Seat shifters ?
Aug 2, 2011, 5:24 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: London
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold(twice), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 679
Seat shifters ?
My son is currently silver. Wants partner to experience CW in UD and could book that now for travel to Vegas next year(Amex 241). But due to a job change he is flying less and will drop to blue before travel. Could/will seat shifters boot them downstairs to give UD to status or paying pax?
He was stranded in Mexico during the ash cloud, given a best return date (had a CW ticket) 3 weeks after flights resumed even though much earlier seats were available on ba.com albeit for $5000 one-way( bad PR BA!).
He left expensive Mexico City and went to beach at Cancun until he could get on BA flight, thus making himself unavailable to travel from Mexico City and was told locally hotels etc were no longer "covered". He's not greedy & accepted anyway that the ash cloud was not BA's fault. Is there any point in mentioning that he hadn't complained or claimed anything for the expense he incurred, incl several days' lost pay as a freelance, to try to get silver extended?
He was stranded in Mexico during the ash cloud, given a best return date (had a CW ticket) 3 weeks after flights resumed even though much earlier seats were available on ba.com albeit for $5000 one-way( bad PR BA!).
He left expensive Mexico City and went to beach at Cancun until he could get on BA flight, thus making himself unavailable to travel from Mexico City and was told locally hotels etc were no longer "covered". He's not greedy & accepted anyway that the ash cloud was not BA's fault. Is there any point in mentioning that he hadn't complained or claimed anything for the expense he incurred, incl several days' lost pay as a freelance, to try to get silver extended?
Aug 2, 2011, 5:37 pm
#2
Join Date: May 2005
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC (Gold), Hilton (Gold)
Posts: 4,168
My son is currently silver. Wants partner to experience CW in UD and could book that now for travel to Vegas next year(Amex 241). But due to a job change he is flying less and will drop to blue before travel. Could/will seat shifters boot them downstairs to give UD to status or paying pax?
He was stranded in Mexico during the ash cloud, given a best return date (had a CW ticket) 3 weeks after flights resumed even though much earlier seats were available on ba.com albeit for $5000 one-way( bad PR BA!).
He left expensive Mexico City and went to beach at Cancun until he could get on BA flight, thus making himself unavailable to travel from Mexico City and was told locally hotels etc were no longer "covered". He's not greedy & accepted anyway that the ash cloud was not BA's fault. Is there any point in mentioning that he hadn't complained or claimed anything for the expense he incurred, incl several days' lost pay as a freelance, to try to get silver extended?
He was stranded in Mexico during the ash cloud, given a best return date (had a CW ticket) 3 weeks after flights resumed even though much earlier seats were available on ba.com albeit for $5000 one-way( bad PR BA!).
He left expensive Mexico City and went to beach at Cancun until he could get on BA flight, thus making himself unavailable to travel from Mexico City and was told locally hotels etc were no longer "covered". He's not greedy & accepted anyway that the ash cloud was not BA's fault. Is there any point in mentioning that he hadn't complained or claimed anything for the expense he incurred, incl several days' lost pay as a freelance, to try to get silver extended?
Additionally, it will depend how many years of status he's had - someone who's continually maintained silver for 10 years is probably going to be looked on more favourably than someone who's scraped in for one year only.
If he's 20 points short then it might be worth asking, or to be blunt, taking a cheapy return somewhere to get the points anyway.
If he's 400 points short I wouldn't bother asking.
BAH
Aug 3, 2011, 12:42 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 4,651
No, he will not get booted downstairs when he drops to blue, but he will no longer be able to move his seat if a better one opens up.
I agree that there's no harm asking if he's a long-term silver 20 points short of renewal, but wouldn't bother otherwise.
I really don't think that the ash cloud is worth mentioning; we were stuck in the Maldives and were given a confirrmed flight about four weeks later even though there were odd seats cropping up earlier, which wouldn't have helped much to clear the backlog given more than three full flights of PAX stranded (I did book a couple of fully refundable CW singles for two weeks later just in case I needed them). BA moved us to another resort and paid everything for the week we were stranded (well, only 50% of our bar bill
), which was more than could be said of other non-EU airlines and charters. In our case it was good PR BA.
I agree that there's no harm asking if he's a long-term silver 20 points short of renewal, but wouldn't bother otherwise.
I really don't think that the ash cloud is worth mentioning; we were stuck in the Maldives and were given a confirrmed flight about four weeks later even though there were odd seats cropping up earlier, which wouldn't have helped much to clear the backlog given more than three full flights of PAX stranded (I did book a couple of fully refundable CW singles for two weeks later just in case I needed them). BA moved us to another resort and paid everything for the week we were stranded (well, only 50% of our bar bill
), which was more than could be said of other non-EU airlines and charters. In our case it was good PR BA.
Aug 3, 2011, 10:07 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: London
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold(twice), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 679
Thank you both. As he won't lose his UD seat when he becomes blue then he won't plead for silver to be maintained. (Not sure why he didn't claim something for his extra costs while stranded though, particularly as a seat could have been purchased but was not allocated to him when flying resumed. Did I bring him up wrong?).
Aug 4, 2011, 8:04 am
#6
Join Date: May 2005
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC (Gold), Hilton (Gold)
Posts: 4,168
Aug 5, 2011, 10:57 am
#8
Join Date: Aug 2006
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 361
While I was silver I allocated seats for Mrs DMF and myself LHR to SFO return, with Mrs DMF travelling back on a different flight to myself.
After dropping to blue other than checking regularly that the seat shifters had not been at work I did not touch the seat selection button in MMB and we had no trouble travelling in the seats I had selected.
Hope this helps.
DMF
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A scorpion in Sweden?
After dropping to blue other than checking regularly that the seat shifters had not been at work I did not touch the seat selection button in MMB and we had no trouble travelling in the seats I had selected.
Hope this helps.
DMF
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A scorpion in Sweden?
Aug 6, 2011, 11:49 am
#9
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: where ever I lay my hat...
Programs: BA Gold,HHilton Diamond VIP,Intercontinental Ambass,Amex
Posts: 301
iMHO I don't find that having any status not matter the duration protects you from the secret seat shifters.
I'm only a four year strong gold but married to a premier of 20 years and we still get shifted about Our last ones were to Barbados - we were moved from AB to the middle 2 of the four on a 777 (EF???) no aircraft change, no explanation given.
I'm only a four year strong gold but married to a premier of 20 years and we still get shifted about Our last ones were to Barbados - we were moved from AB to the middle 2 of the four on a 777 (EF???) no aircraft change, no explanation given.