BA downgrade

Caz3121

jovi_love wrote: »

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).

that is true in the case of refunds but in this case the passenger has been downgraded by the airline and has a claim for EU compensation....that would come from the airline and not the agent
The airline should have sorted this out at the time but it appears they didn't

jovi_love

Caz3121 wrote: »

that is true in the case of refunds but in this case the passenger has been downgraded by the airline and has a claim for EU compensation....that would come from the airline and not the agent
The airline should have sorted this out at the time but it appears they didn't

But according to the EC regulation in case of downgrading (Article 10) the airline has to refund 30%, 50% or 75% of the ticket price depending on the distance. We either give the downgraded passengers a lump sum cash payment at the airport which usually covers the % refund, or alternatively the passenger has to request the refund through the original point of sale. So in case of travel agency bookings the refund will come from them but they obviously receive the money back from the airline.

jovi_love

zackary71 wrote: »

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.

Yep, the fare difference always comes through the original point of sale. Whenever we receive a downgrading compensation claim, we have to look at where the ticket was purchased. If it was directly from us, the airline, we will process the % refund to the original method of payment. However, if the ticket was purchased via travel agency, all we can do is to advise the passenger to contact the travel agency for the refund as we cannot do it.

Mands

2tight wrote: »

Her new seat had no inflight "entertainment". Her food choice (veggie) had run out! Q is what sort of compensation do I go for?

There was no inflight entertainment for that seat or it was non-operational?

5000 - 15000 avios credited to the account seems to be the norm for non-operational IFE.

Mands

2tight

Ticket booked direct with BA. Will pursue on return to London on Monday. Will try for 75% of full ticket price (don't ask don't get) and will let all know of outcome. Thanks for all the replies.

DTDfanBoy

I have been down this route before. At check in I was advised that I would be downgraded due to a change in aircraft. It was differently configured which meant there were not as many first class seats, which was rather ironic as I was only flying first as business was full.

In Singapore I received a reasonable amount of miles and a refund for the leg I was downgraded on. Myself and a colleague had a look through the regulation while waiting for our next flight from Singapore, we then pointed out to the customer service rep that the regulation stated the refund was a % of the ' Ticket ' price, and both our tickets were for LHR-SIN-AKL-SIN-LHR. They advised that they couldn't take things further at that point in time, and gave us a point of contact within Singapore airlines to direct our concerns to.

Some time later I wrote two letters to the person concerned, the second was passed on to someone in their legal team who made the call to pay out the full amount I had requested. I received a cheque for that amount.

The tickets were purchased by the company I was consulting for, they are Australian based and used an Australian corporate travel company to book those tickets. I'm sure that internal policies regarding downgrades will vary between airlines, but if some airlines are only refunding whoever purchased the tickets they are not fulfilling their obligations. The regulation makes it clear that compensation is payable to the party suffering the discomfort, not a third party as the contract for carriage is always between the airline and passenger.

zackary71

Ok, apologies if I came over all stroppy last night, but I recognise there's roughly 2 lots of people that frequent these forums. All of whom are well meaning in terms of their advice-some work in the industry and some don't. I was simply clarifying what will happen in this scenario not what should happen according to Regs. The point of Downgrade Comp is to put the passenger in a position where once they've received the card at the airport + the % fare refund, they will effectively have paid less than the person sitting next to them who has paid economy in the first place.
The % refund is still processed by travel agent if ticket purchased thru them or the airline as in this case. EU Compensation itself eg. 3 hr delay is done by the airline. (just to clarify-the airline doesn't know what a travel agent has charged a passenger as the agent buys tickets in bulk direct or thru a wholesaler eg. Lime. The airline might be charging £100 for a certain route direct, but a travel agent having bought the ticket from the airline for say £50, may be charging £125. The travel agent gets rfund from the airline in the background and passes this on to passenger)
If the OP was not given downgrade compensation at the time at the airport, they'd claim this from the airline direct.
Appreciate the Singapore Airlines situation but every airline is different and I'm just stating what will happen in this particular situation.
Re the other issues, meals are complimentary on BA, but if it was a special meal pre-ordered which wasn't given, the OP probably would get something as an apology as in miles or vouchers. The same would be true of entertainment system if it was faulty/not working, as it operates on this route.

One interesting point from this case is the importance of checking in online in advance. Many airlines do overbook certain routes and if the no-shows and cancellations aren't as many as predicted, it's the single traveller who hasn't checked in that is most likely to get pushed further back in the plane, or worst still if it's an Economy ticket, bumped off the flight altogether.
Hope that helps.

DTDfanBoy

Very good point regarding the actual ticket price aspect, I guess there's no way that the airlines can know what that price actually was if it was purchased through an agent unless they ask them, perhaps I was short changed :cool:

I wonder if airlines will always downgrade passengers who purchased directly from the airline first, in situations where agents have applied a hefty mark up the airline would have to refund more money that they actually received in the first place.

2tight

Emailed BA twice in 2 weeks using link they provided when they opened a "case" after initial complaint. Have sent letter before action to their registered address with claim for 75% of full fare. If no reply in 7 days I'll start online claim. Will keep all updated.

DTDfanBoy

Good stuff, glad to see you have the tenacity to keep them honest :beer: