gla-lax

i'm still trying to get the points promised, this is the last letter i sent and got a knock back on. can anyone help please as i'm now going to by pass cust services and deal with ba legal services as i'll take them to the small claims court for the cost of buying 6000 miles plus adim costs.

many thanks to anyone can make ba see sense.


British Airways booking reference:

British Airways Exec Club Number:-

Dear Ms Callaghan,

Thank you for the letter from your colleague Ms Sara Clover regarding my missing 6000 bonus BA miles. I write again as there are several points that are incorrect in her reply.

1. Sara states that the offer requires full price fares in order to qualify for the bonus miles. Yet if you refer to the enclosed copy of the terms and conditions you will see that the qualifying fares are in booking classes J,C,D,I,Y,B,H.
2. At no time during the booking process did it say what booking class was being booked other than economy (traveller). Also the booking conformation states that the class is Euro Traveller!!! I believe Y class is economy and possibly some of the other booking classes. Please see copies of the booking process and conformation enclosed.
3. It could be construed that the offer and or the booking process was misleading as there was no way of knowing what booking class was being booked therefore allowing BA to move the goal posts on delivering the bonus miles.
4. The booking process automatically shows the fares and doesn’t afford a passenger the chance to book in a selected booking class (e.g. J,C,D,I,Y,B,H.) to get the bonus miles. See below from a travel forum the Chief Exec knew of this.

I trust you will agree with my points and without haste correct the error on your colleague’s part. Also as I have now been pursuing this mistake for 3 phone calls, 3 letters and an email I trust you will as a good will gesture increase the amount of miles that I have been deprived of for the past 10 weeks.

I look forward to a reply within the next 7 seven days.

Yours faithfully,

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...highlight=6000

AJLondon

Four points:

1. Their is a nice feature on FT called "PM" where you can send private messages to other posters for eg. The BAEC Lurker.

2. Demanding a "goodwill gesture bonus" and making a threat to go to small claims court generally doesn't work together!

3. It's not obvious from your 3 points as to which booking class you actually booked in.

4. Now, will someone pass me the popcorn please.

BAHumbug

Couple of points:

The forum quote you refer to is pure hearsay. It's someone saying that someone said something. You'll never get away with it in the SCC.

Secondly, have you actually satisfied the conditions of the promotion ? It's not at all clear to me from your letter that you have. If you haven't then I'd say you're batting quite a sticky wicket.

gla-lax

BAHumbug

saved the terms and conditions of the offer, saved the booking process pages. all the way through the booking no class was mentioned!!!!

it has been stated before on flyer talk that it was brought up at the agm and something would be done about it but it hasn't.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...highlight=6000

by dnw
Take some comfort in the fact that Skippy acknowledged the flaw and promised the AGM last July that it would be possible to see fare class before booking on ba.com before the next AGM. IT lurkers, you have 3 months left to get your fingers out before your Chief Exec is embarassed in front of the entire conference....

BAHumbug

Yes, but you haven't taken on board what I said, nor answered my question.

1. What you are wittering on about from DNW is pure hearsay. Unless you can prove that the Chief Exec said that (ie you have a transcript of the AGM for example) then it will simply be ignored in court. The judge, quite rightly, won't give a flying f*** about some random internet chat site (even one as illustrious as this).

2. You still haven't told me (and presumably BA) whether or not you have satisfied the conditions of the offer. Whether they are hard (or impossible) to obtain is, to a great extent, not relevant. Unless you have clear evidence that your bookings satisfy the conditions of the offer then I would suggest you are on a hiding to nothing.

The fact of the matter is that courts are interested in facts, not hearsay.

It would have been possible for you to ensure you had the correct fare classes for your tickets by booking over the telephone and asking the booking clerk. This would have incurred a fee, of course, but that is not relevant to your argument.

You asked for an unbiased opinion - and mine (as someone who has used the SCC several times very successfully) is that, as it stands, you have a very weak case because you have no evidence that you have satisfied the terms and conditions of this offer.

irmster

whilst the booking system does not show classes - there are numerous threads regarding bonus offers which suggest the best way to make sure you get the right booking class. eg using travelocity's fare search and then matching up the prices or using a booking engine which shows the class before you pay.

Offering bonuses based on undisplayed booking classes is not very helpful - but that's the deal for everyone and the t&cs on offers are generally quite clear, even if complying with them is not so easy.

Bottom line imo - sadly you if didn't comply with the offer rules you don't get the miles (and I'm not sure how you think the small claims court will think otherwise).

spotwelder

OK great minds think alike, telepathic posting!

Well, there are enough tools available as links from this site so that you have very little excuse for not buying the right fare.

Did you hit the flexible economy function or merely the cheapie?

Use the links, check the fares then go to ba.con and buy an appropriate fare. If it is not available, then go to another website with an appropriate function that will allow you to select the fare you want.

The CEOs speeches were recorded at the AGM. Try a transcript from BA press.

BAHumbug

I knew you were going to say that...

AJLondon

And that is the one thing that the OP refuses to mention or answer in his long letter.

