Sharp treatment by BA – again

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 42 total)

  • AngryBA"customer"
    Participant

    My BA gold card expired a few days ago and I have been demoted to silver. What BA does not tell you is that when this happens any seat booking you made as a gold customer is then changed. So if you booked to travel with your family and had emergency exit seats booked – you get to the airport to find you are scattered around the plane and your “confirmed” seats are cancelled. BA never inform you of this … not when you book … and not when they change your seats. It really makes you love BA … NOT.


    Gold-2K
    Participant

    Yes BA do seem to be very harsh in these situations. Last year we had 1A and 1K booked on a 747. I am GGL and my parter was gold. His gold card expired before the date of travel and he was ‘relegated’ to 4E while I got to keep row 1.

    At the very least I would have expected to be informed. We were travelling on the same reservation so surely they would have expected us to want to be seated together?

    Managed to get it resolved by giving him a partner Gold card but the policy just seems REALLY petty!


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Far be it from me to defend BA and their sharp practices, but there does have to be a clearly defined cutoff point.
    What is inexcusable is that they don’t do you the courtesy of advising you, but their arrogance and highhandedness comes from the top downwards.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Any normal firm that changes a service level should at the very least inform the customer if the benefits being gained…if on the way up….or benefits lost….if it’s on the way down. There are marketing opportunities both ways….

    BA excitedly informs passengers on the way up and they should also do so on the way down…with encouragement and perhaps incentives to travel more….

    Unless of course, BA try to manage the number of Golds…


    canucklad
    Participant

    Please can I ask angryBAcustomer , when you got to the airport did BA acknowledge you as a valued customer who has spent a small fortune with them, and as such resolved the petty system that punished you for having the temerity to drop down a tier, in your favour?


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    I’ve never agreed with this seating approach – once the passenger has booked the seats, they should stick. The privilege was earned.


    SimonS1
    Participant

    I don’t excuse not being advised but I agree with the policy.

    If rising a tier once expects the benefits of that to be available. If falling I understand that benefits fall away too to make way for current status holders.

    I wouldn’t expect to receive benefits because I once was a certain level. Where would it end – lounge access available because I was entitled at the time I booked?


    AngryBA"customer"
    Participant

    The seats were “confirmed” at the time of booking. You then arrive at the airport and find you and your children are scattered all over the plane and the seats you had “confirmed” are taken. All this without any notification. If you think that this is acceptable on any level ….. you must fly BA often. Lol.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Their IT systems appear to be used dishonestly to scam pax for more money and that requires regulation ‘though the CAA doesn’t usually get involved in consumer complaints perhaps the EU regulator should do so since its now EU registered?


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=821490]I don’t excuse not being advised but I agree with the policy.

    If rising a tier once expects the benefits of that to be available. If falling I understand that benefits fall away too to make way for current status holders.

    I wouldn’t expect to receive benefits because I once was a certain level. Where would it end – lounge access available because I was entitled at the time I booked?

    [/quote]

    SimonS1, have you read the benefit on ba.com?

    It says (for GCH)

    Free seat selection from the time of booking
    for everyone in your booking and friends and family on other bookings, who are travelling with you in the same travel class and on the same flight*.

    the asterisk points to

    *You must be travelling on the booking (or in the case of Gold Members, one of the bookings) for these benefits to apply. They apply to British Airways flights only and are not available on group rate bookings. Exit row seats are not available to Silver or Bronze Members on long haul flights until 24 hours before departure. On some occasions, exit rows seats on short haul flights may not be available in advance due to operational reasons.

    Seems fairly clear to me. Free seat selection at the time of booking, nothing about being booted out if your status changes.

    It’s a cr*p policy to throw people out of seats booked using a privilege they earned, IMHO (and I speak as a GCH).

    The example of lounges is non sequitur, since that is not associated to any particular flight.


    SimonS1
    Participant

    “For GCH” being the operative bit.

    When the OP lost their GC status they lost the benefits too. That’s why it says “Exit row seats are not available to Silver or Bronze Members on long haul flights until 24 hours before departure.”

    I don’t condone BA not notifying or arranging other seats together though.

    I don’t agree re lounges either. You can have access because of your status as well as your booking. Lose the status, lose the access. That’s the way it goes.


    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    Main point… Time of booking OP was Gold… seat selection made, confirmed and should have remained.

    At the point of flight he was not Gold is pretty irrelevant… you cant unbook what’s been booked…… (well, unless you are programmed by the BA IT team…


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=821800]“For GCH” being the operative bit.

    When the OP lost their GC status they lost the benefits too. That’s why it says “Exit row seats are not available to Silver or Bronze Members on long haul flights until 24 hours before departure.”

    I don’t condone BA not notifying or arranging other seats together though.

    I don’t agree re lounges either. You can have access because of your status as well as your booking. Lose the status, lose the access. That’s the way it goes.

    [/quote]

    Simon, I can’t be arsed to get into a discussion over this, but your stance is illogical. There is no statement about losing seat selection on the BAEC site. One should not have to construct a strawman if/then process flow to understand tier benefits.

    I don’t understand your point about lounges – lounge access is not tied to a specific flight, like seat allocation is; e.g. a GCH gives certain lounge privileges on all OW flights, likewise a SCH. You don’t book your lounge in advance, you turn up on the day and your card grants you access into the appropriate level or not (for blues and bronzes). Ticket class also lets you in, but that is not a BAEC privilege.

    Maybe you are spending a bit too much time on FT and experiencing Stockholm Syndrome? 😉


    SimonS1
    Participant

    I’ve never been to Stockholm.

    And too bad for the OP that BA clearly shares my view.

    I can’t be arsed to argue either, unless OP is planning some form of legal proceedings its basically like it or lump it.


    seasonedtraveller
    Participant

    The seats were booked and confirmed at the time of booking. Right or not, it’s extremely petty of BA’s ‘system’ to release those seats in my opinion.
    As for not informing the customer, just plain wrong.

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