emsred

As a gold card holder i pre booked extra legroom seats for myself and my pregnant sister on a recent flight to Antigua (as she was pregnant the choice of additional legroom as very limited!). On boarding plane there was a family sitting in our seats. When queried the onboard manager was trying to be helpful but effectively wasnt. Unless I was prepared to make a woman have her small child on her lap the whole flight. So we were moved to new seats where the back seat screen fell into my lap everytime the guy in front sat back in his seat (often, he was flirting with a group of ladies!).
This was a disappointing experience. I should not have been able to book those seats if they should be for families. I should have got better service as a gold card otherwise what is the point in all this loyalty.
I wrote to the exec team (ref 12494227) and had a curt reply saying yes that must have been annoying but hey ho. No fix suggested. Disappointed with the response (that took over a month to come to me). Am I being unreasonable?!

Petrus

Hello and welcome to Flyertalk and the BAEC forum.

Sorry that your d�but came from a poor experience. However, many of us started out that way and then realised there is much to learn from FT and have stayed. We hope you stick around.

Just to clarify, did you hold Boarding Passes with your original seats when entering the plane, or had your seats been changed at check-in or at some stage before the flight?

Either way it sounds like a poor show by BA judging by their response. Unfortunately the front rows in WT/WT+ cabins there is the risk of getting booted by those traveling with infants so this one you'll just have to suck up and move on.

paulwuk

You're not being unreasonable (but this isn't mumsnet). I was booted from an exit row to a middle seat further back last year on a Singapore to London flight. The Qantas gold-card-equivelent guy sat next to me was also booted out. I suspect it was a checkin person at Sydney putting their family in the good seats.

Complaining to BA netted 25,000 worthless avios, but at least it was something.

However that happened at checkin. If someone was sat in your seat, and you had a boarding pass for that seat, the on board crew should have intervened. BA isn't ryanair, it's not a first-come-first-served flight.

This statement:
Well tough. If they didn't spend the money on a seat, why should you suffer?

Very poor handling on board, very poor response from BA. Escalate again.

Your treatment has literally made my blood boil.

However on a lighter term, it sounds from your post you were flying back in economy. Stick around here and economy will only be a tale you can tell your nephew/neice at Halloween

Hoch

Welcome!

I don't think you are being unreasonable. However, there may be very good reasons for seat changes, though in this instance I am on the fence whether it was (I rather dislike people using their children as a sword [and a shield for that matter]). I would chase BA again and note the specific circumstances of the people flying with you and all the other relevant details (again if already mentioned previously).

H

irishguy28

Should you wish to be unencumbered of these worthless trinkets, I would gladly take them off your hands

srbrenna

I don't think you're being unreasonable either. I'm assuming that the person chose to have the infant on their lap so I'm at a loss as to why you have to move

Write back to BA saying that as well as the first complaint being unsatisfactory, the reply is as well.

lorcancoyle

And as a GGL can now be transferred for free too ^

nux

Gold can also transfer for free.

chris1979

Welcome.

Over and above others' comments, would just add that the Gold card isn't overly relevant here. If you had reserved those seats, this shouldn't have happened even if you didn't have Gold.

A Gold card will not shield you from things going wrong (rightly or wrongly) and I would suggest that there is a lot of "point" to a Gold card over and above reserving seats.

Stewie Mac

Oh Paul. Don't give up. Us pedants must stand strong, a noble dyke against the tide of drivel. I'm sure that the future where we have given up the fight is just a little less sunny.

crazy8534

Sorry to disagree but if you are talking about a bassinet seat then these should be available for passengers with infants first, and then to other status passengers if not being used. If you have the ability to preassign such a seat then there is a risk that you will be booted out by a passenger + infant. There are limited numbers of these seats in each cabin. Expecting a mother to sit with her child on her lap for the whole transatlantic flight because the only available bassinet was reserved by a single traveller is unreasonable. Of note, passengers with infants have the ability to assign seats from the time of booking, in a similar way to GCH.

If you want to argue that BA should not have allowed you to assign yourself to that seat in the first place then I would agree with that, or if you are unhappy because you were allowed to board with a BP that showed a seat in which you wouldn't be able to sit then I understand that too.

Calchas

[Off topic: Today's anti-pedant xkcd is even better http://xkcd.com/1429/ ]

ukgooner

Aside from the fact that the seat you ended up with had a defective screen that fell out of its housing (I assume thats what you mean - it did work?) - the seats you were moved to were never going to be as good as the extra legroom ones you originally requested.

You suggest it was your good grace to move, not wanting to force the mother to have the child on their lap for the whole flight. And clearly that was the only option available to the crew - one of you was going to have to suffer. What else could they have done?

Consequently, I don't think you can then complain that it is somehow BAs fault. You did a good deed, but I'm not sure what you are hoping too seek because of that good deed.There is little point being a good Samaritan if you spend the rest of the flight fuming and mentally drafting a big complaint letter to write when you get home.

I sympathise a bit, as I have been in similar situations, either a request to move or finding someone in my seat on boarding. It can make you feel awkward, not wanting to make a fuss etc. My first response is to find out what the alternatives are - and if roughly the same I'll just move. In a situation like this though I wouldn't never have done it, particularly with your pregnant partner. That family chose to book on 'on lap' ticket for their infant, not a separate seat which means they would have known there was a high probability of sitting with infant in lap through the flight.

I only think you'd have grounds for complaint if the crew forced your hand, and refused your request once you'd asserted your right to the seats you've booked.

Hoch

Without knowing whether this was an issue of the bassinet seat, I disagree with you in part. In part because the reasonable or correct thing to do would have been to ask the OP if they would not mind changing seats rather than just taking them. In any event, it should have been to the CC to try to resolve the matter.

I would also point out that not taking a bassinet seat when able to do so runs the risk of having a lap child for a long flight. It works both ways.

H

Worcester

Don't mock the dead, which will certainly be the case if the poor chaps blood literally had boiled. God that must smell something awful.