Just because dnw (wish he would come back soon from that self-imposed exile ) or someone else says on FT that a particular thing has/should/will happen, does not mean it's true or can be held in a court of law. And to believe so is rather ridiculous.

And based on the "facts" in the original letter, the OP won't get anywhere in small claims court. (Well, besides the exit door that is. ) The T&C's clearly state that booking classes J,C,D,I,Y,B,H must be used. It is not BAEC's responsibility to ensure you book one those classes. If you wanted to be certain of the booking class then you should have used a source like AA or Travelocity that does show booking class, rather than rely on BA's inadequate website. CAVEAT EMPTOR.

gla-lax

according to the booking the class was ecconomy traveler, where did it say J,C,D,I, Y, B or H class

Terms and Conditions

1. This promotion is only open to Eligible Participants. An Eligible Participant is an Executive Club member resident in the United Kingdom aged 18 years or over, who is not an employee of BA or of a BA Group company. BA reserves the right to verify the eligibility of Eligible Participants.
2. To participate in this promotion, Eligible Participants must register their details between 09 March and midnight on 16 March 2005 at www.ba.com/flyuk and book all Qualifying Flights after the date of registration but before midnight on 16 March 2005. The outbound and return parts of all Qualifying Flights must be completed between 09 March and 08 April 2005 inclusive.
3. A Qualifying Flight is a domestic return flight flown on: BA mainline scheduled services, or flights operated by British Airways CitiExpress Ltd (but not by any other franchisees including Loganair, code share partners or oneworld Alliance members) in UK Domestic (J,C,D,I, Y, B or H class) completed between 09 March and 08 April 2005 inclusive, provided that the ticket is purchased and ticketed in the UK and provided that all travel is in the UK. Offer excludes travel to and from the Republic of Ireland.
4. The following are also not Qualifying Flights and this offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer, promotion or deal including: tickets paid for wholly or partly using BA Miles or any other vouchers, travel agent, or industry discounted fares, child, infant or senior citizen fares.
5. Only the first two Qualifying Flights completed by an Eligible Participant will qualify for this promotion.
6. To participate in this promotion, Eligible Participants must quote their Executive Club membership number at the time of booking their Qualifying Flight and at check-in for both the outbound and return journey.
7. When Eligible Participants have completed one Qualifying Flight they will qualify for 6,000 bonus BA Miles. On completion of a second Qualifying Flight Eligible Participants will qualify for a further 6,000 bonus BA Miles. These bonus BA Miles are in addition to the BA Miles ordinarily awarded for each Qualifying Flight. All bonus BA Miles will be credited to the Eligible Participant's Executive Club account within two weeks after completion of the Qualifying Flight/s. All BA Miles are issued subject to the Executive Club membership terms and conditions.
8. BA reserves the right to cancel or amend without notice the terms of this promotion in the event of major catastrophe, war, earthquake or any actual anticipated or alleged breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other circumstances beyond the reasonable control of BA.
9. This promotion will be governed by English law and the English courts have jurisdiction to hear any disputes in relation to it.

The promoter of this promotion is British Airways Plc, Waterside, PO Box 365, Harmondsworth UB7 0GB. Registered Number 1777777.

BAHumbug

The terms and conditions state the booking class required. The fact your booking doesn't show it NOT relevant. Why can you not understand this ? Just because the booking doesn't display a booking class doesn't mean there isn't one associated with it.

There are methods of booking and ensuring your ticket is in class X or class Y - if you choose not to do this then it's your own lookout.

You've been given the advice you've asked for by 3 different people who, broadly, concur.

By all means pursue your case to the small claims court. Forgive me if I don't hold my breath waiting for your post proclaiming victory.

irmster

[QUOTE=gla-lax]according to the booking the class was ecconomy traveler, where did it say J,C,D,I, Y, B or H class

traveller is the cabin class, not the booking class. If you're not a regular traveller and you don't understand the difference that is of course not your fault. Nevertheless, if you didn't buy a ticket on one of the specified booking classes, then you don't qualify for the bonus miles. No point in threatening anything - if you didn't comply you don't have a leg to stand on.

Prospero

Not only hearsay, but by lifting this thread and throwing it back in BA's face is not only a tad underhanded, its also in my view, incredibly lazy.

The post you have referred Ms Callaghan to includes my account of problems I encountered purchasing eligible fares on BA.com and dnw's response. The outcome in my case was by and large based on the problems I had verifying fare codes but there was more to it than the selected points I outlined in my post. I use the word selected as there were other factors in my case which BA took into account which bore influence in their decision. I chose not to disclose these on an open forum in appreciation of the goodwill I received from BA. I shall end this by echoing BAHumbug astute statement: The fact your booking doesn't show the booking class was NOT relevant.

AJLondon

Quite agree. Being given advice is one thing. Actually trying to listen to it with somewhat of an open mind or trying understand it is quite another. (Take the horse to the pond and all that.)

One final try:
Sticky: The Ultimate BRITISH AIRWAYS Guide

BAHumbug

Well you know what they say about advice. Often given, seldom taken.