Cymro

As the OP acknowledges, he got what he paid for, but it's not good customer service to make one group of customers explicitly favoured over another. Sometimes it's necessary, but there is a way to do it.

I once flew CE as a blue OSL-LHR, seated in row 1. The cabin crew member made a big show of making sure that the gold sitting next to me got his first choice of meal because she "anticipated a sell out of the more popular meals" while ignoring me. I ended up with no choice at all. Clearly as a gold now, I would benefit from that situation (and have) but it really is not good practice to make paying customers feel that their money is less valuable than others, unless you are giving them a published benefit or there is a good operational reason, and even then you do it discreetly.

(When upgraded ET-CE MXP-LHR this week the gate staff were very apologetic to me and thanked me for cooperating with the "seat change" even though I was getting a free upgrade, presumably because there's no reason to make the passenger behind me think that their money isn't good enough. That's how it should be.)

As for how the CSD here knew that the others would never sit up front - presumably, they had a CIV somewhere between chuff and all, whereas you basically don't get gold without flying in premium cabins at least semi-regularly, so there is logic there - but it's completely irrelevant. If the policy is to upgrade "just because" then it should be first come, first served - but either you offer it only as needed (because the policy is to close the cabin except when necessary) or you offer it until it runs out (i.e., until 12/14 people had moved forward).

Cymro

Despite commenting on why I think it was handled poorly, I completely agree with this!

Can I help you

Can you explain the above please?

Jed

With the greatest of respect, this is a frequent flyer forum where people post to get the best they can from the product.
My issue isn't with the hen party getting 'upgraded'- they were not disruptive at all.
My issue is with the way the CSM spoke to me when I asked if we could move up too.
Anyway, BA is taking it seriously.

Cymro

Not commenting on what BA policy *is* - but in my view, if the crew wanted to create a 'party plane' atmosphere then they should have opened it to all passengers, at least until the cabin was full.

BA is perfectly entitled to decide that they will use the CW cabin in preference to the F cabin, or indeed even the WTP cabin as CE if they see fit and only move passengers forward when needed.

Basically, however, they should look to achieve consistency. Either they look to maximise the benefit like the US airlines do by upgrading elites (or whoever they feel like) until the better cabin is full, or by restricting access so that the worse cabin is full as BA tends to do - rather than ostentatiously favouring one group of passengers over another.

Can I help you

What do you mean BA are taking this seriously, if you mean the Captain and CSM will get into trouble I can tell you 100% certainly that they will not what ever BA will tell you.

Jed

The way I was spoken to by the CSM was witnessed by an independent customer. That apparently will be taken seriously. How do you know it won't be?

FlyerTalker688786

Let me guess. The CSM is slightly annoyed because the CSM gave you four different reasons and you are still pressing the CSM and became an annoyance to the CSM and fellow passengers. Maybe you have showed your displeasure and did not notice yourself become a little aggressive? Maybe you thought you caught the CSM doing others a personal favour and thought it was a good idea to confront an innocent CSM?

Either way I think it is not worth to get annoyed and certainly without knowing what you have said and what emotion you have showed, I would not take your side of story. Most BA CSM is professional and will not loose their calm unless there are extremely annoying people make them having a read hot head.

nux

Can't blame you for trying.

You've complained to BA customer relations, been told they're 'taking it seriously' and complained here within 4 hours of arrival? The amount of time you've spent asking to sit in F plus complaining about not being able to sit in F is probably much more than the amount of time you were actually in the air..

Jed

We are all accountable for our actions at work.

rossmacd

Sounds like sour grapes to me.

Jed

Yes the boys are asleep after a 4 AM wake up so thought I'd do some flyertalking

PrimaVista

Not particularly well handled; but there again, how could you hope to be discrete with a hen party.

Nice gesture by whosever idea it was to give them a treat.

As for all this; really...

nux

How long did it take to get through to BA Customer Relations on a Saturday bank holiday weekend?

Schwann

BA don't give a flaming sh*t.