WelshGirl

Feel v sad.
Trip booked 12 months ago in first to Abu Dhabi . To see Grand Prix for tenth wedding anniversary
Checked in . One of us downgraded apparently because I did not check in online.
Offered £500 and partial refund of avios we used to pay
They are trying to resolve.
We were told it was because we did not check in online so one seat reallocated.
However we are wondering if our seat has just been reallocated to a VIP.

Any suggestions as to if this should have happened or what we can do ?

MSPeconomist

What time did you check in and what time was the flight scheduled to depart? Did you originate at LHR or elsewhere that day?

Were you downgraded to CW or to WT+/WT? Was the flight overbooked or overbooked in FC? Were you offered the opportunity for both of you to be downgraded (for twice their offer) in order to be seated together? Did you ask?

The BA CoC might have some statement of the (inverted) priority ordering that BA uses for downgrades. Some carriers use check in time as a criterion, some use fare class and/or fare paid, some consider elite status, etc.

I suspect that you're entitled to EU261 downgrade compensation, so check those rules but if compensation is based on fare paid, then you're looking at a customer service gesture for your inconvenience rather than a mandated significant sum of money.

WelshGirl

We checked in this am for a 9 40 flight today and are now in the Lounge feeling upset

Doc Savage

Aren't there EU regulations requiring major compensation for involuntary downgrades? I'd be firmly reminding the staff of this and perhaps more.

Don't waste your time in the lounge, demand to see supervisors and escalate this up the chain till you get your reserved seat back.

This is nonsense as long as you checked in at the airport in plenty of time, as it appears you did.

That said, £500 is a reasonable amount of money.

BalbC

EU regs require a 75% refund of whole ticket price (not just the downgraded leg) including fees and miles.

Kgmm77

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B411 Safari/600.1.4)

Shameful that you weren't advised of your rights.

Nyghtwing

Hi there ...

Can they not re-route you to F on Etihad to AUH, since they've (BA) most likely overbooked their own F cabin?

MSPeconomist

Yes, but these were award tickets and I suspect that EU261 compensation is a percentage of the fare paid for the downgraded sector.

Some airlines in these situations try to select passengers to minimize the downgrade compensation to be paid, perhaps selecting those on award tickets or in other situations where the percentage of fare will be a small number (perhaps a broken fare with different segments in different cabins costs more than the through fare in a higher cabin class) or sometimes sending the "lucky" person back to coach (a double or even triple downgrade, which seems to just count as a downgrade under EU261) rather than downgrading one from FC to biz and someone else from biz to coach, thereby incurring two downgrade penalties according to the regulations.

WelshGirl

Thank you all.
We have asked for the Manager to return to see us in the Lounge and will ask for a copy of our rights.
Not handled well.bni preemptive text or email and left standing at check in desk in First check in with manager
It is,sad as we started the trip with high expectations and feel very deflated.
I do appreciate that it is a First World problem!
I wonder if the person in the allocated seat we allegedly lost will be kind enough confirm that they checked in before us....

jp-mco

I echo the other comments here - this really is poor. I wouldn't just sit in the lounge and feel sad though. Firmly (but politely) demand to speak to someone who has the authority to resolve this for you. I always find words like, "not unacceptable" help when you've been treated so badly. I too would enquire about being rerouted on Etihad F - it's a super product. It is BA's fault and as such BA should find a way to resolve it. It's their job to be masters of logistics - not yours. Really hope you get this resolved.

Cap'n Benj

With the F1 on, I suspect every single F cabin to AUH, is bursting at the seems, hence the downgrade in this case.

I would make a claim for 75% of the fare and be happy with that, it pretty much pays for another flight for the 11th Anniversary!

lorcancoyle

If they didn't proactively remind you of your rights / offer the page with EU261 details it may be worth letting them know you'll be notifying the CAA of that breach of the regs also

(Notwithstanding the return / oneway point, £343 + 60,000 Avios for a o/w, so 75% would be 45,000 and £257. If I was offered £500 and 20,000 Avios I might find that decent - personal opinion, YMMV, so offer not necessarily BA pulling a fast one)

corporate-wage-slave

No it's 75% of Avios, plus 75% of fees. There is a debate over whether that's single or return.

I am very sorry to read this, welshgirl, and sorry if I ran past you at CCR. I guess compensation means little at this stage, it's possible they can sort something at the gate after the flight has been finalized. It's better to OLCI, but it's by no means compulsory. Would it make life easier if you both go down to CW to make life more comfortable? You won't get any thing extra for that. Have a good flight and look forward to the Grand Prix.

IAN-UK

My suggestion is to forget about the First thing, don't let six hours or so in business-class spoil your holiday

Maximise financial compo and use that to have even more fun.

You're both on the same reservation, I'm guessing, and it's a special occasion trip, so if they downgrade one they should downgrade (and compensate!) the other.

orbitmic

Very sorry to hear that too. To me, it is still an issue that BA choose to over-sell F. Several other airlines, including airlines like AF in Europe (for all its other faults) have a policy that while they oversell other cabins because they "know" a certain portion of passengers won't show up, they never oversell F as they cannot take a risk there. This is actually a sensible policy in my view, because in effect, I think that someone with a confirmed reservation in F should never have to be turned away as a result of the airline's fault.