our_kid

I have to say if that happened to me and Mrs Our_Kid I would be seriously unimpressed. I am glad for the OP that the issue was resolved but let's face it what a load of hassle that both the OP and her partner don't need. I hope they kept the Ł500.

Jenzo

I would be hoping to be downgraded daily! If you are on a cheapo avios flight and someone on a 10K fare getting 7 back would be ridiculous. It would stop overbooking completely.

HighLife

In more than ten years of flying BA F I have never suffered a downgrade and only know of one person who was downgraded from F to J. It was due to oversales on LHR-MEX.

It was a paid ticket and he was BA Gold - but because somebody else had paid for the ticket (and he frankly didn't care about the downgrade anyway), he was happy with the Ł500 card BA gave him.

The fact that he totally forgot about the cash card and found it about a year later after it had expired (I think it was only valid for 6 months from date of issue) is another story

BERbound

This happened to me in 2009 on a CW trip to Cape town. It caused a great deal of aggravation and spoiled the outward trip. Like the OP the downgrade was reversed at the gate.

bealine

I am glad this was all sorted out in the end, but sorry that it got the Anniversary trip off to a poor start.

British Airways can, and often does, oversell in any cabin. (Those with Gold or Premier cards, what do you think it means when we say we can guarantee you space on any flight? What do you think we're going to do when we have a full flight and your secretary asks to make a First Class booking for you? We will go over by one, and hope someone changes their booking. drops out altogether or no-shows!)

To be fair to the unseen office wallahs known as "Rev Man", they do know what they are doing and very rarely get it wrong. The oversales actually yield a heck of a lot of extra revenue for the airline which should keep the Flyertalk shareholders happy!

Much as I hate it, the moral of the story seems to be to make sure you OLCI!

headingwest

Yes, and it's good that WelshGirl posted this incident here. I wouldn't have even realised that a passenger with a First ticket could be downgraded to CW if they hadn't checked in online in good time. As ever, useful information here.

diamantaire

" A CALM FACTUAL LETTER" won't help.

I wass flying lhr-hkg paid CW . Somebody nicked my pillow , the cabin crew told me they were out of pillows. the response to the letter took more than a month & was copy paste letter with no reference to the incident.

I called the customer service all she said was sorry no avios or anything else !!


with ba it can be hit-or-miss . you have a good flight or bad flight !!

but its still has a better product than the luthansa group !!

nalismom

As someone who also has a special occasion 'once in a lifetime' trip booked this whole discussion of OLCI has me a lot concerned.

We flew in September from US to LHR on an AA award tic in FC on BA. We COULD NOT do OLCI as our first segment was on AA connecting to BA. AA could not check us in for the BA flight nor issue boarding passes since the tics were 001 not 125.

We had to wait til we arrived at EWR and then for the BA ticket counter to open 3 hours prior to departure before we were able to receive our boarding passes.

Reading this....I feel like we dodged a bullet.

That said.....we now have BA LHR-IAH return tickets on another AA award in FC.

This flight is a connecting flight for us (seperate PNR) from another BA flight arriving from JNB on BA....we have 7 hours between these flights. OLCI window for the LHR-IAH flight opens when we are flying from CPT-JNB. We do have several hours prior to depart JNB.

Question: can/will JNB BA staff check us in and issue BP for the LHR-IAH flight since this one will also have been issued as an 001 e-ticket? Or do we also run the risk of being downgraded due to not doing OLCI.

And - what exactly does 'In Good Time for Check-In' mean....how many hours are we talking about if one is unable to do OLCI?????

skba1

Not necessarily. I know a guy that took LH to court and almost got his claim through (they settled at about 75% of the full EU compensation as my friend's legal coverage from his insurance was running out he took the offer).

This was regarding a redemption flight where only one leg was downgraded.

A pity he didn't take it so far that there is a case to fully rely on.


Either way, escalate as far as possible up the chain, and I would try to get re-routed in F if that is possible (compensation should still be paid though!).

corporate-wage-slave

I don't think you dodged a bullet at all, it happens so rarely, always the danger when looking at an anecdote like this (which actually, was also resolved in the end). And OLCI isn't a completed salvation either. But I would hope the JNB staff can check you all the way through, obviously do your best to ensure both BA and AA's PNRs have your API data and what not in their databases. Particularly your status. Who knows, OLCI may just work, and in any case the staff at JNB will be probably better equipped to through check you than quite a few other locations.

Swampz64

If you look at the Formula One calendar and the number of people who follow the circuit there will be serious spend on J & F travel. Whilst harsh on the OP downgrading a McLaren sponsor (for example) could cost BA serious longterm revenues.

nalismom

" do your best to ensure both BA and AA's PNRs have your API data and what not in their databases. Particularly your status. Who knows, OLCI may just work, and in any case the staff at JNB will be probably better equipped to through check you than quite a few other locations."

Thank you C-W-S.... This is another issue: on the LHR-IAH seg.... Passenger details in MMB is red stating more details needed...however all of our API is there and correct when I view to edit. Called CS and they confirm they have all necessary info.

Is this going to be a problem in the future? My other 3 bookings all are good in MMB with identical info.

corporate-wage-slave

I seem to recall this glitch happening occasionally in the past. I don't know for certain but if the Service Centre says it looks ok at their end then I'm inclined to trust them, so I think you you will be OK there. They have been playing with BA.com a lot recently, so adding a few new bugs perhaps, and we have to remember that BA.com is just the front end - the core data is on GDS which is what the Service Centre will be seeing.

WelshGirl

Dear All
Have safely arrived in the hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Both of us sat in first though not together.
The crew were lovely and I am glad we both got to experience First.
I am not sure why the original change was reversed, perhaps a combination of my tears and my husband asking if BA was racist against Welsh people ...
It was a shame that we wasted time at the check in instead of in the lounge and it was not handled well.
I will ALWAYS check in online on any redemption flight now.
I am not sure whether I will follow this up or whether just to let things go.
Anyway all set for a lovely holiday.
Thanks for all the support and kind wishes.
If there are updates promise to post

DYKWIA

Is this correct? I don't recall it being a benefit when I was a Gold...

Surely this would happen a lot more often if any Tom, Dick or Harry could book a last minute flight?