We recently flew First JNB/LHR using miles with Amex companion voucher. My husband's bed was broken, would not recline properly. No spare seats in first or club. He basically spent whole night sitting up. It took 2 crew 20 mins trying to get legrest down into safe position for landing. Crew were very embarrassed. Has anyone any experience of this and a precedent for what sort of compensation we should be asking for? Thanks

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Evelyn - although far from being the end-of-the-World, and whilst I'm sure that your still husband experienced a far more comfortable journey than many on board your flight, I can imagine his disappointment at not being able to enjoy the fully-flat bed that he was probably not just expecting, but very much looking forward to.

The good news is that, in my experience at least, BA does not discriminate between passengers who have bought 'revenue' tickets, and those who have paid for their flights with hard-earned miles in such circumstances.

Indeed, your flights will have been far from 'free', thanks to the taxes, fees and charges which will have been levied.

The fact is that BA, like every other airline, suffers from failures such as this day-in, day-out. I experienced a very similar fault on a Singapore Airlines flight earlier in the year. As such, BA (and others) are likely to have a standard protocol to follow in such circumstances, and are fairly unlikely to enter into negotiation of any kind.

My advice therefore would be to log into your BA Executive Club account and click the Contact link, and bring your husband's disappointment to their attention. Better still, have your husband do it through his own account.

The likelihood is (as reported by numerous posters to other online fora) that you will receive a rapid response, probably by telephone, to discuss the matter with you.

Again, on the basis of other reports, the likelihood is that BA will offer compensation in the form of miles, with an amount at least equal to that which would offer you a free upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class on a future return longhaul flight.

If you receive anything in excess of this, then well done, but I still do appreciate that nothing can take away from the fact that your husband was so disappointed in the first place. A real shame.

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I has a similar experience flying CA from Vancouver to Tokyo, and because the flight was full, I could not have another alternative seat. Worst still was the fact that the crew already reported that the seat was broken about a month ago, and yet nothing was done and passengers (my good self) was assigned to that seat. I wrote in and complained about it in a very nice way, but also was firm. I received a CAD500.00 voucher to be used as a credit for future flights.

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Surely the airline should be aware of which seats are functional and which ones aren't? This episode shows what is now becoming a characteristically negligent attitude from certain airlines. If the seat is broken it shouldn't be sold, simple. And, if it's broken, it can't possibly be safe to assign it to a passenger. I doubt you will get much joy from BA, especially now, when they are in penny-pinching mode. Your best option would be to raise the issue in the travel press and draw attention to the airline and, hopefully, shame them into compensating you. If your partner suffered from some discomfort as a result of not being able to recline then it may be worth considering legal action against BA, for personal injury. In this day and age, if you don't confront an airline head-on they will often ride rough-shod all over you. Maybe you should avoid airlines like BA and AC (and, indeed, SQ) in the long-term as reports about malfunctioning seats on their aircraft are increasing.

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I'd agree with Continentalclub - 1st step is to let the airline know and see what they will come up with.

I dint think this was evidence of the airline cynically allowing a plane to fly with a defective 1st class seat: Equipment can fail, and sadly its generally the unlucky passenger that discovers a fault. The crew will have completed paperwork notifying engineering that the seat will need attention before that aircraft flies off again. Once they know the seat is defective, they wont let it be used in that state - why would they?

That doesn't help you of course, but I'm pretty sure you will get compensation. While you are welcome to start your own cyber crusade against the airline (as have others) I'm not sure your life will be particularly enriched. Probably quite the contrary.

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Hi Evelyn,

I tend to agree with the posters who have advised approaching the airline directly to discuss the issue with them and see what they come up with. In my experience this has always resulted in a satisfactory outcome.

Airpocket suggests you go to the press or perhaps take legal action against the airline. I think that you should only consider either of those options in the event that you are unable to resolve the issue directly with BA. Talking to the press will not cost you anything but a legal action certainly would with no guarantee that you would be successful.

As regular posters to this forum know I am no fan of BA, i have to say though that in the past when I did use them a lot and had a Gold Card they dealt efficiently and satisfactorily with the odd complaint that I had.

Can I please ask one favour of you? Could you let us know the outcome of yoyr discussions with BA as it is always useful to know if our advice was helpful or not.

