JD1905

I’m not arguing that the middle seat has no value. You pay for an upgraded cabin experience for a combination of things - you pay for all the items as a package. They are not itemised and therefore you cannot put an individual value on things such as a meal / middle seat. In my opinion, if any of those different things that you’ve paid for fail your only option when making a claim is to claim for the fare difference.

scottishpoet

Why can you only claim for the fare difference ? Why can you not claim for, lets say £30 for a meal missing or £100 for no blocked middle seat?

1P

Judging from the stance evidenced in the "Montreal" reply quoted above, BA's attitude now appears to have become "We contracted to get you from A to B and we did that, so f*ck off". If that is really the case, then people would be advised to follow their advice in the last two words, and give their business to another airline.

I followed my own advice yesterday and booked myself in J on another airline, same route (intra-Europe), almost the same timing, at 2/3 of the price of BA. We'll see how that works out. I'm rather more confident that the flight will run as advertised and that I'll get what I paid for.

KARFA

Ok thanks, so this goes back to my earlier question, you believe that loss of any element of the package of benefits going from ET to CE means you are due a full refund from CE to ET.

JD1905

You could. In my case I paid £69 for an upgrade, there was no food service and i’m claiming for my £69 back. I’d do the same if middle seat was taken.

scottishpoet

Relax and recharge in one of our exclusive lounges where you can enjoy a range of delicious food and drink delivered directly to your seat.

was your food and drink delivered directly to your seat in the lounge? Maybe you havd another claim there?

personally i think for no food loaded you should be entitled to some comp, maybe a few thousand avios.

Personally i do not agree you should get the full £69 back, depending on the timing of the upgrade. If it was an airport upgrade on the day of the flight then you should have been advised no catering would be loaded for you.

If you get all the money back so you only paid for Y will you give back the extra TP and Avios you were awarded?

JD1905

Again, thats ridiculous. Comparing running out of champagne and table service in the lounge to no food being offered and the middle seat being occupied - completely different.

I’d have settled for a few thousand Avios. But BA refuse to offer any compensation and that left me with no option but to go through the courts. The value on each aspect of CE service is on the individual, some would say a meal is most important, others may say the middle seat being empty.

And yes, i’d happily give back the TP and Avios once i’ve got my money back.

zen100

What I find most infuriating about this - is that BA seem to be offering nothing/zilch/nada to pax impacted. Perhaps a full refund of the J fare might be excessive, but offering passenger something for using the middle seat would go some way towards satisfying the passenger fury.

I think most passengers are understanding that BA need to do something to get as many people to their destination. But to downgrade the service, but still charge the same price - especially for something that was BA's own fault in the first place.

Typically when a company screws up, any decent company will take the cost on the chin of ensuring customers are not too pissed off. There is a balancing act. BA clearly don't want to pay out golden compensation to every business class customer. But they seem to be taking the opposite line - and offering nothing, for something entirely their own fault.

I suspect they are calculating that the cost of compensating all business class customers impacted is higher than the cost of losing the odd court case, and that only a small number of business class customers will decide to take their business elsewhere. So BA are assuming their customers are suckers, really.

JD1905

And be prepared for them to falsely claim they did infact offer you compensation if you do want to take things further 😂

scottishpoet

As we are now in the relms of which individual aspect of the CE service people feel is the most important I am not sure why you feel my views are any more ridiculous than anyone elses. I could argue that after a long day it was more important for me to relax in the lounge and have my food and drink brought to me than have the middle seat blocked.

i find anyone argueing that one element of the service missing makes it Y is ridiculous.

I totally agree no blocked middle seat means the full J servicevwas not delivered. I also agree no meal means the full J service was not delivered (depending when the upgrade was paid for). I do not agree these missing elements make it Y.

i wish you the best of luck in your missing meal case.

JD1905

It doesn’t make it Y
It doesn’t make it J

But you’ve paid for J - And not received J and therefore are due to be compensated.

scottishpoet

agreed

JD1905

Glad we got somewhere!

FWIW in my case and any case of the middle seat being occupied. If as BA claimed, I was offered 5,000 Avios PP I would have seen this as more than adequate and been happy enough.

1Aturnleft

I have every confidence that BA will fold in the hours/days leading up to the court hearing offering you an amount along with a non disclosure agreement. This will certainly be an argument they will want settled out of the court room in order not to set any president for future claims. But until such a time and place is set they'll play the usual game of who blinks first in the hope you'll just go away. It's typical of the airline really. It's their standard model of doing business.with hacked off customers.
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Tobias-UK

The outcome of this case will not set any legal precedent.