Spruce-Moose

I recently flew in the new club suites from LHR to JFK. Shortly after takeoff the touch panel used to control my seat stopped working. I could still use the buttons to the right hand side of the touch screen to position the seat anywhere between its fully upright and fully flat modes, but I was unable to operate the leg rest and the back rest independently of one another or switch on the reading light.
I spoke to a crew member, who tried a software reset. When this didn't work she apologised, offered to position the seat manually for me (which I declined) and said she would log the issue.

I made a complaint online, and have been credited with 10k avios for the issue. Does this seem a fair offer?

For reference it was a return reward flight booked under the relatively new terms of ~170k avios and £350.

mikeyfly

I’d say it’s a bit stingy - were no other seats available to swap with?

Main thread here for plenty more examples What's the most Avios you got from BA as compensation and for what?

golfmad

Was the cabin full and if not, were you offered an alternative seat? If no other seat was available then I think 10K is very light and I would go back and ask for more. If there was another seat available but you declined to move then it's probably fair.

peter3102

I got 10K avios for a broken seat in F, moved to a new seat and that had the same problem, broken footrest, so in reality it was 10k for 2 broken seats!

escape2sun

I had an issue with a broken CW seat on an A380 from JNB, it wouldn't go flat, maybe a 15% incline and the crew couldn't get it flat, and CW was full, and got 80K

aristoph

I recently got 80k for a faulty CW seat on a full A380. It would stick at a mid-point in the operation from seat to flat-bed and required crew intervention to move it manually into the final position. The only real inconvenience was that they could not return it to upright when I wanted to eat breakfast as it would have disturbed the guy behind me.

So I would say 10k is very stingy.

PETER01

Assuming there was no alternative seat 10k is definitely a bit on the light side. 30k at least sounds more reasonable.

At the end of the day the product didn't fully deliver as promised, and it might have just have been an unlucky technical glitch, and also it doesn't really matter whether it was a revenue ticket or a reward ticket. Whichever way you earned those Avios, 170k is a considerable amount.

Personally, I'd push more and see what they come back and offer, if anything. In this instance a better gesture by BA could go a long way.

If you do go down writing back to them keep it short, simple and factual but of course with emphasis on the disappointment of the flight experience due to the faulty seat.

Spruce-Moose

Thanks everyone,

I wasn’t offered another seat, although there did appear to be one available in the mini club world cabin I was in.
To expand a bit, the first crew member I asked suggested I could use the buttons to the right of the screen to adjust the seat, and seem to think that was a solution.
I wasn’t happy with this so approached another member of the crew who then tried the reset followed by offering to manually adjust the seat to a particular position, which I declined. She did however offer me another beer, which I accepted!

As I said in the first post, I could adjust the seat between its take off and flat positions and also stop it anywhere in between. It was just the ability to move the leg and backrest independently that couldn’t be achieved.

I shall push back and see what they say.

Koru Flyer

I would add a short impact statement. Such as due to this was unable to sleep. You do not need to explain.

just that the seat was broken, unable to be fixed by crew and as it was a full flight was unable to be moved,, and due to this you were unable to sleep which was you key reason for choosing a flight in club.

the diagnosis of fault, the interaction of crew, resolutions of crew etc should not be entered. While we may know some things as a pax our role is not to diagnose engineering faults, or instruct crew. I find here that those who are successful say the least. You have 5s to get your point across.

Hence, I keep all of that out. What was the problem, how was it attempted to be resolved, what was the impact. One sentence max.

Cheers,

KF

danmushman

I assume the fact that the OP could get to the promised lie-flat mode would make a difference. However you seem to get bunged 10k if you just fill your details in the complaints form, there's not harm pushing for more.

Magic01273

I like a good "advertising standards" debate as much as the next person, but this isn't the kind of situation that warrants a determination based on some legal/marketing definition of whether the seat was able to achieve the "advertised" lie-flat position.

Its a service issue. Quite simply, the seat - and a passengers comfort in that seat - is undeniably one of the key (if not THE key) selling points for any long haul business class product. And it is reasonable and expected that the seat will function as it is designed to and as it is supposed to. Each passenger being able to achieving a tailored degree of comfort and position is the reason the seats are designed with the ability to be configured to more than just "upright" and "flat". I'd wager the vast majority of customers adjust their seats multiple times throughout a long haul flight to maintain a level of comfort and according to what they doing (eating, sleeping, working, watching TV...adjustments to relieve aches etc etc). It is also fair and reasonable to expect that your seat will function the same way (offering the same degree of adjustment) as every other passenger in the cabin that you have paid the same premium as (in cash and/or Avios) .

In my humble opinion, unless they are very minor complaints (my seat was tatty/scuffed/grubby) seat functionality issues should be compensated generously given the significant role it plays in the premium people pay for the cabin and the material impact a faulty seat can have on passenger comfort.

10k is ridiculously low ball. - and as you rightly point out, seems to be one of the default payouts for anything you lodge a complaint for. However even then I'd say its on the lower end, since 15k is one of the other most oft awarded Avios compensation figures given according to reports on FT

These compensation figures are one of my biggest issues with BA, with genuine issues often being insultingly under-compensated whilst other pretty trivial service complaints reported here seemingly triggering significant Avios awards with no apparent justification or logic at all. Grinds my gears!

Spruce-Moose

Thanks again everyone. I have responded.
I’ll update with any response from BA

BillyBleach

Last year on BA208 (MIA - LHR on the A380) my CW failed recline on landing

Was fully functional all flight except for last few minutes. Crew manually adjusted seat and filed a faulty seat report. I was award 80K in compensation.

So I would suggest stingy for 10K avios.

PAL62V

Can someone suggest how long CS are currently taking to respond to a complaint? I have had one in there for two weeks and other than the initial response with a Case Number, I have heard nothing.

1Aturnleft

Oh goody, another thread about the most avios I got out of BA and why to trawl through .....