Krisz

BA decided to remove the middle seat blocker on some routes today so you can expect CE as 3-3 same as economy.
Probably they try to squeeze as many passengers as much they can.

msm2000uk

Weird - I'd just noticed that on my NCE flight this evening and thought it was an IT issue.

M

beardedgeologist

Middle CE seats now available for the nanny :-)

Boeing77W

Often happens during times of IROPS to recover the operation ASAP.

TTmex

This happened after a storm a few years back. While very annoying in some respects, I'm of the belief that a little empathy is needed in times like these. It's not something that happens every week and getting people from A to B after such disruption should be the priority. A lot of flights were cancelled. Some gesture of compensation for club customers should be made by BA, perhaps enough Avios for an intra European upgrade (i.e 5 to 8k), but who knows what will, if anything, be done

Krisz

I have all my emphaty for the passengers. However BA was ill prepared as always. My flight from LIS tonight still just a tiny A319 as scheduled. They could have prepared better and plan ahead. I know they are short of everything, but myself as a passenger I can’t see anything they try to mitigate any issues, they never own up their mistakes and of course wouldn’t even bother to apologise or compensate. I have 0 sympathy for BA.

TTmex

I was referring to empathy for other passengers, but out of curiosity what would you expect BA to do in this situation? Switching to bigger aircraft just like that isn't all that practical.

CCayley

I guess the most equitable way of balancing the interests of those with a CE booking on the flight and those who have been stranded is to go to 3+3 to maximise passenger numbers but accept that the CE passengers have been downgraded to economy and compensate them accordingly.

KARFA

I am struggling to remember whether CE passengers were compensated last time this happened which I think was in 2019 or early 2020? I suspect they were not, although they should be.

Krisz

well we knew about the storm about a good week ago. Everyone but BA knew that there will be cancellations. Flights from LIS this weekend always full as school holiday season so they knew it very well days ahead. I’m pretty sure there are clever people who can draw up plans and there should be a well established exercise on the day and the following days too. However they opt as usual to put their heads in the sand to wait until the storm is over. And I wouldn’t dare to know what will happen my checked in bags today which again shouldn’t be my worry.

TTmex

I agree, hence my comment before regarding Avios comp. Could be a cash component too, but I suppose they'll argue the food and drink etc is still offered so you're getting part of the product. I do disagree with the idea that BA never owns it's mistakes. I was disrupted by weather a few years back and had to overnight in Krakow. The ground handling was poor and BA gave us 10k Avios each and a verbal apology by phone. I do believe BA must be more proactive rather than reactive with compensation in these cases and by not doing so are shooting themselves in the foot.


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HIDDY

If you're travelling with the missus could you end up with a stranger sitting in between you?

TTmex

While you can see the storm coming, you can't know for sure which flights will be disrupted for sure and how many passengers will or won't end up flying. BA did offer to move people on to earlier flights at no charge and I've benefited from this before when a winter storm was on the way.

What if your plane had been a A321? Would it have be feasible to substitute it with a 777 to fly you to LIS? Airline operations don't work like that and different planes would have been displaced all over Europe.

I certainly agree BA need to compensate passengers for the loss of the middle seat etc, but I don't think they can expected to know exactly how and where a storm will blow.

CCayley

1. Some might quietly regard such an outcome as a godsend!
2. No doubt the stranger would readily swap seats to reunite the couple (and escape the middle seat).

KARFA

Well let's put it this way, having to cancel all domestic flights 2 days after a storm due to lack of ground staff is not indicative of an operationally robust airline. Added to that, what is running today all seems delayed by 1-2 hours at least, and often going without bags. Now in times where extra resources you would hope you can count on staff to perhaps put in overtime and work extra shifts, but as all the goodwill has gone due to what BA has done over recent years, it is not surprising that this isn't happening. We already saw this earlier in the year when weekends in particular were dire for performance due to lack of ground staff.

Now, if I was flying tomorrow in CE of course I would be willing to give up a blocked seat to help others complete their journey. I would hope that BA pro-actively compensate those who were booked in CE, but we all know they won't and if you complained they would tell you to get stuffed with the usual standard template.