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First Choice Airways Extra Leg Room Complaint
kevinyork
Posts: 1,230 Forumite
Bit of a rant .....
Booked a 2 week holiday to Dominican with First Choice. Rang them up 4 weeks before and paid £70 each return for two of us to have extra leg room seats. We are both 6 foot and find it v.hard to sleep on planes. They said the £70 also included the fee normally charged to reserve seats together.
On the outward journey one of the extra leg room seats we had (against the emergency exit) had a protrusion from the door (they call it a side bustle and its where the life raft is stored) which meant that whilst the leg room was indeed more, you lost the side part of the leg space meaning you could only keep your legs directly ahead or to the right. OK not a major gripe we thought and stuck with it.
On the return flight we checked in and I noticed the boarding cards had different row numbers. We had been given one seat on row 20 and one on row 25. We queried this straight away and the check in person said that is what First Choice had pre-allocated in the UK for this flight. One was a leg room seat and one wasnt. We showed them a letter we had received from First Choice confirming the payment for the extra leg room seats. Unfortunately the letter was worded poorly and said '2 Optional Extra Seats' had been paid for. The check in agent said the letter didnt say Extra Leg room seats but instead said Optional Extra seats....whatever that could mean. We pushed it further and he got the local First Choice Airport Rep over who was no use at all. Simply said it wasnt their problem and to take it up when we got back. Pushed it further and he said there was only one more extra leg room seat left, on the same row but seperated by 2 seats and an aisle. We could take that or have 2 standard seats without leg room. We had no choice so had to take it. (By this time you can imagine the dirty looks we were getting from the check in queue behind us). So although we had extra leg room we were on opposite sides of the plane. One of the seats was in the centre block and was used by passengers to cross the plane so when trying to sleep my partner kept being kicked or knocked by passengers.
Anyway weve written to complain. Their response is that all airlines sell these extra leg room seats with the side bustle jutting out into the leg space. Also they say they did allocate 2 adjacent extra leg room seats in the UK for our return flight so are unsure as to why it was changed. Any thats it.....no compensation....no apology. We wrote back complaining that the response was inadequate and they just confirmed their first response.
We paid of the service of providing extra leg room seats pre-reserved & sitting together (or at least opposite an aisle to each other). On the way out one of the seats had extra leg room but restricted leg space width and on the return after 25 minutes at check in arguing, we had to accept extra leg room seats seperated by 2 seats and an aisle. We think we should get our money back for the extra leg room given that hassle and inconvenience.
Am I being unreasonable? We paid for the upgrade by Credit card so presumably could initiate a credit card disputed transaction or ultimately go to County Court?
Booked a 2 week holiday to Dominican with First Choice. Rang them up 4 weeks before and paid £70 each return for two of us to have extra leg room seats. We are both 6 foot and find it v.hard to sleep on planes. They said the £70 also included the fee normally charged to reserve seats together.
On the outward journey one of the extra leg room seats we had (against the emergency exit) had a protrusion from the door (they call it a side bustle and its where the life raft is stored) which meant that whilst the leg room was indeed more, you lost the side part of the leg space meaning you could only keep your legs directly ahead or to the right. OK not a major gripe we thought and stuck with it.
On the return flight we checked in and I noticed the boarding cards had different row numbers. We had been given one seat on row 20 and one on row 25. We queried this straight away and the check in person said that is what First Choice had pre-allocated in the UK for this flight. One was a leg room seat and one wasnt. We showed them a letter we had received from First Choice confirming the payment for the extra leg room seats. Unfortunately the letter was worded poorly and said '2 Optional Extra Seats' had been paid for. The check in agent said the letter didnt say Extra Leg room seats but instead said Optional Extra seats....whatever that could mean. We pushed it further and he got the local First Choice Airport Rep over who was no use at all. Simply said it wasnt their problem and to take it up when we got back. Pushed it further and he said there was only one more extra leg room seat left, on the same row but seperated by 2 seats and an aisle. We could take that or have 2 standard seats without leg room. We had no choice so had to take it. (By this time you can imagine the dirty looks we were getting from the check in queue behind us). So although we had extra leg room we were on opposite sides of the plane. One of the seats was in the centre block and was used by passengers to cross the plane so when trying to sleep my partner kept being kicked or knocked by passengers.
Anyway weve written to complain. Their response is that all airlines sell these extra leg room seats with the side bustle jutting out into the leg space. Also they say they did allocate 2 adjacent extra leg room seats in the UK for our return flight so are unsure as to why it was changed. Any thats it.....no compensation....no apology. We wrote back complaining that the response was inadequate and they just confirmed their first response.
We paid of the service of providing extra leg room seats pre-reserved & sitting together (or at least opposite an aisle to each other). On the way out one of the seats had extra leg room but restricted leg space width and on the return after 25 minutes at check in arguing, we had to accept extra leg room seats seperated by 2 seats and an aisle. We think we should get our money back for the extra leg room given that hassle and inconvenience.
Am I being unreasonable? We paid for the upgrade by Credit card so presumably could initiate a credit card disputed transaction or ultimately go to County Court?
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Comments
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you have no case on the outward flight and would imagine as with any other airline that they won't guarantee you a particular seat on an aircraft. on the inbound journey you both had extra leg room seats ....the only money you could possibly recoup is if you paid a fee to sit together IMHO and all you would then recover is that fee0
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You received extra legroom seats on both journeys.One of the seats was in the centre block and was used by passengers to cross the plane so when trying to sleep my partner kept being kicked or knocked by passengers.
If you had been allocated seats together in this row would you have complained about that too?
As HtH says, I feel that the only thing you may have cause to complain about is that you were not seated together on the return journey.
I believe that compared to other carriers, First Choice offer generous legroom in economy. If you were overly concerned that you would be uncomfortable given that you are both 6ft tall then maybe you should have explored the option of booking Premium Economy seats (apologies if you did but these were unavailable - you have not made any reference to this in your post).0 -
All the charter airlines class the seats in these rows as extra leg room seats, the slide bustle does restrict the leg room in the window seat on either side of the aircraft. They will get round it by saying that these seats still have more room than a regular seat.
The most you can hope for really is a refund for the cost of booking seats together, as you didn't get seats together. You could push for refund of the full amount for the extra leg room seats on the inbound journey but they will say that you still got the extra leg room seats all be it not together.
Ground staff have a habit of moving people from the seats that have been allocated by the airline office in the UK.
I would call the person that sent you the reply to your letter and say you still aren't happy. More often that not airlines and tour operators will try to fob you off with their first letter hoping that you will give up but go back to them either in writing or give them a call.:j Debt free since 31/01/08:j
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All the charter airlines class the seats in these rows as extra leg room seats, the slide bustle does restrict the leg room in the window seat on either side of the aircraft. They will get round it by saying that these seats still have more room than a regular seat.
The very least they should be doing is refunding the cost of booking seats together, as you didn't get seats together. You could push for refund of the full amount for the extra leg room seats on the inbound journey but they will likely say that you still got the extra leg room seats all be it not together.
Ground staff have a habit of moving people from the seats that have been allocated by the airline office in the UK.
I would call the person that sent you the reply to your letter and say you still aren't happy. More often that not airlines and tour operators will try to fob you off with their first letter hoping that you will give up but go back to them either in writing or give them a call
Thanks. I have called them and it was escalated to a Supervisor to review it who sent a brief letter saying their first letter stood.0
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