Pre paid Airline Seats

jarthur · 19 April 2016 at 5:35PM

My family a party of 4 adults , a teenager with special needs, a toddler and another child travelled from Florida on British Airways in Oct 2015. We pre paid £230 to have certain seats on our return flight. On checking in we were told that for operational reasons staff would have to use our prepaid seats and that they were no longer available but we would get a full refund of the costs on our return to the UK by contacting BA. On boarding not only did our party have to sit apart which caused untold difficulties but the seats that we had prepaid for were being used by other members of the public using this flight not by staff. We queried this with the flight staff, they couldn't explain what had happened but said that we would get a full refund. We have been in constant communications with BA's Complaints Dept who have now said that they have no record of ever receiving this payment from us despite the fact that we had sent them a copy of our bank statement clearly showing £230 being debited from our account on Oct 15th 2015 along with their BA reference and that they cannot do anything else and our case is now closed. I have just spoken to my Bank who say that they can only dispute transactions up to 120 days after the account has been debited. BA also said that they do not participate in the Ombudsman Service although they gave us its address. My bank advised me to contact you.

silvercar · 19 April 2016 at 5:49PM

I would hope that your sitting apart did not leave any child sitting alone with strangers.
Sometimes a change of aircraft means that existing seat reservations cannot be honoured. I don't know if this happened in your case.

I would suggest posting on the British Airways section of flyertalk;

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/

Very helpful people on there. If you are comfortable posting the flight you took, people can check back and see what aircraft operated the flight and if it was out of the ordinary. Even if you don't want to post the flight details, you should get some advice on pursuing your refund.

NiftyDigits · 19 April 2016 at 10:56PM

jarthur wrote: »

My family a party of 4 adults , a teenager with special needs, a toddler and another child travelled from Florida on British Airways in Oct 2015. We pre paid £230 to have certain seats on our return flight. On checking in we were told that for operational reasons staff would have to use our prepaid seats and that they were no longer available but we would get a full refund of the costs on our return to the UK by contacting BA. On boarding not only did our party have to sit apart which caused untold difficulties but the seats that we had prepaid for were being used by other members of the public using this flight not by staff. We queried this with the flight staff, they couldn't explain what had happened but said that we would get a full refund. We have been in constant communications with BA's Complaints Dept who have now said that they have no record of ever receiving this payment from us despite the fact that we had sent them a copy of our bank statement clearly showing £230 being debited from our account on Oct 15th 2015 along with their BA reference and that they cannot do anything else and our case is now closed. I have just spoken to my Bank who say that they can only dispute transactions up to 120 days after the account has been debited. BA also said that they do not participate in the Ombudsman Service although they gave us its address. My bank advised me to contact you.

Write to their Executive Office with the details. They'll take care of it. Contact details in your inbox.

brijanhub · 20 April 2016 at 9:43PM

Not surprised, I booked and prepaid 2 seats in their premium cabin last May for travelling this April, returning in May, cost £178. Had confirmed seats at this time, in April this year thought I would check and found they had been changed to other seats farther back. Managed to speak to a helpful guy who couldn't understand why, promised to check and also refund part of cost. Checked a couple of days later and seats had been changed, great. Week before travel checked again and they had been changed once again. Tried to complain but apparently you can't complain until after the flight! Have a medical condition so needed the original or similar seats. 24 hours prior to flight checked in and managed to book seats near to original but not together. At no time was the plane changed or seat configuration altered and at no time were we notified that our seats had been changed and no refund has been made. On return to UK will make a formal complaint and request a refund but am not holding my breath.

EssexExile · 20 April 2016 at 9:56PM

If you go on line to change the seats yourself, they send you an email to tell you that you've changed your seats yourself.
If they change your seats they don't bother to tell you.

SW17 · 21 April 2016 at 7:22AM

EssexExile wrote: »

If you go on line to change the seats yourself, they send you an email to tell you that you've changed your seats yourself.
If they change your seats they don't bother to tell you.

An irritant with BA, agreed. If you fly much with them you can use the MyFlights app, which will notify you of any changes you or they make to a booking (aircraft changes, timings, seat changes etc). It's a bit plane-geeky but very effective. The automatic notifications only work for some airlines, but BA is one of them.

Pre paid Airline Seats

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