting to ensure you get a refund, which I agree you should get. So therefore you're not sorting it out for your son, you're doing it for yourself. But if he paid for the ticket, I would also assume that the airline won't actually deal with you anyway.
TBH, maybe it's a mother / son thing, but neither of my adult DDs would even consider that someone other than themselves would sort out a situation like this. You clearly travel an awful lot, me not so much. But I'm afraid that just because you do so doesn't mean you should have special treatment, and neither does it mean that the person who was allocated your son's seat should have been. Everyone should get the seat they've paid for unless there are extenuating circumstances - not be bumped off because someone else has a bigger wallet.
Hopefully you will get your refund (or your son will), but emailing the CEO seems a bit OTT and entitled.

That is awful elastamum - makes what happened to DS seem trivial. Hope your DH recovered fully - no thanks to BA.

Soontobe60 - we're obviously very different parents, and that's fine. Don't want to derail the thread, but I would help either my adult DS or DD if I could, as they would me. DS arrived jetlagged in a new country, with three (business) days to sort out a home/bank/mobile phone/medicare etc., as well as generally orientate himself before he starts work on Monday. I could help with one trivial thing (BA) which he booked and paid for, as it is a business expense. I am a third party nominee on his BA account, so am able to do so.

But I agree, we should all get what we paid for - and if that becomes impossible, we should be told why, and refunded promptly.

T5 is utterly shite

Agreed. T5 is an expensive shopping mall for middle eastern oligarchs with an airport attached.

Go to FlyerTalk for advice
www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/

He certainly wouldn't have been bounced for a silver.

BA really does stand for 'Bloody Awful'.

So they've sent through the claim form for the refund, following receipt of the complaint from the crew.

We have 14 days to submit it, otherwise they will not refund!!! Having done so, they will be in touch within 28 days. How kind.

No wonder they're haemorrhaging customer - and goodwill.

Actually, I had this convo with my sis the other day in the context of whether you really need to pay for your seats to sit together. She's cabin crew (not BA) she had said that there are occasions where they have to move people that have paid to Pre book extra leg room seats due to someone with a disability getting on etc. It does happen and the customer is refunded the extra they paid. I'm sure they wouldn't be happy with the situation but the airline have a legal obligation to these passengers. As it happens my dd has injured her knee recently and my sis recommended I call the airline and we have been given 2 extra leg room seats free of charge as is their legal obligation

@Soontobe60 you're talking such absolute shite on this thread.

This thread has been helpful as we're thinking of flying to Costa Rica next summer and were planning to go BA - although I was fairly unimpressed when I flew to San Fran with them a couple of years ago. From looking at the recent trust pilot reviews I think I will be actively avoiding them if possible.

@rookiemere I would absolutely reconsider! We recently got a quote for a holiday in Langkawi and it was a reasonable price. Asked what airline it was and got told BA so I said requote for anyone but them and was told they were the cheapest. I said no, requote please. I refuse to fly long haul with them these days.

We flew Malaysian Airlines to Langkawi, and they were excellent.

An update:

Very short email from BA - no hint of an apology, but they have so kindly agreed to refund.

Having said that, I'm amazed to receive anything from BA today, as I thought they'd got their hands full sorting out other communication issues!

So.....last post on this thread, 26th August. Today - 3 months later - I have had a response from BA, basically saying tough - they are no prepared to offer a goodwill gesture. What a shoddy bunch.

Booked next flights with Emirates!

OP- I really don't think BA give a stuff about goodwill. They are now a completely dire airline.

We (family of 4) were going away with my two good mates, who are top tier card holders with BA (god knows why) and they booked premium economy as did we. On check in, we were booted off. Took input from my friends and their connections at BA to get a refund. You would seriously think they were giving us the holy grail- they way they clung to our money.

That is pretty shit. But I am afraid I agree with a pp who asked why you were chasing this up? Did you buy the flight? Is he really young? Why are you so invested?

@MarleneandBoycie op already answered that on post of 17/08/2019 09:59

It costs more than £70 for an extra leg room seat on BA (especially to Oz).

Yes, xkc.. you’re right, she did explain. She paid for it and is frothing. It is only 70 quid, which in the grand scheme of emigrating is nothing. But the OP must have paid so she wants her money’s worth.

I know she said it was a business flight. But I am yet to find a business that allows the mums to organise the flights. Maybe they should. I bet the OP would have got a fucking upgrade for her baby if that was the case.

@ajandjjmum

BA are beyond rubbish in so many ways, especially in Customer Service.

Given a choice, Imwould not fly with them. But sometimes there is no real choice.

Oh, and my data was hacked with them and their handling of it was piss poor (hint to BA::tell your customers their credit card details have been hacked before they read about it in the press)

My gosh wow some of the comments why can’t she help with the tickets read the thread from the beginning.
She should get her money back

Sorry o don't understand your last post are you saying they didn't even refund? Or they've refunded but that's all, not even an apology?
Either way it's shit, I'm just checking degrees of shitness

I’m sure that BA is a target now. We flew BA to Toronto a couple of years ago and the check in facilities went down as I was checking my family in. I was about 90% through. No other airline was affected. It took two hours of BA chaos to finally get them to open a manual check in desk by which time they were waiving people through as quickly as possible. I was concerned that this was a security risk. Further along, we kept hearing tannoy announcements for “Drinkalot Family of Two” which I ignored advert we had our DC (aged under 18) with us so I assumed another couple with the same surname were being called. When we tried to Kate the flight we were called aside, everything was searched and theyvfave is a massive lot of grief.

No I hadn’t been rude to a member of staff. Yes we had tried to check in correctly. Yes we checked in via a BA staff member. The flight was OK, the cabin crew were super friendly. I keep reading how BA has its systems failure and the delays this week (systems failure again) makes me think that they are definitely being targeted.

Singapore Airlines is more expensive but much better.

I’ve consistently found them to be cheaper than BA for UK-Australia as well as so much better than either Qantas or BA.

Ryan air dont have exec members so chances are you would be able to keep your seat on one of their planes ! BA is just like the Ryan Air, Easy Jets these days..