Originally Posted by Andriyko

I am not sad that you got 20,000 Avios, as you say. I am actually glad for you that you did - I don't see anything wrong with people getting things they did not expect and should not get under 'normal' circumstances.
I know that it is all about one's personal attitude to a particular situation, and this is what this whole thread is about. I just don't understand why you needed to talk to BA in the first place, unless you believed that a seat in the FClub cabin belonged to you. After all, there could have been the entire plane of GCHs who could have 'claimed' a seat there, and unless you were on this forum you'd have had no idea how seats were even allocated in that cabin.
You had no standing to complain as you suffered no injury and BA did not have to right any wrongs as the airline did not wrong you in any way. The only thing you achieved is probably getting the cabin crew in trouble for giving someone else what you thought was rightfully yours on an unknown basis and then getting cabin crew think twice about what they're doing. So, when cabin crew want to do something nice for you personally like, maybe, put you in a better seat or bring you a glass of champagne or do something else for you that you normally should not get, they would not because they'd be afraid that someone else may complain that they did not get it but you got it.


It's interesting that there was a reaction at all.
Something does not add up in that story as far as I'm concerned. BA did not do anything wrong to Jed. Airlines do not comment about their employees and about their inner processes. I do not see a reason why BA would reply with a confirmation that cabin crew did something wrong as the 'something wrong' was done to BA (only if BA views it that way), not the passenger. BA should have, but they would not have, replied something like 'Thank you for sharing your concern. May we ask you what in our promise to carry you in the seat you booked led you to believe that you were entitled to travel in a First class cabin that is used as CW on that route?'
I just don't understand why BA would admit that cabin crew did something wrong when the 'wrong' did not concern the passenger. We get so many 'why-I-was-not-upgraded-but-someone-else-was' questions that if airlines started to reply to all of them and explain it to all of them it would create even more confusion. I just find the whole response hard to believe, especially the offer of an upgrade to F on the next flight. People who get downgraded from F to CW don't tell us often that they are promised a service recovery upgrade on the next flight, but in a situation when there is no service failure a service recovery like that seems like too much. And I am sorry for saying that out loud.
Again, airlines do not comment on what's between them and cabin crew. So, yes, the response is interesting, but not in the way you implied. BA had absolutely no reason to admit or deny whether cabin crew did anything wrong. It's not like AA EXPs expect to get a confirmation that they were or were not passed over for a complimentary upgrade. It was a simple 'you-sat-in-your-assigned-seat' situation. An average BA passenger would not know what is 'perfectly normal and acceptable' when people are moved around within the cabin or between the cabins.