Clubworld.....not what we paid for..... what are your rights?

Mrsf2016

Hiya,
We flew british airways club world to st lucia and on our return journey there was an electrical fault meaning all power had to be turned off to club world and first. This meant we couldnt get seats back up from laying down or visa versa without them being manually moved by cabin staff taking the seat apart and using a key, no inflight entertainment, the service therefore was interupted for refreshments, my husband whos 6 foot 3 had to camando crawl out of his fully flat seat as he was against the side of the aircraft......
On board the whole flight was given complaint cards and advised to complete them for compensation. We did this and recieved an offer of avios points..... i then complained further, more avios points, i complained to head office, more avios points...... but no offer of any cash back.... we paid an astronomical amount for the tickets, our choice i know, it was our honeymoon, and i feel the diffference between an economy seat and a clubworld seat would be a comprimise as we didnt recieve any more than we would have done in economy.....
Does anyone know what your rights are with regards to this......
British airways seem to be quick at taking your pennies but like blood from a stone trying to get any back when you havent recieved what you paid for......

Thankyou

richardw

Over on flyertalk there's the complaint about the broken First seat http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1828031-broken-first-seat-14.html#post28377688

jpsartre

How may Avios have you been offered? Can you not find a way to use them? I suspect a refund of the difference between economy and CW is highly unrealistic and I don't follow your point that you received no more than you would have in economy. For one thing you were able to enjoy lounge access, fast track security, priority boarding and other perks associated with Club.

k3lvc

I've had similar to you but that was in the pre-Avios days when flight taxes were low and the points were worth something.

No doubt you can keep pushing for cash but as you'll have received significant elements of the service offered (priority check-in, security, lounge, food & drink) you're on a hiding to nothing (and you're certainly unlikely to get a refund.

Given BA have significantly bigger issues to deal with after this weekend then unless you're a decent level Exec Club member then I'd take the points and run - especially as they can be used for some fairly decent hotel bookings/car hire etc and you never have to suffer BA again

blindman

Seems to be the norm for BA

Provide a shoddy service and give peanuts in compo.

Last few posts on that thread are interesting, however you may want to value your time and effort needed to get an decent compo from BA.

Possibly best to put it behind you, move on and NEVER fly BA again.

PeacefulWaters

Your rights will be what you negotiate with BA, using MCOL (county court) or there is an arbitration scheme that BA subscribe to.

I'd suggest asking BA for the amount you think is appropriate, then using arbitration if your not happy.

How many Avios have they offered? What price would they charge you to buy them? If that seems like a fair cash alternative ask for it.

(Flyertalk BAEC section is the best place to ask this question)

agrinnall

Mrsf2016 wrote: »

British airways seem to be quick at taking your pennies but like blood from a stone trying to get any back when you havent recieved what you paid for......

Thankyou

Never a truer word spoken. I would go with what blindman says, particularly the last part. After BA declined to offer me anything useable many years ago I resolved to never fly with them again when it's my money paying for it, and to date I haven't. Even Ryanair are better, at least they are honest in what they offer.

Caz3121

Mrsf2016 wrote: »

i feel the diffference between an economy seat and a clubworld seat would be a comprimise as we didnt recieve any more than we would have done in economy.....

BA will argue that a CW ticket offers lounge access, bigger baggage allowance, better meals etc
(having done a recent long haul outbound in Economy and the return in CW, I would suggest even a broken CW seat is better than an economy seat)
If you are going to compare pricing possibly use the WT+ plus a £ for lounge and compare that

blindman

Caz3121 wrote: »

BA will argue that a CW ticket offers lounge access, bigger baggage allowance, better meals etc
(having done a recent long haul outbound in Economy and the return in CW, I would suggest even a broken CW seat is better than an economy seat)
If you are going to compare pricing possibly use the WT+ plus a £ for lounge and compare that

Look at the BA description of business and Economy and argue the value of what you did not get.

dickydonkin

Caz3121 wrote: »

BA will argue that a CW ticket offers lounge access, bigger baggage allowance, better meals etc

But if you had status with BA, then you would already have these benefits - even when travelling in economy, (obviously not the meals - but the CW/First food is very moderate anyway) so someone who has had a service failure should receive the same compensation for a broken seat - irrespective of status.

I feel sorry for the OP who has shelled out a significant sum for a lousy product.

Avios are fine for those who use them - in fact, the only redeeming feature of me staying loyal to BAEC is the availability of using Avios for reward flight savers - however, I use these for positioning for long haul flights out of Europe as I have vowed never to fly BA long haul as their premium cabins are just rubbish - as the OP can testify.

I'm sure there are some loyal BA fans who will defend them to the hilt, but the business and first cabins/product are just not on a par with the likes of QR, CX etc.

If I was the OP, I would just let this go and put it down to experience. BA's customer services are awful and their service recovery is pitiful so I would not waste the time, effort or energy in pursuing this and just accept what they have given you as I suspect that will be it.

blindman wrote: »

Look at the BA description of business and Economy and argue the value of what you did not get.

:rotfl::rotfl:

I don't know what the equivalent of the Trades Description Act is nowadays, but the marketing of their 'premium products' is certainly different from reality and I am sure their description of business/First would surely come under the remit of any such legislation.

shaun_from_Africa

dickydonkin wrote: »

But if you had status with BA, then you would already have these benefits - even when travelling in economy,

It's only when you get silver and gold status that you get lounge access and the extra baggage allowance and with the changes in tier point awards that happened a couple of years ago, you have to be flying an awful lot in WT and WT+ to reach silver (and gold is pretty much out of the reach of everyone except regular CW & first passengers.).


I do 6 or 7 long haul return trips each year (my company always books me economy) and this is nowhere near enough to get me to silver status (but I upgrade a few times each year and this does it).