BA downgrade

2tight

Slightly off topic but anyhows: my wife was joining me in Bangkok from London. I booked her a Premier Economy ticket (not very MSE but I thought I treat her). As home computer printer not working she did not bother checking in online. At check in all seemed ok. She was puzzled about her seat number (23) and asked if this was in the right class. Was told yes it was. At gate she was told that there was a problem and she was being downgraded as BA had overbooked. She argued as to why she was being singled out? One reason given was she did not check in online! Was told she would be refunded difference. Worse to follow. Her new seat had no inflight "entertainment". Her food choice (veggie) had run out! Q is what sort of compensation do I go for?

Caz3121

have a look at the EU compensation for downgrades - it should be 75% of the ticket price back. If she has a BA account she will probably get some Avios for the lack of entertainment

2tight

Thanks Caz3121. Final Q: assume it will be 75% of 1/2 of return fare?

zackary71

It would be a % difference in fare for Bangkok to London + should get a downgrade compensation card too at Bangkok. You'd need to go back to your travel agent for the % refund if you booked ticket thru them otherwise contact the airline. (they'll also be best people to talk to re entertainment system and meal)

DTDfanBoy

You are entitled to 75% of the total ticket price. Ticket is defined in the regulation

(f) ‘ticket’ means a valid document giving entitlement to transport,

or something equivalent in paperless form, including

electronic form, issued or authorised by the air carrier or

its authorised agent;


If your E-ticket stated LHR - BKK - LHR you are entitled to a 75% refund of that ticket price.


(c) 75 % of the price of the ticket for all flights not falling

under (a) or (b), including flights between the European

territory of the Member States and the French overseas

departments.




I've have no idea why you are being told that it is the ticket price for the return leg which counts, or that you have to go through your travel agent :eek:

Contact the airline directly, don't forget to remind them that the refund is 75% of the ticket price, not a 75% refund for a portion of the ticket.


I've received a large refund after being downgraded for one leg, outward leg London-Singapore. Despite it being a non EU airline they refunded me 75% of the ticket price, in my case that ticket included flights not covered by the regulation, return was Auckland - Singapore - London, they still paid out in full :beer:



Keep in mind that extraordinary circumstances do not apply to downgrade compensation

zackary71

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

You are entitled to 75% of the total ticket price. Ticket is defined in the regulation

(f) ‘ticket’ means a valid document giving entitlement to transport,

or something equivalent in paperless form, including

electronic form, issued or authorised by the air carrier or

its authorised agent;


If your E-ticket stated LHR - BKK - LHR you are entitled to a 75% refund of that ticket price.


(c) 75 % of the price of the ticket for all flights not falling

under (a) or (b), including flights between the European

territory of the Member States and the French overseas

departments.




I've have no idea why you are being told that it is the ticket price for the return leg which counts, or that you have to go through your travel agent :eek:

Contact the airline directly, don't forget to remind them that the refund is 75% of the ticket price, not a 75% refund for a portion of the ticket.


I've received a large refund after being downgraded for one leg, outward leg London-Singapore. Despite it being a non EU airline they refunded me 75% of the ticket price, in my case that ticket included flights not covered by the regulation, return was Auckland - Singapore - London, they still paid out in full :beer:



Keep in mind that extraordinary circumstances do not apply to downgrade compensation

Sorry but bad advice to contact airline regardless, especially if the ticket was purchased thru a travel agent. (no idea if it was or was not) If it was purchased thru agent, the OP is wasting their time contacting the airline as the airline has never taken any payment for the ticket in the first place. If it wasn't and was booked direct, definitely contact the airline. Unsure if it was a single or return ticket either. If return, the % refund will be for the affected sector only not the whole ticket.

DTDfanBoy

zackary71 wrote: »

Sorry but bad advice to contact airline regardless, especially if the ticket was purchased thru a travel agent. (no idea if it was or was not) If it was purchased thru agent, the OP is wasting their time contacting the airline as the airline has never taken any payment for the ticket in the first place. If it wasn't and was booked direct, definitely contact the airline. Unsure if it was a single or return ticket either. If return, the % refund will be for the affected sector only not the whole ticket.

You can't be serious :rotfl:

I can only assume that you have no idea that downgrades are covered by regulation 261/2004, perhaps you should read the regulation before giving completely inaccurate advice :cool:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2004/l_046/l_04620040217en00010007.pdf

As I stated earlier, I have been down the downgrade compensation route before. I received a £4,000+ refund from Singapore Airlines :beer:

Perhaps their legal department were having a bad day when they agreed with the points outlined in my letter to themselves, and refunded 75% of my total ticket cost :eek:

Vauban

Article 10 is pretty clear on this point, though I suspect that the airlines will attempt an interpretation of the concept of "ticket" to include only half of the journey (ie the outbound or inbound leg affected).

That said, I'm not sure they'd succeed in court: article 8.1.a makes a qualification for part journey refunds. There's no qualification in article 10.

Voyager2002

zackary71 wrote: »

Sorry but bad advice to contact airline regardless, especially if the ticket was purchased thru a travel agent. (no idea if it was or was not) If it was purchased thru agent, the OP is wasting their time contacting the airline as the airline has never taken any payment for the ticket in the first place. If it wasn't and was booked direct, definitely contact the airline. Unsure if it was a single or return ticket either. If return, the % refund will be for the affected sector only not the whole ticket.

Wrong!

It was the airline, not the agent, that downgraded her. The role of the agent was limited to taking her money and making the booking. The agent would only be liable if it turned out that they had only provided a standard economy ticket.

jovi_love

I work for an airline's customer service, and we are only able to process refunds if the passenger purchased the ticket directly from us. For any refunds the passenger must contact the original point of sale. For example, if you bought your ticket from Ebookers, you need to contact them for refund and they will get the refund from the airline and pass it onto the passenger's original method of payment (i.e. usually credit card).

zackary71

Clearly I'm surrounded by much more knowledgeable people that actually deal with such issues on a day to day basis. (other than jovi_love who does actually know what they're talking about when it comes to where the difference in fare refund is actually obtained from)
So to clarify, if an airline has downgraded a passenger, they would receive downgrade compensation at the airport usually in the form of a card to access funds from an ATM + (that's a "Plus" for DTDFanboy who I assume booked his Singapore Airlines ticket direct with the airline) a difference in fare refund. Maybe someone can explain then if a passenger books a return Premium Economy ticket and an airline then downgrades the passenger to Economy for one leg only why would that passenger be entitled to a % refund for the whole journey ?
Was only trying to offer some informed advice but if the passenger has booked and paid for their ticket through a travel agent, (no idea if they had as I previously mentioned in earlier post) I'll let the experts on here apologise to the OP when he/she goes back to the airline to request the % refund & gets told to speak to the travel agent.