In any event, good luck with your claim.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

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Airpocket, Your're absolutely correct!! I was flying in SQ's pride & joy - the A380 - in Biz.. and guess what, come lunch time, the tray on my seat was broken. Mind you the design of these trays were difficult to extract in the first place... I was reassigned towards the back section of the biz class with no word of apology. I guess I was lucky they did not have a full load and has another seat, otherwise I'll be eating off the floor of the cabin!! And this was a new aircraft!!

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Lucky indeed, you managed to eat your meal and continued the rest of the flight in a safe seat, unlike Evelyn's husband. It would be interesting to see if Evelyn gets the same treatment as a Gold Card holder or whether she is ignored and fobbed-off.

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Just to confirm that I will let you know what happens. The complaint was sent via the BA "youfirst" helpline which I was told means that complaint is treated with greater priority than those from other complainants. We'll see!

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Had very pleasant email from BA today and the apology for broken bed felt sincere. They are refunding 75,000 miles which we feel is very fair.

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Very many thanks indeed for the update, Evelyn.

Quite a good result, I think. I hope your husband shares the miles with you to thank you for your perseverance and leg-work!

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Impressive! - thats made the whole leg of the trip free for you both.

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Yes! Of course tax was more for 1st class than sit up econ type seat but I am not going to pursue that. The apology email made it clear that crew had reported defective seat immediately. As you note, equipment fails sometime. For those who keep saying that BA is losing passengers it is interesting that JNB/LHR flight was completely full in all classes and some passengers were apparently denied boarding.

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Crikey? How much were you charged for taxes and fees?

The current TFCs for First Class on BA between London and Johannesburg are £348.20. As difficult-to-swallow as they may be, that's still less than any carrier is currently offering on a one-stop Economy itinerary to RSA from London, and less than half that of any non-stop carrier.

If you have been charged more than that, then you should definitely and urgently contact YouFirst once again.

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I think they also recognise that from a brand perspective, when milage redemption bookings have problems like this it can be even more damaging than an equivalent revnue booking - one-off trip with loved one has to be prefect in 1st.

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Good for you, Evelyn. Will you be flying BA again?

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75,000 BA Miles is an excellent result!

Of course one never wants to endure discomfort due to an inop seat, but that result - enough for two of you to fly First one way from London to the USA using an Amex 2for1 voucher - should soften the blow somewhat.

The Manchester based YouFirst team are very helpful indeed.

It's good to see planes are flying full again.

www.ba.com/first

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Hi Continental Club Re the tax: I meant that 1 way tax would have been £125 in 1st and £93 in econ . As seat recline equated to maybe econ plus ( + of course much more padding) then some might argue that £32 in cash + some miles would need to be compensated. I feel that BA handled this situation well both on the airline itself and afterwards. You First were also very helpful before our outbound journey when I discovered that arrival lounge in JNB would be shut and they agreed alternative arrangements for our transit wait ( which in the event we did not need to take up.) Maybe it helped that we were quite calm and accepting that nothing could be done on board and wrote a simple factual non-threatening complaint letter?

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There are those who complain for complaints' sake - There are also those who complain because they want to make the airline a better one for all. Arlines are "human" after all, and a "soft" answer turns away much wrath!! A good outcome, I think.... Good on you, Evelynthomas. Better to stock with the "devil" you know than the devil you don't.

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I have no experience of such extreme problems (I am happy - or lucky - to say) but in my view the compensation should reflect the level of customer expectation; the limited key features of the service offering being purchased; and the premium price being paid - and be a full refund.

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Hmmm. UA lost my bag on internal flights in the US this week and I'm star alliance gold mostly with Air Canada. I didn't expect to be misinformed so consistently, promised 12 things by 12 agents which never came true, etc, and to not have my bag today, five days later. I did expect competence and a pretty high standard of care and got....very little. How do you quantify that?

And, is there a site or thread there which tries to compare the different levels of compensation offered for various problems at various airlines?

Kudos to you Evelynthomas on a successful resolution....!

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I think 75,000 BA Miles is a great result evelynthomas.

That's enough for a one way in F from mainland Europe (connections would be in Club Europe) via London to San Francisco or LA, OR to upgrade three people round trip on the same route from World Traveller Plus/Premium Economy to www.newclubworld.com on the same routing.

It is easy to share levels of compensation received on sites like Business Traveller Forums.

www.ba.com/first

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I had a broekn bed in CW on the upper deck, seems my seat is the most popular one in CW. They found a new seat downstairs. The staff filled in a complaint form and got me to sign it and BA responded with a free upgrade to F on my next flight. I always fly in CW and use them monthly between HKG and LHR

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