BA Gatwick to Fort Lauderdale – First seating fiasco.

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Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)

  • DavidArnold
    Participant

    Sorry, but there was no airline employee leading the passenger to believe he would have a First Class seat. If other passengers have been allocated those seats all well and good but why on earth should a passenger be literally harassing a CSD/Purser on seat occupancy and seeing what colour their Executive Club card is. If you want great service pay for it. If you or your company pay for Club you get Club. If you want better service choose another way of getting there with First or pay for a Private Jet.


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Sorry, but there was no airline employee leading the passenger to believe he would have a First Class seat.

    My comment was more general than specific to this instance, where I think the employee acted rather unprofessionally, albeit probably in the interest of trying to help.

    My point about expectation was based on once being given a one class upgrade, which I hadn’t asked for, from Premium to Business on check in, I then went through the gate with my Business class boarding card, which they put through the scanner as normal, and when I got on board there was someone else in that seat. She said she’d been allocated that seat by the airline staff and wasn’t prepared to discuss it with me, so I went to the cabin manager and asked what had happened, he looked at his clipboard and said : “Oh we had to allocate that seat to someone else.” Clearly I didn’t have grounds for complaint or to take the matter any further, but I was pretty hacked off at the way it was dealt with, I just told them that they probably needed better communication between ground staff and onboard staff.


    Zinzan
    Participant

    Correct about creating an expectation and failing to meet it – previous posters are missing the point – yes I paid for a CW seat and got just that – but I was told a number of times by BA staff that ‘if’ they opened the cabin up it would be allocated as suggested. This didn’t happen – not sour grapes , not harassing , the point is the process was not followed, Throw it open and offer the seats for a fee – good suggestion.

    The return journey from Miami (A380) was very good indeed.


    Zinzan
    Participant

    You’re missing the point.

    No harassment,I asked a question politely and it was offered.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    The front cabin was opened up not as F class but really as no class…

    VS used to do the same from Gatwick to MCO.. some of the upper class seats, before their flat beds, would be used by premium economy passengers…

    I don’t think this is really “blagging an upgrade”… after all, on the flight in question there was no upgrade to blag…


    SimonS1
    Participant

    [quote quote=850805]Correct about creating an expectation and failing to meet it – previous posters are missing the point – yes I paid for a CW seat and got just that – but I was told a number of times by BA staff that ‘if’ they opened the cabin up it would be allocated as suggested. This didn’t happen – not sour grapes , not harassing , the point is the process was not followed,
    [/quote]

    But there isn’t a ‘process’ here, it is all ad hoc. This comes up regularly on the different forums, it is all the luck of the draw.

    The seats are not sold as it is often only the last minute that the use of a 4 class aircraft is known (as was the case here).

    The point is there are no downgrades, and people in CW get what they paid for.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    Jeez, there’s some entitlment for you.

    I also have a shiny top tier BA gold card (as do many others on the forum). Sometimes I get an empty seat next to me due to a feature called theoretical seating, sometimes I don’t. That is similar to getting an F seat with club service, it isn’t promised and cannot be relied upon, but is nice when it happens (like most upgrades, the exceptions being from an exit row in ET to CE row 2 backwards).

    When I don’t get a free seat (and someone else does) the last thing I would dream of doing would be hassling the crew and asking why not – it’s an undocumented thing that sometimes works to my advantage and sometimes does not.

    We are all affected by aircraft changes, last year I got bumped out of the best seat in the house. I had selected a seat that still existed in the new aircraft, but BA’s systems don’t protect your seat and someone else nabbed it when the map cleared- I ended up 5 rows back – I accept that as part of the price of taking advantage of cheap fares on a mediocre airline with little apparent orientation to customer service.

    The OP says that some posters missed the point – we did not, Zinzan’s expectations are silly and the employees he mentions had no authority to promise him/her anything would happen in particular – they probably just wanted to move the problem away from them. If you want a better seat, pay for it from the start, if you want better IFE choose a different airline.

    BA’s NPS collapsed for a reason last year – it is really not a very good airline from a customer service perspective.


    esselle
    Participant

    Used to travel a lot on CX, mainly in J. Staff at HKG were always very polite if you asked if an upgrade might be possible. They would normally say words to the effect of “it will be my pleasure to check for you sir”, then tap their keyboard a little before smiling sweetly and saying words to the effect of “I’m afraid it’s won’t be possible on this occasion sir”.

    Rejected with style.


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=851039]Used to travel a lot on CX, mainly in J. Staff at HKG were always very polite if you asked if an upgrade might be possible. They would normally say words to the effect of “it will be my pleasure to check for you sir”, then tap their keyboard a little before smiling sweetly and saying words to the effect of “I’m afraid it’s won’t be possible on this occasion sir”.
    Rejected with style.
    [/quote]

    With other airlines, that can result in a nice upgrade offer, ‘yes sirs, we are offering one way upgrades fo £400’ – no lose answer for the airline employee.


    mkcol74
    Participant

    [quote quote=850515]The same had happened to me. I knew there was a First cabin but no First product on sale so I enquired multiple times prior to the flight and was told it would be kept empty (I knew it was not correct). Even at check in, arriving early was told it would be kept empty as there were no staff to service it. When I was entering the aircraft I asked if I could sit there and was told it was full as it had been already assigned!
    I just wanted more space. Even as a higher tier Gold card holder, it did not make a difference. I would have flown AA business anytime over club.
    Hey ho. Lovely Gatwick..
    [/quote]

    Why did you not fly AA then?


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    @FDOS – is this though an upgrade…? its actually a nograde… cabin was not for sale….

Viewing 11 posts - 16 through 26 (of 26 total)
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