Ok I'm about to send this off to 'Customer Relations' but feel i need to slim it down a little.

What should i keep in?
What should i drop?
What should i add?

Appreciated.

RE: Service Downgrade LHR to TLV 30th December 2010 – BA163
Mr 'jonnye'
BAEC: xxxxxxxx (Gold)
PNR: xxxxxx

To: BA Customer Relations

On the 30th December 2010 I was booked to fly ‘ClubWorld’ (J) from LHR-TLV on flight BA163. I received an email from Executive Club during the day that informed me that my service had been ‘downgraded’ to a ‘Short Haul’ aircraft and therefore will be flying in a ‘Club Europe’ (C) cabin.

I’d specifically chosen to fly and pay for the ClubWorld seat because I needed to sleep, as I had some critical meetings the following morning. What I was presented with on boarding the aircraft was a cabin (seat) that was not what I'd specifically chosen to fly and pay for. Instead it was a cabin (seat) which I believe doesn’t even substitute a ClubWorld (seat) or even World Traveller Plus (seat) for that matter. In addition, when flying on this particular flight i generally approach either the CSD or Cabin Manager to inform them I would not require any dinner service to enable a maximum amount of sleep time during the flight.

To begin with and most importantly, there was no bed for me to sleep on therefore what I had contractually paid for when booking my ticket was not what I’d received as an end product/service.

On arrival to the airport, I was taken aside by one of the lounge staff and asked if i would accept £150 compensation for the ‘downgrade’ of service. I thanked them very much for the offer but duly declined and this is the reason for me writing to you today.

I find that the compensation offered, while gracious as it is that you recognise the service offered was not met, is wholly unacceptable and inappropriate for such a drastic change in service/product/seat.

We are not talking here about a downgrade of product for which one might be subjected to from a Club Europe cabin to a Euro Traveller cabin. Nor can this be compared to a downgrade from World Traveller Plus to World Traveller cabin. All of these services offer differences in a ‘seat’ that specifically doesn’t recline into a bed, or where the legroom is reduced slightly (or in regards to WT+ to WT, significantly). We are talking about a downgrade in seat that is fundamentally different from any other seat offered by BA apart from its 'First' seat. More importantly this was a night flight where the seat requested was actually needed for the sole purpose of its 'superior function' over other products offered, i.e. a bed to sleep on.

In addition the services offered within the seat itself differ not only from the Club World seat but also from the World Traveller Plus seat as there is no Personal Visual Entertainment system in addition to any AC power to charge my laptop (767 aircraft).

So what I believe we have here in my opinion is a seat that suitably sits between the World Traveller and World Traveller Plus seat. On a positive note its testament to BA for creating a superior Economy seat for their long haul routes, it’s just unfortunate that the ‘premium’ short haul seat falls short.

My points here are as follows:

1) I didn’t get what I contractually paid for.
2) What I did receive does in no way justify the meagre compensation offered in relation to the vast contrast in service/product and most importantly seat.

The resulting circumstances meant i was unable to sleep on this particular flight and felt at a disadvantage when holding my meetings the following morning.

I would very much hope that a more suitable compensation would be considered.

Yours faithfully,

‘jonnye’