Have had a very disappointing time with BA. My PA booked business class to DC and does not recall seeing any warning that this was a strictly "no changes" booking. My email confirmation makes no mention of "no changes." It does say as an endorsement, "not refundable" - but this is not the same thing; many flights are non refundable. I need to go to NY now instead of DC the same day - and then go on to DC - but BA have said even if I paid for a NY return ticket (i.e., and didn't use both the flight out to DC and NY return) they would automatically cancel my return to London from DC. Other airlines do not do this.
What is really the issue here is that the written booking confirmation is legally - I am a lawyer – wrong. Yet BA just stonewall and say it says "no changes" in their system. Of course it does, but this misses the point entirely. To have a valid contract you need both parties to agree and an "offer and acceptance." How can the customer ever prove they did or did not agree to a term or condition when using an on line booking process? They can't, and so the customer is always wrong according to BA.
Separately, I have just been charged $45 for a seat selection for a flight last month (my son’s seat in WT) I am sure I never selected or agreed to. I do recall that the BA web site froze 2 or 3 times and said “unable to continue on line check in.” When I finally was able to continue with on line check in, a seat, randomly, had been selected - certainly not by me – I remember thinking this was strange. I also could not then move the seat, so my son could sit with my family (on a different booking). The rest of us were able to select seating for no extra charge in the normal way so it not occur to me my son's seat was for an added fee. I did not see any message that I would be charged or asked to give payment instructions. I had no idea until an email from BA arrived several days after the flight saying it had charged my credit card account.
Same point again. Because there is no practical means for customers to preserve a record of each on line choice made, if the system has a hiccup or glitch and does something without the customer's consent, there is never any way to challenge BA. This hardly seems fair. The CR people I spoke with could only read from their set hymn sheet, were totally unable to grasp the legal significance of the absence of customer consent, and generally seemed to not care in the least about loss of goodwill. So if I decide to take my company’s business elsewhere, I guess they won’t mind that either.
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