HIDDY

Enjoy your flight ^

Looks as if you have chosen a good day to leave. It's pouring with rain where I am, first decent rain in months.

Capricorn70

Eat, drink, sleep, eat and drink some more, and be very merry ^

TravellerFrequently

Hope you had a much better return journey and that suitable "service recovery" is arranged once you are home!

dmahon

Well, I had a very nice flight home in First and I'm currently sat in the arrivals lounge at T5 after having a shower and some salmon & scrambled eggs in the Concorde dining section. I'm afraid I'm not of the literary bent to write a big travel report, but suffice to say the service was excellent, as was the food, the cabin was quiet and spacious, the bed comfortable and the whole experience rather nice - and it was certainly far better than my outward journey in WT+!

Interestingly I did meet the chap that was sat next to me on the way out (for those of you that haven't read the whole thing, he was also downgraded) and he wasn't upgraded on the way back, despite empty seats in the cabin. Obviously, therefore, this wasn't all an automatic process but Customer Relations and it must have been brought about by my complaint whilst I was in Buenos Aries. My collegue, who was upgraded along with me, tells me he kicked up a big fuss at the airport which is perhaps why he was also upgraded.

I'd still have preferred to travel in CW both ways, as the step up from WT+ to CW is far bigger than the step up from CW to First - and a bed on the 16 hour flight is almost essential if you have to work on arrival. Their attempt at recovery was good, but I don't know if it is realistically possible to recover from it completly unscathed (although an apology, a refund, an upgrade on the return and enough miles for a free return flight anywhere on the network might almost have managed it - I got three out of four).

Will I travel BA in future - probably, however I have recently booked BA even when it has been at a premium over other carriers and more inconvenient to do so. I am now more likely to give Air France, Lufthansa and KLM a shot in future, especially if their fares are cheaper or their schedule more accomodating - and I might just try them in First too.

uk1

Good to hear you at least got into F on the way back. Can you imagine what your co-traveller must have felt when he realised that you had enjoyed F and he hadn't.

Looks like it at least ended well.

710 77345

Rather cheeky of them to take out the charges before calculating the refund - surely this can't be allowed, especially as J charges are higher then WT+!

Globaliser

The TFC for J are only £12 more than W one way - that's the difference between J and W fuel surcharge levels. But at least that much ought undoubtedly to have been refunded.

I think most of us would think that 75% of the fuel surcharge should actually have been refunded, because it's really part of the ticket price.

But I don't think this logic necessarily applies to the whole of the TFC.

Flying Doctor

Were you on a full fare? If not then calcuating the refund based on a D or I class fare would have cut no ice with me. It BA that messed up - I'd expect the calcuation to be based on F,J,W or Y fares only.

FD

The Saint

What you might "expect" is academic; it's what the regulation says that counts: 75% of the ticket price.

Cyba

I'm gald you made it back alright and in better shape than on your way out.

Just one thing: By all means try AF and LH - they're both good airlines (but not KL, in my opinion). They still can mess it up majorly. Last time I flew AF to EZE a few years back, our return was 20 hours late. They were nice about it and re-booked those who wanted to be re-booked, or paid for hotels and meals for those of us who stayed, but still 20 hrs delay? My point is , all airlines mess up at some point. Issue is what they do with it. Looks form your experience like BA has learnt a bit about how to deal with those who complain. And the lesson is, complain loundly!!

Welcome home.

Flying Doctor

Yes but what ticket price? And if its on miles what are they going to do?

FD

NZ_Flyer

Surely BA would calculate the refund based on the fare paid. Why would they give a refund based on a fare that is much higher than the OP paid?

It would have been a bonus if BA had given compensation on top of a refund. Personally, I think BA did a good job here. An upgrade to First, the appropriate refund, and the pre-paid credit funds at LHR. Obviously extra BA miles would be great as the OP has mentioned.

The only problem here is that BA had to be contacted a few times to get this sorted out. They should have been more proactive and offered this first without having had to be hassled.

HIDDY

I would have to agree that BA have handled it pretty well even though they are totally at fault for cocking it up in the first place.
Some miles would be the icing on the cake although I would say the amount for a return ticket anywhere on the BA network which the OP mentions is ripping the arse out of it a bit.
The good thing is that the ticket was a simple return and wasn't a multi leg one which can cause problems when calculating the refund. So hopefully the amount refunded will correspond to the price paid for the ticket.

graraps

But doesn't the "ticket price" refer to, erm, the ticket price as opposed to a "half-roundtrip segment excluding the fuel surcharge" or whatever made-up bollocks? Especially when BA only publish the full J fare for LON-BUE oneways- I bet they didn't give dmahon 75% of that! How is it possible to "refund" something that you don't even sell in the first place?
Probably not worth taking them to court over it, but I'd make sure to write a few nasty letters just in case they budge and give me some more money (e.g. 75% of the TICKET price which comprises of both fare and taxes/fees/charges for the entire journey contained in the ticket)...

NickB

This is not how the EU Commission interprets this as can be seen in their answer to Q27 in this document (already referenced by somebody else in this thread, I think). Some national enforcement bodies, however, have a more pax-friendly interpretation. We do not have a judgment from the ECJ to settle this.
I can see their case for arguing that the reimbursement should be pro-rated by reference to the downgraded sector(s) rather than the whole ticket.
On the taxes and fees questions, however, I just cannot how an airline could begin to justify using the base fare rather than the inclusive fare as the basis for the calculation. This is NOT what the Regulation says and is, imo, an unsustainable position.