British airways refunded one of our flights without notifying us. Help!

kv123

My partner and I have been saving for three years for a trip of a lifetime to Japan. We chose British airways as they fit best our values (less CO2 emissions, direct flight etc.). We paid additionally for selected seats and chose our seats at time of booking. A couple of weeks later, my partner remarked that he'd received about half of the money paid to BA back in his bank account and we could find nothing on email to understand why.
On speaking to BA via their online support, they advised that they have an automatic refund rule for multiple seats that are booked in the same name, and that's what has happened. Having never travelled internationally with BA previously, we didn't know customer names had to be entered at time of booking as we're used to entering passport details closer to flying. We also have no recollection of the website asking us for this detail. However as we'd paid for and selected specific seats, I would've thought that would've been an override to the duplicate name booking as it clearly suggests that more than one person is booking. Even if there wasn't, perhaps the customer was overweight and required two seats to be more comfortable? It seems like an odd rule…
My partner has been on the phone to BA for over an hour today, and they've been really unhelpful and downplayed his issue by saying that what has happened cannot happen (even though it has), and their solution is that we'll just have to rebook.
The issue is we've lost the money for the selected seats as BA only refunded the flight, and the flights are now more expensive. This seems really unfair for something we didn't ask for, nor were we given an opportunity to prevent. We just needed an email from BA to say, "hey, it looks like you've two seats with the same name, is that correct, would you like to amend or should we refund?"
Is there anything we can do or do we just have to suck it up and pay more?

Woodstok2000

You have to enter passenger details when booking with BA. It's the first step after selecting your flights. There is probably something buried in their terms about this that allows them to cancel the flight, but I would suggest its definitely worth escalating your complaint as far as possible to try and get some kind of goodwill reinstatement of your booking and seats, or maybe free seat choice on a new booking

If that doesn't work you could always try another airline. We're travelling to Japan in April and Air France were almost 25% cheaper than BA on our dates.

Isthisforreal99

I'm confused by this story - you initially booked tbe 2 seats under one of your names , is thay what happened leading BA to believe one passenger booked 2 seats?

If so, why did you do it this way?

Seems, imo, you have contributed to this confusion. It was easy to prevent by putting the correct name against each seat.

Caz3121

When you book for two passengers (whether international or domestic flights) it asks you to complete the Passenger details for Adult 1 and Adult 2…with the First Name and Last Name as they appear on your document (passport)

Were these on the same booking or were they booked as separate bookings?

user1977

I've just had a look at the booking page on the BA website and I'm not sure how you could have achieved this without deliberately putting the same name in for passenger 1 and passenger 2? You can't just book "two seats on this flight".

The automatic refund sounds a bit odd though, especially as it's feasible for two different people to have the same name (some parents are very unimaginative..)

Woodstok2000

As Ba cancelled the flight, you should get the seat fee back but you often have to claim separately - try here:

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/feedbackclaims/public/en_gb/case?caseType=bookings-seating-refund

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655240/british-airways-refunded-one-of-our-flights-without-notifying-us-help

Whenever booking for (I think any airline I've ever booked with), you need to enter the passenger names and (later) passenger information for each seat booked.

I an imagine a scenario where the passenger names might be the same, or very similar, Kv123 and Kv123 Jnr, but each would have separate passport details once the passenger information was uploaded.

If the same passenger has been entered in for both seats, it does not seem unreasonable that the airline detect that as an error / duplication and refund one of the seats to sell again.

Caz3121

Getting a refund on the ticket is probably better at this stage as if you had noticed further down the line.

When the booking is made you have 24 hours to check the details, after which time the fare rules of the ticket purchased apply.

BA don't allow name changes (after the first 24 hours) and the loss could have been more as you may have had no refund (depending on the fare rules of the ticket) and also needed to purchase a new ticket which could have been even more costly as time got closer.

In your situation I would rebook the cancelled ticket in the correct name and take the hit on the increased fare due to the initial error then see if BA will work with you to reinstate the seat selection(s) without a further cost for them

Jumblebumble

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655240/british-airways-refunded-one-of-our-flights-without-notifying-us-help

This wont help here but If a customer wants a second seat they need to book whats called a comfort seat and the name on the booking is for this seat will be "exst surname" if flying BA

eskbanker

Having never travelled internationally with BA previously, we didn't know customer names had to be entered at time of booking as we're used to entering passport details closer to flying.

Just to be clear, I don't see this as being a BA issue or anything to do with flying internationally - to the best of my knowledge all airlines require customer names when booking (although international ones will indeed require more information prior to departure), as the whole system would be open to abuse if customer names could be changed freely.

saajan_12

Unclear where you mean seat as in seat on the flight (ie a ticket) and a specific seat selection. Are you saying you bought 2x tickets + paid 2x fee for seat selections? And they refunded 1x ticket or 2x?

Having never travelled internationally with BA previously, we didn't know customer names had to be entered at time of booking as we're used to entering passport details closer to flying. We also have no recollection of the website asking us for this detail. However as we'd paid for and selected specific seats, I would've thought that would've been an override to the duplicate name booking as it clearly suggests that more than one person is booking. Even if there wasn't, perhaps the customer was overweight and required two seats to be more comfortable? It seems like an odd rule…

So you entered Passenger 1 = Joe Bloggs and Passenger 2 = Joe Bloggs? Perhaps that was terrible auto-fill but that's your responsibility to check. I don't think their check is an unreasonable oneor how selecting seats affects it. It could just be someone accidentally entering quantity = 2 and clicking twice nearby (which become two neighbouring seats).. basically exactly the dupe booking scenario they're trying to catch.

While I do think emailing to check would have been better, I suppose they're within rights as waht you actually booked is 2 seats for Joe Bloggs, and don't have a right to a ticket for Jane Smith at the same price.