madfish

Could it be that the bulkhead seats were needed for an infant in a bassinet? Although if this was the case why would OP have been able to assign these 'months before'?

DYKWIA

I've spotted a flaw in your plan Baldrick...

27R

The NTSB accident report into the BA 777 fire at Vegas makes interesting reading in many aspects. One is that two of the three crew flew from LGW-LAS the previous day as pax, before overnighting and returning the following day. The captain admitted he wasn't in the best shape as a result.

A few years back, I recall reading a QF captain on a similar site to FT based in the Antipodes saying that a major SE Asian airline had a habit of flying aircrew down to Australia overnight, then expecting them to fly the plane straight back. Certainly on a BMI redemption to MEL with that airline, there were three of us in F; one was a pilot. Wheels up to wheels down was just under six hours. I hope he got more sleep than I did.....

V10

Quite so, and for all the sanctimonious bluster about "getting what you paid for" the customer was promised something by crew that never materialised. Poor customer service, that the OP is quite right to be disappointed by.

Agree. The conditions that economy long haul passengers are expected to endure now are, in my opinion, at the point of being inhumane. If it's not good enough for staff, it's not good enough for paying customers.

warakorn

Just trusting the word of a flight crew member, is quite naive.
They have paper on hand, where they could write down what they are offering you.

KARFA

Have you got a link? I can't find the report.

madfish

Maybe the CC made an error and thought the passenger had been downgraded and was simply explaining what may have been offered to those who were downgraded? Perhaps the passenger misheard? Maybe the CC did suggest this but it was turned down by CS? Lots of possible variations of what may or may not have happened. What I can say is that if everytime a seat booking change resulted in being guaranteed an upgrade on the next flight we would all be very happy to be moved seats. I think the passenger's expectations that this would actually happen is, quite frankly, ridiculous. They were moved from one row in the cabin to another. They weren't downgraded, they weren't split up etc. To even get anything is somewhat surprising, unless they had paid for their seat reservations in which case they could have claimed a refund.

As for your second point, travel in Y is not as great as W/J/F. However, millions do it everyday and are perfectly happy. It is far from being inhumane. We all want low prices (and airlines want to make a profit) so there has to be a balance in there. Apart from a short flight from LHR/BRE back in the early 90s, my first flight was to Australia in 1997 - in Y. I paid more then than I would pay if booking the same ticket today. Based on inflation what would today's price be? Customers may well be getting less than they did but they are certainly paying a lot less for it!

apollo00

Also keep in mind that there may be contractual entitlements for staff to position in W or J, I believe some airlines still have this at least. I think if that's the case then it's fair enough they insist on it, I hold my employer to the travel policy we agreed, why shouldn't they...

Fitch

"Inhumane" may be hyperbole but l/h Y is certainly uncomfortable.

I flew LHR-LAX last year in WT and it was bearable, but then again I am 5'8 and in proportion plus I had a bulkhead seat... even so, I was in contact with the sear on both sides !

I really can't imagine what it's like for a broad-shouldered 6-footer in a middle seat - I certainly wouldn't want the pilot of my flight to have just done several hours in one..

So by all means put pilots in F & J though I would say that a tired cabin crew member is not nearly so much of a safety risk ao I would expect them to take whatever seat is left even a crappy Y one...
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LTN Phobia

Possible linguistic confusion here. Offloaded vs. seat-shifted ('offloaded' somehow being used to express 'offloaded from the particular seats' rather than 'offloaded from the flight'), seat-shifted vs. downgraded, downgraded vs. offloaded, or people might have been downgraded and decided to wait until the next flight without the downgrade, hence the WT with empty seats?

27R

Accident ID DCA15FA185 Mode Aviation occurred on September 08, 2015 in Las Vegas, NV United States Last Modified on April 07, 2017 15:04 Public Released on April 11, 2017 09:04 Total 37 document items

Not sure if that's a link that'll transfer to FT; if not, copy and paste the accident ID into the NTSB website.

It's rather different in style to the AAIB, although a well-known AAIB investigator was on the panel.

Arctic Troll

The thread title says "bumped", which normally means downgraded or IDBd off the flight entirely.

And if the OP said he'd been "bumped" to the flight crew, then they would have said what the standard compensation package was.

He wasn't "bumped", he got exactly what he paid for, other than the fact that (as always) BA hadn't put enough catering on.

It's OK if you don't have to do anything for a bit afterwards. Overnighting in Y is fine for me because I don't need to function the next day.

I wouldn't want to be flying a plane (or even driving a long way in a rental car) after an overnight Y flight...

simons1

To be fair I wouldn't want to be flying a plane after spending over 10 hours positioning in Y either.

As far as the OP's issue with the upgrade vouchers is concerned. I would be surprised if in the current climate BA really offered upgrade vouchers for a change of seat within WTP. So that might suggest one of two things - i) there was a misunderstanding and OP was offered vouchers towards a future upgrade (ie not the full cost) or ii) the CSM was economical with the truth in order to placate the OP.

In relation to warakorn's point about being naive. Yes I would agree, if the OP was a regular traveller or reader on here. I certainly would insist on something in writing. However perhaps the OP was an occasional traveller who still takes the BA brand at face value and does not know how untrustworthy the airline has become?

BingBongBoy

No, They are for operating crew only. Positioning crew are not permitted to use them.

msm2000uk

Maybe I'm missing something here, but the whole 'would you want the crew to be flying in Y' debacle, seems like a red-herring in this instance.

If seats are available in WTP, CW, or F, then sure, let the crew have them if they're working the next day.

However, why should others be moved to accomodate them?

Is a Doctor, sat in WTP, about to go into surgery, not of equal importance to a crew member? How about a NASA engineer? How about a Bus driver?

Unless BA have ranked the jobs their passengers do, against those of the crewmembers, it's irrelevant.

A paying customer should never be moved for a crewmember. IF the passenger is requested to move, and compensation of a reasonable amount offered (and then accepted by the passenger), then I have no issue.

However, that point isn't up for debate as we're all in agreement.

Quite why a crewmember of any airline, should be prioritised over another passenger, is my concern.

M