annawintour

I recently travelled on a BA Holidays booking originally booked in WT+ From LHR to JFK.

At the airport the cost to upgrade to CW was £449 each- so we opted to upgrade both seats and were really excited.

We flew on a 777 which had retrofit Club Suites. On boarding we realised one of the two seats had no door- it was missing a panel and was exposed wood. This meant the door to the suite didn’t shut and also weirdly the reclining of the seat was damaged. My companions seat was fine but it ruined my experience as I couldn’t recline or even shut the door to suite

Cabin crew were aware and simply shrugged their shoulders when I flagged. However later in the flight the senior purser made a comment when I asked for a drink “you can have whatever you like sitting in that broken seat!”

I’ve reported to BA obviously but wondered if anyone has any experience of compensation offered for this kind of issue? Thanks

GrannyWeatherwax

Well surely you ask for your money back ?

The main feature of CW is the seat - would you have paid £449 for the food and drink alone ? Probably not.

That's what I'd push for.

gcuk

We’re there any other empty seats in the cabin?
When I had an issue that couldn’t be solved onboard, notes were made on the crew’s ipad and I had a service recovery voucher sent to my email account without further interaction with customer services.

carrotjuice

BA should have recorded your compliant in their flight records that the seat was broken and should not have been occupied. And the fact that crew allegedly said "you can have whatever your want sitting in that broken seat" is a bit cheeky.

Agree that you should ask for your money back, and some Avios for the additional distress caused to not being able to enjoy the flight.

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum annawintour.

The key issue will be whether there was another CW seat that you could be moved to, which was not defective. I'm guessing there was not. BA does offer compensation for defective seating in CW, and if you are a BAEC member it will usually be in the form of Avios and in the 25,000 to 80,000 Avios range - I think the higher amount would be for a night flight where the bed cannot go flat at all. I'm not sure if it's still the case, but the best thing to do is to fill in a complaint on the Iinflight Manager's iPad and then complain to Customer Relations.
ba.com/complaints
and then the IFM's report will link in with your complaint. If you didn't do the complaint on the iPad then obviously use the link above anyway. There may be some delay in hearing back from Customer Relations.

carrotjuice

Wow... 80K Avios, that's almost one-way long haul in Club!

annawintour

Thanks for your replies.

Crew didn’t offer to move me, nor were there any spare CW seats. First was empty however!

Crew didn’t log it but said they were aware and advised I followed up via email. It wasn’t a night flight- was a 4.15pm departure.

I am a BAEC member and working hard to get to my companion voucher and rack up the Avios so definitely would accept them versus a cash refund. It was a special birthday trip and I was pleased there was a decent CW upgrade offer available but wouldn’t have paid £449 had I known about the suite door and seat!

cameramaker

I got 80k avios for a broken seat in CW MIA-LHR in March. Made sure the crew had recorded it on the iPad and made a complaint online.

annawintour

this is good to hear. I wish I’d pushed for them to record on the iPad now but figured I’d be able to still prove with photos and videos I’ve taken. I actually sent the complaint mid-air so let’s hope I get a similar value Avios!

coleslaw

MIA-LHR is overnight so the compensation would usually be higher vs. a daytime flight.

BerksFlyer

for some people the LHR-JFK would be overnight and the MIA-LHR would be daytime depending on where they started their journey and what time zone their body clock is in.

Personally I wouldn’t care what the departure time of my flight was, if I’m promised a flat bed and it doesn’t materialise I’d want the 80k.

coleslaw

You may not care, and you might want 80k, but it's unlikely BA will give anyone 80k for an inoperative seat on a daytime flight.

carrotjuice

Well at my age, a flat bed is extremely important for my daytime nap…

ermis177

The fact that BA is selling upgrades while the hard product is broken/damaged is quite worrying. If it was a last minute damage then fair enough but if they knew about the seat and still sold it shows bad practise.

sammyg901

I would insist on 80k otherwise S75 via my credit card. Not acceptable at all . I am very surprised the seat wasn't marked OOU and upgrades/downgrades done at the gate. That is what I've seen before in Singapore