IoWChristina

Hi everyone
I've been offered 50,000 avios for a business class seat that was broken & had a window blackout that couldn't be cleared. The broken seat didn't bother me too much as it was a day flight. A night flight would have been so different. The blacked out window caused a panic attack. For no apparent reason all daylight seemed to turn to night. Logically I knew the reason for this but sometimes it's hard for the brain to hear. I always pay for seats to ensure that I'm next to the window to prevent this happening. My husband was also inconvenienced as we both had to change seats for landing in order to sit together. By this time I was in quite a state. The 50000 avios was for both of us. I haven't accepted this as an offer, it's just been paid into my account.
My question is should it be acceptable for BA to accept payment for seat reservations when seats and window blackouts are faulty? Surely if you purchase faulty goods you are due a refund?

1Aturnleft

Except you've not purchased goods. You've purchased services which are to get you from point A to point B.
The service was fulfilled in this sense.

In terms of the faulty seat this is what the Avios are to rectify. 50k is the going rate in this respect.

haroon145

Hi, just to clarify when you say the seat was broken - could it be reclined at all/manually reclined by the crew?

for a fully broken seat the compensation would be 80,000 avios or a £400 e-voucher. Dependent on how dysfunctional the seat was, I would go back to customer relations or send a DM on Twitter and ask the team there to call you to discuss/review the case.

corporate-wage-slave

I guess this was on a 787 aircraft. Sounds like you had a really bad experience, and it's a pity you were not moved to other seats. I imagine that had the 50k Avios not been offered then yes you would in in the right to get your seat fee refunded. But 50k Avios is notionally worth £500 so I imagine BA would think this was an "all in" figure to recognise that.

If this was offered via the Cabin Service Manager or Director on board, then it's possible the window black-out wasn't fully computed, 50k would be just for the broken seat and this they can organise from their tablets onbard, so you may get something more from Customer Relations if you take it up with them.

Welcome to Flyertalk IoWChristina, I do hope you won't have this experience ever again, it must have really spoilt the experience for you. It's not something I've had in several hundred 787 flights so far, as far as I can recall. So I think you were really unlucky there and are unlikely to ever have it again.

Yachtman

I’ve heard the you’ve just bought from A to B line trotted a few times, but I wonder if it’s been tested in a court?
When the premium for Business is significantly more than economy and First class even more so, are you really just paying for a ticket from A to B? When an airline markets a level of service and product when you purchase it but deliver something different, is this okay and something we should just be expected to accept this with a few extra FF points as goodwill?

Magic01273

Wow, sorry - but what absolute twaddle.

You purchased a product that included both transport AND a variety of other fully advertised features - including the seat and " premium levels of comfort and service with the freedom and flexibility to make every journey unique and unforgettable" [BA's marketing]

Where that promise (yes, promise) is failed, the customer is due recompense. And whilst I accept that you kind of...begrudgingly?... acknowledge that in your post, your opening point is both beside the point and pointLESS. Not only that but this site includes a number of other recent reports demonstrating larger avios awards for faulty seats. Up to 70-80k in fact.

I'm sorry that paying customers receiving the compensation they are due for service failings seemingly offends you so much.

IoWChristina

Thanks everyone for your time. While having the panic attack I felt so alone & I overheard one of the staff suggesting my husband was making a fuss. This didn't help my blood pressure!
Anyway I have now been given 80,000 avios which makes me feel happier as compensation for the flight itself.
I'm still not convinced that the payment for booking seats in advance shouldn't be refunded. Cost of booking those seats are so high, they would pay for a flight within Europe but my reason for paying that was to be able to control my window blind over which I found I had no control whatsoever when needed. Am I now being unreasonable or should I try complaining through Twitter?
Yet again, really appreciate your support guys

UKtravelbear

I think 80k avios is all that BA wll gve you for both issues.

They didn't deliberatly sell you a broken seat and window.

These things happen. If it was spotted at LHR then chances are they could have got an engineer to look at it before departure to see if t could be fixed without unduly delaying the plane. If this was the return then it's unlikely they could have got an engineer at all,

Mike P

I'd suggest you've received sufficient compensation for this issue and ought to mark it down to experience and move on.

ThatT1Feeling

40k each is far, far better than BA used to provide. I had a fully broken CW seat on a 787 a couple of years ago and was offered 10k Avios, with a significant effort required to bump that up to 20k. I'd take it and move on.

cosmo74

Your 80,000 Avios will get you two return CE flights within Europe so I'd say it's a pretty reasonable outcome.

IoWChristina

(and also earlier sympathy) I'll take it!