rapidex

A week ago I had a requirement to go to Australia.Checking my options,BA had a very good fare ex OSL.I tired to book and upgrade with my travel agent,but they couldn't match the BA ex Oslo fare.I checked expert flyer which showed LHR-SIN F1A1,and F5A5 for SIN-SYD.

Booked on BA's website in CW and called the GGL team to upgrade LHR-SIN-SYD to F.Was advised I would need to use a GGL joker,which I did.

4 Hours later I recieve a call from the GGL team advising me the upgrade has been processed,and my reservation is changed to F.

I then went to MMB to reserve my seat,and found the seat chart greyed out and a message that seat reservation was not available at this time.Expert flyer also showed both LHR-SIN flights F0A0.

Fast foreward a week and here I am in the OSL lounge.I was unable to carryout online check in,and at the check in desk I was given a boarding pass for OSL-LHR and a standby boarding pass.I was informed LHR-SIN is overbooked and I must contact staff at LHRto get a new ticket.No further explanation.

No other options were offered.If I cancelled no refund was due.No possible rerouting and if I traveled to LHR I would not be permitted to return to OSL and cancel if downgraded or offloaded.

Watch this space for part 2.Any thoughts appreciated.

cornishsimon

I suspect your seat in F will be fine

As for a non status passenger or one of lower status ........


cs

kaka

i see a case of you flying BA, ticketed in F, and (perhaps) BA couldn't play ball.

EC261/2004

simons1

No doubt they will tell you your rights under EU law if you are denied carriage in the class for which you are ticketed.....

louie-m

You forgot the smiley

paulwuk

If you are cancelled they have to send you back to Oslo and give you a full refund and €600 compensation. If that's what you want. Otherwise a reroute or a rebooking at your convienience. And €600.

If you are downgraded it's 70% of the ticket cost.

nufnuf77

For some reason I remember 75%, but I am probably mistaken with some other compensation amount! I can never remember it!

corporate-wage-slave

Indeed it's 75% refund of ticket cost in this case (it is distance based) for downgrades; and there's no mention of the return to base/refund option for downgrades - which there is for cancellations, delays over 5 hours and IDB.

In terms of advice for the OP, the SYD flight is someway off so a lot can change between now and departure. Oslo won't be able to offer much, but I'd imagine LHR could offer a re-route via another airline if GGL. The trouble is the trade off between waiting for standby to clear - which it generally does but late in the day - versus the trade off of going with Qantas (or if it was a revenue ticket) Singapore.

flatlander

You are correct. Article 10 2(c) of Regulation (EC) No 261/2004

Of course the price paid for an upgrade instrument is debatable :-/ Certainly one can argue for the instrument to be returned (GGL Joker in this case).

orbitmic

+1. And of course, that outcome is still unacceptable for the poor sods who will get the bad surprise whilst they were expecting to experience the best travel BA has to offer

rapidex

Update.

Arrived at LHR and went to transfer desk.Still no seat.Asked about re-route,including LHR-LAX-SYD and was met with puzzled looks.The penny then dropped and I asked what they thought my final destination was.SIN was the reply,you are booked on BA11.

I fished out my itenary which was BA11 LHR-SIN BA15 SIN-SYD.A new boarding pass appeared immediately with a seat.I then had to ask for my second boarding pass for SIN-SYD.

It would appear BA staff asumed I was only going as far as SIN.Once they realized I was going to SYD I was given a seat.I hope this doesn't lead to some other person being downgraded.

It would seem I was saved by destination rather than status.^

orbitmic

Glad you got your seat! I think that is a rather big assumption to make that status was irrelevant. Even if destination had a role to play, I would suggest that same destination + different status might well have led to different outcome.

And indeed, it is quite likely that someone else will be either downgraded or put on a different itinerary which will take them to SIN but would not have worked with a SYD connection.

paulwuk

Flying ba15 the whole way will result in fewer tier points.

WeAreFlyingHigh

There are several BA flights to SIN, could they not just transfer a passenger onto a later flight into same travel class. It's unlikely all F seats will be full.

LostAntipod

After reading this thread, I'm glad it worked out for the OP, and then I thought: it says something about BAs systems and processes that they would mess about a high status traveller in this way in the first place. No checks and balances to call this out and maybe think "here's someone we should smooth the process out for" ?