[DontTurnRight]

Will keep you updated with outcome

Two factors to bear in mind

I am not a member of BA Exec Club and had used Qf points for this entire trip (an achievement in itself considering four of us flying)

To my way of thinking this should not affect the outcome. There is an easy option available to BA but depending on load factor will probably be difficult and that is to upgrade entire family from club to first on return flight from Vancouver on 8th jan. Miles or cash do not really compensate here as it is the experience that has been missed out upon.

[MartynSinclair]

out of interest and perhaps one of the legal eagles can answer this, but is your contract then with QF or their associated points company or with BA??

[DontTurnRight]

Martyn – interesting thought., however if I had booked the ticket through a travel agent (not as a package holiday)would they or BA be liable.? My feeling is that it is still up to BA to make good.

[DontTurnRight]

Martyn – interesting thought., however if I had booked the ticket through a travel agent (not as a package holiday)would they or BA be liable.? My feeling is that it is still up to BA to make good.

[DontTurnRight]

Martyn – interesting thought., however if I had booked the ticket through a travel agent (not as a package holiday)would they or BA be liable.? My feeling is that it is still up to BA to make good.

[DontTurnRight]

Martyn – interesting thought., however if I had booked the ticket through a travel agent (not as a package holiday)would they or BA be liable.? My feeling is that it is still up to BA to make good.

[MartynSinclair]

The only reason I ask is that when I book avios through BAEC (Germany) and try to change in the UK, am told its got nothing to do with the UK.

If a travel agent makes a rewards booking on your behalf (QF points) surely they are doing this as a favour and not charging.

Miles and More bookings are through a seperate company and not the airline being flown on (as told to me by Miles and More).

I have no idea whether BA ‘must’ assume responsibility for the service provided on a QF points ticket, but would be interested to know the answer.

[SimonS1]

I don’t see why this should in any way excuse second rate service.

[NTarrant]

It does not matter who booked the ticket the fact is that responsibility in rjbrownmalta’s case is BA. An agent would probably pass the complaint to BA.

[DontTurnRight]

BA finally responded with offer of GBP 500 voucher for use on BA flights up until end of next year. One needs too to bear in mind BA gave up flying to Malta over two years ago. Should I be grateful or push further?

[MartynSinclair]

If BA are offering the £500 as compensation, it is sheer chutzpah that they are not only making you use the compensation with them, but also time limiting its use.

I would prepare a claim through the county court system, post by recorded delivery a copy of the paperwork (to BA’s legal department) and advise BA that in an attempt for a fairer resolution, you will give them 72 hours to come up with at least a free one class unrestricted upgrade voucher (or anything else you deem as suitable compensation).

A £500 BA voucher for a non reclining long haul first class seat thats meant to go flat – BA are taking the p**s!

When BA refused to budge with me a couple of years ago with a complaint (I think it was to do with an overcharged ticket), I employed this tactic and hey presto I had a result within 72 hours.

I found the letters I sent to BA, part of the contents are as follows.

Me to BA

“I confirm that I am not asking for a refund of £xxxx, only for the compensation that British Airways have agreed to pay, to be paid without conditions. I find it offensive and insulting that having, by the airline’s own admission, been misled into paying a higher fare, that you are ableto offer compensation in the form of a travel voucher with conditions and further, dictate how I am to spend the compensation (i.e. with the airline). It is far from coincidental that the amount
of compensation being offered is £xxxx, which just happens to be the extra monetary value I was misled into spending.”

Follow up from me to BA

“I have now taken legal advice and must advise that if I do not receive written confirmation that you are prepared to pay the compensation offered by cheque or credit to my American Express card, as appose to a restrictive and time limited travel voucher, by latest Friday 11th April, I intend proceeding to court with this matter. The claim will include an amount for the costs involved. I have tried to attach the court papers which have now been completed and signed for you to review, but unfortunately I am unable to attach via this email. If you would like to review the court papers that will be submitted, please let me have details of an email address which will accept .pdf attachments.”

BA’s initial refusal

I do understand your disappointment with our decision, but I am sorry I cannot arrange a cheque payment for £xxxx. A travel voucher for this amount is available, and it will be sent to you as per your request. As stated, we will hold this offer open for a year from today.

Eventually followed by a letter from BA’s legal department, which I initally refused to accept with any confidentialty clause

“I therefore enclose with this letter a cheque for £xxxx”

If you email me privately, martynsinclair @ hotmail .com , I will gladly give you the name, address and numbers for the department I dealt with..

Good luck.

[jayjay007]

martyn sinclair -quite a good reply -i’m sure it will help most of us in similar situations…

rjbrown malta-during strikes and the volcano ash i had several J travel canceled -BA simply credited my account with the same points required forthe same route in J -i had not even asked for any compensation!

they are usually very generous at compensation w miles,and the minimum to be expected would be a OW F MILES -of course you may prefer,and are entitled to an equivalent amount in cash…

[IanFromHKG]

I can’t be certain but I think your contract is with BA despite using QF miles – it is simply another form of “currency” with which to purchase a ticket. Certainly I cannot see QF taking any liability or responsibility!

As Martyn says, if you take an upgrade voucher be very sure it is valid for any class – the memsahib received an upgrade voucher from CX but was unable to use it because (as regular readers may already know) we nearly always buy economy/PE and upgrade with miles, so the upgraded ticket wasn’t eligible for the voucher. After a year of trying and being declined, we managed to extract some miles instead.

However, I have a perfectly analogous example, since some years ago I was on a CX flight in F which had exactly the same problem. CX gave me the difference between the F and business fare which, given that they offered me a business class seat on the flight to sleep in, seemed perfectly fair to me.

[DontTurnRight]

Martyn

Very many thanks for your advice and detailed comments, along with giving me the opportunity to contact you direct. I have already been in touch with BA with a couple of reasonable alternative options, but they are currently holding firm on their offer of the 500 pound voucher. I will mull for a few days and indeed wait to see what happens on my return flight to LHR in a few days time.

I am probably being naive here, but would like to think that their customer service department follow these threads and indeed might pick up on them. It will not take too much to turn this one around to change an unhappy passenger into a happy one!

Thanks again

Richard

[FormerlyDoS]

rjb

BA are trying to nickel and dime you over a failure that seriously impacted your experience.

If you have a UK address available, I would certainly consider threatening them with a small claims action.

It is just sad that they apparently do not take their responsibility to provide a working product too seriously.

[Author]

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