BA- advance seat reservations - shambles.
Paxing All Over The World
Yes Helol, I had seen that earlier. Along with folks suggesting that the cabin will smell of a well know fast food restaurants. I recall a trip ex-LHR over 16 years ago that smelt of take aways.
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TCU, I think you get the wrong impression. I have no other jim jams - even at home, I am not intending to wear Virgin's to make any sort of point - it's all I have unless I sleep nude!
Only we, and we alone can tell me if my seats are 'good or not' as one mans meat is another man's poison.
I think you are trying to rain 'on our parade' - is that why you appear to be boasting? This is a great adventure for us as we are not regular flyers.
Only we, and we alone can tell me if my seats are 'good or not' as one mans meat is another man's poison.
I think you are trying to rain 'on our parade' - is that why you appear to be boasting? This is a great adventure for us as we are not regular flyers.
yellowtriumph....I wish you an excellent trip, but refer you back to your whinging thread opener about BA's very well publicised seat allocation policy. Why did you not just book VS?
As a regular through JNB, one top tip is make sure your checked in bags are well and truly locked and secure and easily identifiable on the luggage conveyor
If you want a real treat and a J Class bargain, go EK next time...I use them rather a lot when i'm not in a hurry down to Southern Africa
As a regular through JNB, one top tip is make sure your checked in bags are well and truly locked and secure and easily identifiable on the luggage conveyor
If you want a real treat and a J Class bargain, go EK next time...I use them rather a lot when i'm not in a hurry down to Southern Africa
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TCU. As per my previous post - we did not book the tickets, a travel agent did. Johannesburg is not our final destination, we are now in Durban having transited smoothly through joburg. I guess the agent thought using a single airline would be preferable for us. Our bags are securely locked and we use those strap things that not only provide an additional layer of protection against bags inadvertently opening but they also have our surname embroidered in them to make baggage reclaim easy.
Anyhow, here we are having experienced BA's business class offering. Having had a somewhat painful experience booking our seats prior to setting off we discover at the airport that we have been moved! Why? no-one on board can tell us. The couple sitting in our original seats look very similar to my wife and I and we can see physical reason why we were moved? Neither can the cabin crew tell us. Is this important? Well the seats we were moved to were very close to the galley and overnight the crew kept yakking and yakking and yakking - even though Mrs yt went and saw them and politely asked them to keep it down. In fact Mrs yet thought it got worse after she had politely asked them to quieten down. Bastards. So we have arrived here knackered due to BA's thoughtlessness.
When we get back to the uk we will not be troubling BA again.
Anyhow, here we are having experienced BA's business class offering. Having had a somewhat painful experience booking our seats prior to setting off we discover at the airport that we have been moved! Why? no-one on board can tell us. The couple sitting in our original seats look very similar to my wife and I and we can see physical reason why we were moved? Neither can the cabin crew tell us. Is this important? Well the seats we were moved to were very close to the galley and overnight the crew kept yakking and yakking and yakking - even though Mrs yt went and saw them and politely asked them to keep it down. In fact Mrs yet thought it got worse after she had politely asked them to quieten down. Bastards. So we have arrived here knackered due to BA's thoughtlessness.
When we get back to the uk we will not be troubling BA again.
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JNB eh? A380 maybe? Upper deck? Near the galley? Done that. Went politely into the galley and said that I was embarrassed. I could hear every word that was said and really thought I shouldn't be listening to a private conversation. Apologies and silence for the rest of the trip. I guess it's the way you say it?
Paxing All Over The World
That's a very bad result yellowtriumph. Certainly sounds like the folks who had been allocated seats near the galley were regulars and knew the problem. What cards they dealt to get switched (possibly at check in) one cannot say. It mayhap that the folks who got 'your' seats paid the fee and thus trumped your call on them.
I've only once had this happen to me on BA, but it was on Concorde and that's another story. BA are always my second or third choice. Which is a pity as their actual product is still very good. But, eventually, their management will 'win'.
I've only once had this happen to me on BA, but it was on Concorde and that's another story. BA are always my second or third choice. Which is a pity as their actual product is still very good. But, eventually, their management will 'win'.
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Pax boy. Our seats were confirmed as per our selection when we checked in on line within the 24 hour window, so I presume we were 'bumped' within that window as you suggest.
Did I mention the lumbar and head adjustments didn't work in my seat. The crew reset my seat to try and sort it out, but managed to reset the 3 seats in the same row and ended up stuffing up the the film a chap was watching in the third seat. But these things happen and the crew were only trying their best which is all I ever ask of anyone, the faults did not affect my personal comfort to any degree. I was sat in the middle row, middle seat, I could lean forward and kiss my wife to the right, or if I chose, I could lean forward and kiss the chap in the left seat!! I really was disappointed in the whole A380 business experience. Give me the 747 any day. Rabbit hutches and the crew chose to lean over the outside eats to serve the inner seats, that would have really annoyed me.
