Originally Posted by
BertieBadger
I will echo Saladman's welcome to FlyerTalk, even though it is unhappy circumstances that have brought you here.
Firstly, BA is currently overwhelmed with customer issues, I am reading of response times of 4 months and more. If they have not yet given you a response to your complaint, there is some chance they may agree to extend your Bronze status once they get round to processing that complaint. There is nothing you can do to make processing of your complaint happen more quickly.
Secondly, while I hope you get a positive outcome, my inclination is that they may stand firm. The issue is that you didn't get 300 TP, and once you opted to refund your flight, that was the end of BA's obligations to you. It is of course easy to say with hindsight, but had you found FlyerTalk beforehand you may have gotten different advice. If you had kept the ticket alive and worked out a way for BA to reroute you, you would have been able to claim what is known as "Original Routing Credit" or "ORC", where BA award the TPs for flights you couldn't take because of their issue. I know BA can even reroute onto the railways (though not sure if ultimately to MAN). I appreciate you had a business meeting, but it may have been better to claim the expense for alternate transport afterwards rather than cancel the ticket. Since BA refunded the ticket, their view may be that you won't get any TPs, but it's certainly worth a try.
Lastly, and I don't mean this as any criticism because I've been very guilty of this myself, try to shake the mindset that BAEC is a reward for loyalty. I know they present it as such, and for all sorts of obvious reasons related to psychology, we think of loyalty as a positive trait. However, as one of the sages of this parish has been known to observe, loyalty is for dogs, not airline passengers. The purpose of BAEC is to drive your future business to them, and if you feel they have given you no reason to do so you should absolutely consider all the alternatives. They won't care either way, and you may well be better off.
Thank you for the replies, so grateful for your time and effort in doing so.
As for the suggestion of asking for a re-routing, what I had done, when I was offered the afternoon flight, I checked in and got to the lounge and worked with the lady there to try and get a better flight. However, given the earlier flight had been cancelled, there were 100 other people trying to get on the remaining flights. I didn't know about the option to re-route via Rail. I did discuss the fact I had no choice but to "pay £200 to get Avanti west coast from Euston to Manchester" and the lady suggested she cancel my flight so I could get compensation for the £200 train fare (which was more than the cost of the original flight).
I didn't at the time, worry too much about the tier point situation a) I HAD to get to M/C for the business meeting, this was super important and b) at the back of my mind, I was (naively) SURE BA would not be so picky as to downgrade me to blue (when they can see my usage and prior-booked flights in the new membership year as well).
I will wait for the response to the official complaint, See how things go. I have to say, lately (last 2 years), BA have been completely "computer says no" about every complaint or request I've had, and unfortunately, I've had a few (Cancelled flights from Munich, serious delays domestic flights).
I also accept the point about this not being a "loyalty" programme, however, even for good customer relations perspective, why irritate a (clearly and evidentially) regular customer?!