Moved flight but now no meal?
 

Hi everyone,

Did a search but can’t find anything even though I’m sure this has been discussed before. (Perhaps I’m not using the correct search phrases!)

Booked in CE on the 7:30 DUB-LHR on a reward flight. Unfortunately aircraft went tech and ground staff started moving people to the next flight - no problem as it’s only an hour and a half later. Get moved to another seat in CE on the later flight with no drama. However, when boarding then get the news that there’s no meal or catering for me (which I understand due to unexpected passenger numbers etc.)

Do I have any options to reclaim some of the avois used or anything due to the service or product expected/paid for not available? In my mind I’d assume the difference in avios between a Y and J ticket?

Any thoughts or words of wisdom from those much more knowledgable than me?

Thanks all!

Given it was BA that caused the issue, and not by the OP instigating a free Same Day Change, I’d absolutely be wanting something back - however you dress it, this is a service failure and the advertised package wasn’t delivered.

CE to ET difference in Avios is a good starting point - and I expect, given it’s a small number, CS will come close enough to this if a claim is submitted as to it not being worth pushing further.

You should have been offered some free food from the M&S On Board menu, I'm surprised the CSM didn't actively suggest that. If it happens again, and the SCCM is unaware, then I would still buy a few items off it, ideally pay in Avios, and then make a claim for it. There would not be a formal EC261 entitlement to that food, which would only kick in on a 2 hour delay on that sector, but I would hope a modest purchase would receive a matching refund of the Avios.

I totally would. Everyone to their own but OP was affected by an undesired 1h30 delay through no fault of their own, which he was willing to accept gracefully without compensation (none was due in regulatory terms). He is then additionally not offered any food which is one of the main differentiators between ET and CE which he received, so I personally think that it would be entirely reasonable to ask to be refunded the difference between the EC and CE fares (ie probably 4,000 avios) as a gesture of goodwill as a result of the combination of the delay and the lack of food.

I'm also baffled that something like this wasn't proactively offered. Seriously - how? How, in the delivery of bad news to a customer that their standard CE meal isn't available, can the next words from that crew members mouth not be "But we'd like to offer you something from the BoB selection with our compliments"?

Honestly, this is where BA service really lets them down. It would have been such an obvious (and entirely appropriate) thing to do. Mind-boggling that someone could think that it was acceptable not to provide an advertised CE service like this in the first place, with such an easy solution available.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the "accounts" from BoB are taken rather seriously by the penny makers at BA hence discrepancies of ANY nature are accountable by the cabin staff. In other words they cannot offer anything free from BoB...no latitude I am suspecting...even if they wanted to.

Generally this is correct but for missing meals in CE, BOB can be used up to a certain amount per passenger. I think it's £10 per person, but I'm not sure on that.

AIUI, such an offer is now BA policy.

I think that you should look at contract law instead. BA promised food, but didn't offer food. Accordingly, some compensation is due, although probably not more than what it would cost to buy some food.

So they should get something? I was in the queue to board at ALC the other day and there was a lady discussing about how she had received an offer to upgrade when she checked in 24 hours previously. As she waited to board some oik from Iberia came up to tell her that there was no meal for her. His English left something to be desired and so the message was delivered with absolute indifference. "There is nothing for you, it is impossible". She was told by other passengers about the BOB and that the crew should give her the Avios to purchase whatever. However, that is all very well if there is anything to buy. I have heard of flights that have sold so much on the outbound that there is nothing whatsoever on the inbound.

Neither situation is acceptable. In the end, I think that the lady got a meal as there had been refusals by other passengers for whatever reason.As for dealing with a cabin full of people in ET with nothing to eat or drink is a nightmare. Why can they not carry fresh stock in the hold? Is that too complicated to implement with tight turnarounds?

Appreciate the additional insight - but respectfully, that doesn't negate one iota of my frustration. This simply means that BA have un-empowered their staff to the point where they are unable to offer an entirely appropriate service recovery solution to a customer who has experienced both a delay AND a service delivery failure . In fact, that's even worse than had it been just a lapse of judgement by a single cabin crew member. That indicates that BA as a whole design their policies and processes to put profit above (rather than alongside) their service promises.

Not only that but - lets be serious here - BA's margins on the BoB selection must be pretty healthy judging from the prices. Certainly enough to stretch to allowing their staff some small degree of flexibility to feed a passenger that was, after all, promised some food as part of their ticket price.

Of all the logistical challenges to fix when a flight goes tech, likely handling the catering issues is the least significant for a not merely short, but micro-haul. The BOB alternative is perfectly fine on a flight such as this.

The simple answer here is that the crew forgot to tell OP that he could have something off the BOB menu and thus he did not. That is a service failure which BA can easily remedy with a few avios. No need to turn this into a massive contractual dispute.

Better training also helps at the gate. When OP was told on the ground that there was no meal, it should have been accompanied with a, "but you may have something off the BOB menu as well," thus allowing OP to decline the rebooking and wait for the next available flight with a meal if that was his primary concern.