mickchick
3rd Nov 2009, 11:10
When BA introduced their new seating policy a few weeks ago, allowing pax to pay to select their seats, I posted here on my unhappy experience with it. In short, I had already booked two journeys (London-Los Angeles return and London-Miami return), and now I had the chance to choose my seats, I wished to do so. It is important, for medical reasons, that my wife is able to sit next to me in the cabin.
BA would not allow me to pay to select my seats as they insisted only the original credit card used to make the booking could be used. As my card had been subsequently compromised and I now had a new one, it couldn't take my money. However, customer services said they would mark my booking as essential for medical reasons for my wife and I to sit together.
To update: When I went online to check in for my LA flight, I had a message from BA offering me the chance to upgrade from WT+ to CW one-way for £400 each - something they had refused to allow me to do previously as they said my class of ticket allowed no changes. And, curiously, no problem about using a different credit card, either. So I grabbed the opportunity.
On returning from LA last weekend, and unable to upgrade as BA now wanted £4000 a seat for the overnight flight, I found that in spite of my WT+ reservation being marked as 'must sit together', my wife and I were seated in different rows. No amount of (perfectly reasonable) discussion could change this.
On the flight, I found I was seated next to a lady who had also been seated at random by the computer, and had neither paid to choose her seat or had requested it. My wife was seated next to a man in a similar situation.
So why couldn't BA have simply left us together?
Talking this through with the purser during the flight, he offered me an unhappy insight into what may be going in at BA these days. "The seating arrangements are made by the people in Operations", he told me. "They are the most militant, bloody-minded people on our staff. If a customer's name is marked - either for a specific request, as yours was, or as suitable for upgrade - Operations take a fiendish delight in ignoring it and causing the most possible inconvenience ". It happens all the time, he told me and is done in the hope that pax will take out their grievances on the cabin crew (of whose pay and allowances they are apparently jealous), or on the hated management. Nobody cares, at Operations level, it seems, that disgruntled pax will probably take their business elsewhere, thus endangering BA, and ultimately, everyone's jobs.
OK, now my next problem is this: How can I be sure that we won't be separated for our upcoming Miami trip, and that the seat request will be honoured? Seems ironic that BA is reporting a £250 million half-year loss this week, but won't grab with both hands the money, admittedly chickenfeed, that I'm prepared to pay them to get the seats I want. And there must be many pax in the same situation as me - perfectly willing to shell out extra cash to secure their seats, but can't because they've changed their credit card.
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
BA would not allow me to pay to select my seats as they insisted only the original credit card used to make the booking could be used. As my card had been subsequently compromised and I now had a new one, it couldn't take my money. However, customer services said they would mark my booking as essential for medical reasons for my wife and I to sit together.
To update: When I went online to check in for my LA flight, I had a message from BA offering me the chance to upgrade from WT+ to CW one-way for £400 each - something they had refused to allow me to do previously as they said my class of ticket allowed no changes. And, curiously, no problem about using a different credit card, either. So I grabbed the opportunity.
On returning from LA last weekend, and unable to upgrade as BA now wanted £4000 a seat for the overnight flight, I found that in spite of my WT+ reservation being marked as 'must sit together', my wife and I were seated in different rows. No amount of (perfectly reasonable) discussion could change this.
On the flight, I found I was seated next to a lady who had also been seated at random by the computer, and had neither paid to choose her seat or had requested it. My wife was seated next to a man in a similar situation.
So why couldn't BA have simply left us together?
Talking this through with the purser during the flight, he offered me an unhappy insight into what may be going in at BA these days. "The seating arrangements are made by the people in Operations", he told me. "They are the most militant, bloody-minded people on our staff. If a customer's name is marked - either for a specific request, as yours was, or as suitable for upgrade - Operations take a fiendish delight in ignoring it and causing the most possible inconvenience ". It happens all the time, he told me and is done in the hope that pax will take out their grievances on the cabin crew (of whose pay and allowances they are apparently jealous), or on the hated management. Nobody cares, at Operations level, it seems, that disgruntled pax will probably take their business elsewhere, thus endangering BA, and ultimately, everyone's jobs.
OK, now my next problem is this: How can I be sure that we won't be separated for our upcoming Miami trip, and that the seat request will be honoured? Seems ironic that BA is reporting a £250 million half-year loss this week, but won't grab with both hands the money, admittedly chickenfeed, that I'm prepared to pay them to get the seats I want. And there must be many pax in the same situation as me - perfectly willing to shell out extra cash to secure their seats, but can't because they've changed their credit card.
Anyone got any thoughts on this?