veron689908

Just looking a bit of advice. I traveled on BA274 a few days ago in Business Class on a B777, The seat controls weren't working, meaning the seat was stuck in an upright position. One of the crew was able to manually put it into the lie flat position shortly after takeoff. I find it more comfortable putting the seat into a half recline position but unfortunately it was all or nothing - seated upright or lie complete flat. I found it very uncomfortable for the whole 10 hour flight. Is it worth complaining to BA about?

subject2load

Hi there.

This sort of question crops up fairly regularly and I am always genuinely surprised when it does. Why ? Because, in all honesty, I am firmly of the view that any decision as to whether to complain is - by its very nature - a very personal, subjective, one ; and as such should not really be based on the opinion of others.

Only you experienced what you did ……. only you know how you felt at the time, and how you feel about it now.

With all that said, let me nonetheless try the following approach, purely by way of guidance ………

• Do you feel you did not receive all that you were promised, or were expecting to receive, when paying for your flight ?
• Did the seat issue have a negative impact on your comfort, to the extent that it affected your enjoyment of the flight ?
• Do you feel aggrieved that a specific aspect of the product you bought was lacking ?

If any, or all, of the above apply, then you may wish to lodge a complaint.

If none of the above apply, there would seem no merit in you complaining.



PS - I’m not charging for the above advice, so no complaints please if you don’t like it !

KARFA

And the short version - yes you should complain about your broken seat, and yes you will get some avios in response.

spursdebs

Yes you should complain, there’s a form on BA site just fill that in with details. If people don’t complain about shoddy service or broken equipment you’re letting the company think it’s acceptable behaviour to treat their customers badly. You will get some avois as compensation.

ratypus

Yes, just be factual and detail the issue and they should address it. It should be an Avios compensation - several years ago (4/5) I did get a decent amount of cash compensation for a similar issue (seat stuck in lie flat for 12 hours, flying with a baby...) but these days it'll just be Avios.

This does happen and won't be an uncommon complaint for BA, so just state the facts and wait for their offer.

stewaran

Yes it is
I have twice recently, and rightly received significant avios in compensation.

Ryanfozzie

Had this exact issue on a BA flight with CS to LAS. IFM put in the complaint, 80,000 Avios received within 2 weeks as an apology. On this A350, it took 2 crew to manually adjust the seat and they insisted on being called over ANY time adjustment was required. Half way was difficult, but possible.

subject2load

OP - please do try to report back with the final outcome (assuming you do decide to lodge a formal complaint) …… it’s always interesting to hear how these things go.

Broken seats have featured in many many threads over the years and the path to compensation can be surprising in terms of the response from BA, and their respective offers. One such thread (from May last year, so not that far back) includes examples as varied as 80,000 avios / 5,000 avios / a voucher to the value of £800 / 10,000 avios. All for cases involving improperly-functioning seats.

In common with inflight service standards, the most consistent aspect of BA’s handling of complaints is ….. er ……. the inconsistency

Broken seat in CW LHR-JFK

PETER01

Very true! Personally I always like to read what the final outcome is

veron689908

UPDATE - BA Complaint response

Thank you all for the comments and advice in this thread. I have had an email from British Airways complaints department. They apologised for the disappointing experience, valued Gold Member, bla, bla, bla, and have credited my BAEC account AND my wife's BAEC with 80,000 Avios each.

The response time was 21 days and 160,000 is much more than I was expecting. The total Avios amount for the booking was around 200,000 mark (DUB-LHR-LAS-LHR-DUB) so getting 160,000 Avios back for a problem with just 1 of the 4 flights I am very happy with! Now I'm off to spend them!

Dicksbits

We were upgraded to Newark a couple of weeks back and the door to my club suite was jammed in the open position, and the vanity cupboard door wouldn’t close. Wasn’t bothered but reported both to crew for maintenance log, which they were happy to do.

AmaaiZeg

Travelling BA283 LHR to LAX in first on 2 March, 787-9, hubby’s seat in 1A was also stuck in upright position. None of the controls were working so was unable to switch off the overhead light and the side light was also dangling. After dinner the inflight manager got down on his knees and managed to change the seat into flat bed. Hubby was not bothered by the overhead and hanging off the wall light as with his soft eye mask he was asleep, as usual , within five minutes. I was in 2A and It was kind of funny watching the inflight manager taping over the overhead light. He was very considerate. When hubby woke up, the manager told him he had logged a complaint. So although hubby said it is ok, I wouldn’t say no to extra avios as reported here. I’m the household accountant . Hubby has already received confirmation from BA they have logged the issue.

KARFA

apreciate your comments, but this is worth a complaint and you would get some avios as compensation. at the end of the day that seat was broken and it shouldn't be acceptable for it to be in service like that.

AmaaiZeg

thanks Karfa, meerkat looking out for us . Are you saying that hubby should submit his own complaint even though the IFL submitted one and BA have given hubby a case number?

KARFA

yes absolutely