Taz29duffy

Good morning, I had posted a few days ago about a disaster trip with BA. There were multiple issues, but the main point was that 3 out of 4 flights were downgraded from club Europe to economy. This booking had been made with a Barclays Upgrade voucher.

I submitted a complaint to BA and the response was to give me 10k avios and a generic non specific apology that didn’t after the issues. It was frankly insulting.

no refund of avios (so I’m still out the club Europe amount of avios) on downgraded flights and no refund of the upgrade voucher.

I was seeking the group wisdom as to were I go with this now?

Dave Noble

How much did you pay for the flights and what was the flight distance. If they were 1500 km or fewer , then you are entitled to a 30% refund on those flighrs. if > 1500 miles then 50%

Taz29duffy

The flights were Belfast to London Heathrow and London Heathrow to Vienna. We only paid Ł2 in cash as had used avios

we paid 45k avios for 2 of us to fly Belfast - LHR - Vienna, Ł2 and used a Barclays upgrade voucher.

Dave Noble

So you would be entitled to 13,500 Avios for the downgrade if downgraded for the entire journey. With only 3 segments downgraded, sounds like the 10k would be about right

sunshinebob

So you booked and paid for economy and upgraded with the voucher?

Ba must have some onus to refund you something but based on what you paid or what you were expecting to recieve? What would you like to see to resolve this matter ?

Its gonna be hard for BA to rationalise a "cost" to refund you in this matter and suggest that you speak to Barclays about reinstating the voucher first. Failing that you will need to go to the banking authorities and try there I would guess.

I was down graded recently on a one way cash fare of a similar distance and got back just Ł16 for 2 people. I would have preferred 10k avios

Dave Noble

It does have an onus and the amount is defined under the UK version of EU261. The downgrade amount is 30% of what was paid. Very easy to rationalise a cost and seems likely that 10k is about correct

flyertalker00133

Another nail in the coffin for the upgrade vouchers…

jeremyBA

Disagree.

They are refunding the 30% and ignoring the voucher.

Flip it the other way. Would they upgrade you from economy to business for 10k avios ?

jeremyBA

Disagree.

They are refunding the 30% and ignoring the voucher.

Flip it the other way. Would they upgrade you from economy to business for 10k avios ?

there was a deal done. Voucher = upgrade. They went back on the deal

Flexible preferences

Presumably the 'deal' was subject to BA coc though, in which case BA may well have not gone back on the agreement, and it appears the downgrade compensation due in law has been offered.

diburning

Would there be any chance of Barclays reinstating the voucher if you contacted them about this?

masped

Has it? EC261 says the refund due is "30% of the price of the ticket". Clearly the upgrade voucher forms part of the price paid for the ticket, because 45k avios would not normally buy you return Club Europe tickets, and having used the voucher it's no longer available to use on another flight. The issue is how to value the upgrade voucher.

I would suggest the simplest way to do that is as the avios required to purchase a Club Europe ticket less the avios actually paid. The refund due should then be 30% of the avios required to purchase the Club Europe ticket, adjusted for the leg that wasn't downgraded.

Tafflyer

This cannot be correct.

45,000 Avios is the peak RFS price for 2 adults in Economy one-way BFS-LHR-VIE. Return would have been 90,000 Avios in total.

The sector-related Avios costs are

BHD-LHR Eco 9,750; Biz 16,250
LHR-VIE Eco12,750; Biz 22,250

Depending on which sectors were downgraded, the Avios difference for BHD-LHR is 6,500 and for LHR-VIE 9,500, so add those up to find the value from your voucher that BA owe you back.

I mention these figures rather than the EU/UK261 amounts since every time I have been downgraded, this is the method BA itself uses to reimburse me, even if the EU261 amounts would be higher.

According to EU261, you are owed 30% of flights under 1,500 Km and 50% of flights between 1,500 and 3,500 Km.

Since you said 3 of 4 sectors were downgraded, at least one of your complete flights between Belfast and Vienna must have been downgraded. The direct distance Belfast to Vienna is nearly 1,700 Km, meaning that using the EU261 rules, you are entitled to 50% of your Avios plus 25% of your voucher returned for that one-way flight alone. This alone is more than double what BA are offering.

Do your math, add up what you think you are entitled to, reply to BA. When they refuse, either take them to CEDR or use the amount BA charge to purchase Avios to find a cash sum and take them to MCOL.

Dave Noble

If it is 45,000 points for 1 person roundtrip, that would seem to be correct. The OP didn't mention 2 passengers and the voucher is only valid for 1 person roundtrip

ratechaser

I mentioned it in the other thread, but why not make this a formal complaint with Barclays. You are paying for a packaged bank account that is offering you a benefit that you have not received. Financial services regulation is relatively strong compared to Airlines, and is also based on principles of treating customers fairly.

Yes, anyone CAN get downgraded, but between this and Amex, there is at least a lot of anecdotal evidence to support that voucher upgrades are the first to get knocked back when a flight is oversold.

By the way, I accept that not everyone agrees with this assertion, but if it's a choice of downgrading/compensating a revenue versus a voucher pax... well I think Occams Razor kicks in here...