seattle29

BA normally load 1-2 extra CE meals, from my experience. I find it more hard to believe they had the exact number loaded, and hence ran out!

Can I help you

No they don't, they under cater and then top up to the number accepted for that flight.
Flights returning from Europe and the U.K. are mostly return catered from London and if anyone is accepted above the catered figure they are refused a meal.

flygirl68

Thank you, ^ I've never experienced it, I had no visual idea of the size.

orbitmic

Indeed. Which is why when you sit towards the back of the CE cabin (be it on LCY flights or mainline) the chances of not getting any choice of meal is very high, which is particularly annoying.

mikebg

What annoys me is that for me the meal service is important, and I am usually not interested at all in the IFE. But if there is a problem with the meal the compensation is minimal, whereas if the IFE doesn't work properly the compensation is very generous - I have experienced both!

callum9999

Yes I'm sure. They specifically said sympathy, not empathy (though even empathy is rather strong when you're empathising with someone who had to have something like a filled croissant instead of a cooked breakfast!).

1. They did indeed.
2. Indeed they didn't.
3. Indeed they didn't.
4. Indeed they didn't.
5. Indeed they weren't.
6. Looking after them!? IT'S A DOWNGRADED BREAKFAST! She's a grown woman, I can guarantee she doesn't need looking after. Not that I was overly judgemental towards the OP, I was clearly criticising the people acting as if it was some kind of tragedy... I specifically said that it was irrefutably wrong, which therefore implies (and I do believe) that the OP can legitimately complain about it.
7. I very clearly didn't call them stupid (I don't know if you're deliberately lying to try and make me look bad, or if you couldn't be bothered to read it properly?). I said £30 is a stupid amount to pay for a CE breakfast, which it is.

And I'm assuming you think my tone is too aggressive, but they had a downgraded BREAKFAST! This board on the whole can occasionally act rather over-privileged so I'm used to it, but the responses on here have been a whole nother level! To actually express sympathy - as if it was some kind of horrific event - is absurd in my eyes and I have no problem saying it! As to the people insisting either the breakfast is worth more than £30 more than an economy breakfast, or that they deserve some kind of compensation for the emotional distress at having to eat a cheap croissant...

IcHot

What about the other way around? Doesn't it follow that if the compensation is too high, that the original price was too if it was more than £30?

If the original price is inflated, then why shouldn't the complaint and compensation also be inflated by any reasonable standard? Or is it a one way street where the provider always has the right of way and the excuse and the customer is a whinger if they request what they paid for?

orbitmic

Because the op's wife was not downgraded (she still got the C miles, luggage allowance, Champagne) she just got a Y breakfast instead of the C one. This is clearly frustrating but this remains a downgraded breakfast.

1. One cannot assume the difference in price paid by the op to fly C rather than Y. This was a paid ticket but sometimes the difference between the price of Y and C is very low, sometimes, C is even cheaper than Y, and sometimes only C is available. We don't know but as the op's husband is precisely clearly not stupid, I doubt he would have paid a £500 difference to sit her in C if he perceived the better breakfast as the main usable difference.

2. Regardless of the price difference paid, again, this was not a downgrade. Let's say we value the meal difference at £10 (which I think is really quite generous), the Champagne at £20 (assuming heavy consumption for a morning flight!), the extra bag at £40, and the extra Avios at £10. If people decide that 40+20+10+10=150 it is entirely their right, as it is their right to decide that 40+20+10+10=20 which is exactly what I'd do because that's probably the price difference I'd tolerate. People buy C for any reason and value the experience in any way they wish. On many airlines, there are C itineraries which are in fact operated by single cabin aircraft with zero difference in onboard service!

3 It is their choice and does not inflate the value of the individual components for purposes of compensation. Imagine that instead of the breakfast, the op's wife had been deprived of the C Avios and even added that his wife travels hbo and is allergic to some food so brings her own so that the Avios are really the only reason to fly C. It would be about 1000 Avios too few that were received. Would you also request that the compensation be inflated to 6000 Avios or £200 or something just because the op valued this much and possibly more than most would have? Presumably, 1000 Avios too few should lead to a compensation of 1000, or about £10. This is really no different.

4. I have a feeling that some of the suggestions of higher compensation come from people being annoyed at the self upgrading part of the story and possibly by the fact it was not fixed after being identified. The thing, though, is that it is entirely irrelevant to the compensation. There are no 'punitive damages' nor should there be, and if crew did not do the right thing this is a matter for disciplinary measures (although I'd personally find this really harsh to have anything more than an informal reminder by line manager to remember to count assuming this is a one off) and not for extra compensation of a third person.

Cerebrito

So I have accepted the 4500, I didn't want to spend any more time on this issue.

While it was just a breakfast, it deeply annoys me that BA think they can charge for a product and then not provide it as advertised.

I think think twice before booking a CE flight again.

Worcester

Just keep in mind the Hamburg rule, flights less than that the additional benefits are barely noticeable. I only use J on band 4 flights and then only when I have a lot of excess luggage.

Cerebrito

So a final update to this story, I replied to BA saying we would take the avios and they sent another reply saying they had credited 4500 avios to both my account and my wife's account, without me asking for anything extra.

So in the end my opinion of BA has been restored.

orbitmic

that's nice - and well deserved as she suffered the lack of proper breakfast but you took the time to inform BA and had originally purchased the ticket. well done! ^

PS: I'm quite partisan here I guess. My partner never likes to write and complain so I tend to do that every time for the both of us so I sympathise with your ambassadorial role!!!

shefgab

Shame the crew were not on all the ball. Isn't checking the headcount in CE is accurate a fairly standard (and easy) procedure? And an essential one when you know meals are loaded at 100%.

Often1

It's really important to separate the entire issue of the seat poaching and crew handling of the issue from the breakfast itself.

Had the flight been under-catered, had a crew member dropped the tray through clumsiness, had the same thing happened through unexpected turbulence, or misfortune, the same result would have ensued.

I don't believe that one can unbundle the class of service or value each component of it. That is because the market sets the price and it is not set on a cost plus basis. Put another way, if ET and CE were exactly the same in all respects except the meal, and the differential in meal cost is EUR 10 and BA seeks a 10% return, that does not mean that it may only charge a EUR 11 premium for CE over ET.

The crew's failure to deal with the poacher is a failure even if BA catered additional meals. A simple head count was missed and when found out, was not dealt with. While it may seem meaningless to give the poacher the boot for a few minutes of a SH flight, there is a point to be made in doing it.

satman40

I am glad you received 9,000 Avois, and the FA lost their job...

Thank you.