I searched for some threads and found a couple regarding inoperable seats but figured I'd post this thread.
I have about 150,000 AA EQMs booked on BA metal for 2016 in mostly CW and PE, as I am switching from SkyTeam for the year just out of boredom, I guess.
I'm doing three quick MR/mini-vacations PHX-LHR-JNB between Feb 9th and Mar 9th and the crews and cabins thus far have been great in CW and WTP--the crews have all been top notch, actually, which makes up for the mostly bland food offerings in both cabins.
However, I am sitting here @ LHR having just gotten off the JNB-LHR flight, where I had the best seat in WTP--61A bulkhead on the A380. But I had my first very bad experience with hard and soft product.
I am just going to paste what I wrote to BA through their website:
After taking off I wanted to recline my Seat 61A in the bulkhead of the WTP cabin.
I flew about 200,000 Miles last year and am VERY familiar with the Airbus A380. I went to push the recline button and the button was literally missing. There was a hole where the button was supposed to be. I have a photo but it doesn't appear your system here has a way of attaching it. Please email me for the photo if you'd like to see it.
I politely informed Johanna, my flight attendant, that there was no button to recline my seat. She looked at it and looked confused trying to push the legrest button trying to get me to recline my seat.
She looked around the WTP cabin and told me that there were no other seats available and she apologized that my seat was inoperable and asked me if there was anything she could do. I asked her if I could speak to the Purser on the flight. She said she would get him.
She came back about 10 minutes later and told me that she had a couple of empty middle seats in regular economy....uh....but that involved not only a downgrade of cabins, but losing my bulkhead seat with extra legroom. I declined the donwgrade since I paid for Premium Economy.
That was that.
No purser ever came to speak to me.
One hour to landing I walked up to the Business Class galley and asked to speak with the purser. The gentleman I spoke to asked me why I needed to, etc. I told him I had a problem with the seat and the limited options presented by the flight attendant in rectifying my problem as this was an 11-hour overnight flight an I had wanted to sleep on it but was very uncomfortable the entire flight due to having to sit upright.
About 5 minutes after I went back to my seat the gentleman I had just spoken to told me the Purser would be to see me in 30 minutes as he was tied up in paperwork.
No purser ever came to see me. Nobody did after that.
I told yet another flight attendant on my way out of the plane at LHR that my seat was broken, and I had asked TWICE for the purser to come speak to me and he never came. She asked me if I wanted to wait to speak to him and I said that I didn't want to hold up deplaning and getting stuck behind a very long line at Border Control so I simply told her to make sure SEAT 61A gets fixed so the next passenger is able to enjoy their premium product that they paid for and she said she would.
I fly about 200,000 miles per year and for 2016 have switched all of my flying to British Airways. I have flown many miles with you guys in the last two weeks, and have another 6 long-haul flights already booked with a mixture of Club World and World Traveller Plus.
My first few flights this year with you have been lovely, and the cabin crew top-notch. This time, however, I felt completely brushed off and unimportant. And paying a premium price for a premium seat in a premium cabin I don't feel I was treated commensurately to the product for which I paid.
Again, please email me if you would like me to send you the picture of the hole where the recline button was SUPPOSED to be but wasn't.
Thank you for your time.
355F1
But you all get to see the picture!
So....my question to all of you FT peeps is: What should I expect here? Am I even entitled to anything? Surprisingly I have only had one inoperable seat in many many flights--and that was in J NRT-LAX on DL. But this doesn't seem to be related to the complex computer-controlled seats in J. This was a PHYSICAL button missing.
I appreciate your thoughts on this subject as I am brand new to BA.