A couple who joined us from London flew to Durban on Emirates and had a lovely time - as TCU suggested, if we come this way again we will give it a go.
Did I mention the lumbar and head adjustments didn't work in my seat. The crew reset my seat to try and sort it out, but managed to reset the 3 seats in the same row and ended up stuffing up the the film a chap was watching in the third seat. But these things happen and the crew were only trying their best which is all I ever ask of anyone, the faults did not affect my personal comfort to any degree. I was sat in the middle row, middle seat, I could lean forward and kiss my wife to the right, or if I chose, I could lean forward and kiss the chap in the left seat!! I really was disappointed in the whole A380 business experience. Give me the 747 any day. Rabbit hutches and the crew chose to lean over the outside eats to serve the inner seats, that would have really annoyed me.
A couple who joined us from London flew to Durban on Emirates and had a lovely time - as TCU suggested, if we come this way again we will give it a go.
Last edited by yellowtriumph; 21st Oct 2016 at 15:42.
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OK, my last post on this subject - really just to lighten it up if need be.
We were in Kasane, Botswana checking in for our return link flight to Joberg with 'Air link', we had three bags as we were otherwise business class passengers linking up directly with our BA return flight to Heathrow. We explained our luggage situation to the very pleasant check in lady and she not only understood but offered to check our bags through to London. We took her up on that.
A local behind the counter eyed our bags and quietly took them from us to somewhere behind the service counter, he looked at them, he looked at us. He looked at the bags again and looked at us again, but this time holding up 3 fingers towards us in an inquisitive manner with one hand and putting a finger across his lips with his other hand in a sort of 'ssh' gesture. We proceeded to continue check in and were given some paperwork to fill in before passing through security, our bags disappeared.
A couple of minutes later said chap came quietly over to us and solemnly informed us that our bags weighed in at 65Kgs but that he had altered the paperwork to be 45Kgs and thus we were assured our bags would be ok to depart. He hesitated, hesitated some more, and then went to mooch off. I had a momentary vision of our luggage spending the rest of eternity on the bag carousel at Joberg assuming it even left Kasane, so I got the message. I called him back and greased his palm with 2 USD, better to submit to spending £1.50 and getting my luggage to Heathrow than never seeing it again.
I smile when I look back on it now, but I did muse to my wife at the time that in the unlikely event of us hurtling towards the ground at a great speed then we could be assured it was our 'extra' 20Kgs that most likely caused it. We did get our bags at Heathrow, so £1.50 well spent.
We were in Kasane, Botswana checking in for our return link flight to Joberg with 'Air link', we had three bags as we were otherwise business class passengers linking up directly with our BA return flight to Heathrow. We explained our luggage situation to the very pleasant check in lady and she not only understood but offered to check our bags through to London. We took her up on that.
A local behind the counter eyed our bags and quietly took them from us to somewhere behind the service counter, he looked at them, he looked at us. He looked at the bags again and looked at us again, but this time holding up 3 fingers towards us in an inquisitive manner with one hand and putting a finger across his lips with his other hand in a sort of 'ssh' gesture. We proceeded to continue check in and were given some paperwork to fill in before passing through security, our bags disappeared.
A couple of minutes later said chap came quietly over to us and solemnly informed us that our bags weighed in at 65Kgs but that he had altered the paperwork to be 45Kgs and thus we were assured our bags would be ok to depart. He hesitated, hesitated some more, and then went to mooch off. I had a momentary vision of our luggage spending the rest of eternity on the bag carousel at Joberg assuming it even left Kasane, so I got the message. I called him back and greased his palm with 2 USD, better to submit to spending £1.50 and getting my luggage to Heathrow than never seeing it again.
I smile when I look back on it now, but I did muse to my wife at the time that in the unlikely event of us hurtling towards the ground at a great speed then we could be assured it was our 'extra' 20Kgs that most likely caused it. We did get our bags at Heathrow, so £1.50 well spent.
Last edited by yellowtriumph; 21st Oct 2016 at 19:24.
Paxing All Over The World
It is a problem in Africa (doubtless elsewhere too) that ability to load an item is not always linked to the actual weight of an item. If it is seen that the aircraft hold is not full then, obviously, it can take more stuff... The larger the aircraft the slightly less of a problem, except that there are many more opportunities to overweight the machine.
Small aircraft (you would have been on AirLink'sAvro RJ) can have problems. My nephew (when operating light twins) noticed a black substance dripping out of a suitcase. It turned out to be oil. Someone had checked in a suitcase with an engine block inside, when put back on the scales, the numbers did not add up.
Small aircraft (you would have been on AirLink'sAvro RJ) can have problems. My nephew (when operating light twins) noticed a black substance dripping out of a suitcase. It turned out to be oil. Someone had checked in a suitcase with an engine block inside, when put back on the scales, the numbers did not add up.
