How can airlines do this?
Discussion
Before anyone shouts at me, I accept this is a first world problem. After 2 & 1/2 years stuck at home, I treated the family to business class flights from the UK to the US. The only reason I would spend my own money on BC is to have a bed and a reasonable kip.
On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
I would be aggrieved if I was in your position; if you deem their offer to be unacceptable you could always lodge a claim against them - in Scotland it would be under the simple procedure, and in England I think it's called a money claim.
Their terms and conditions don't automatically preclude you from making a claim, because in simple terms a court may conclude that they are unfair and/or unreasonable. I would be looking to claim the difference between the premium economy fare and the business fare for that leg of your journey, because the main difference is the bed and you didn't get that.
Generally speaking, they will settle before it comes to court to avoid the expense and hassle. I say generally because they don't always; I took BA to the small claims court as they denied a valid claim for a cancelled flight. The case was continued three times as BA (or their solicitors) were unprepared, and each time I attended the Sheriff was getting more and more irritated by their behaviour and ultimately threatened them with an unrestricted expenses/award if he saw them back in court again. I finally received £1050 for what would have been a simple £250 claim. Madness!
Their terms and conditions don't automatically preclude you from making a claim, because in simple terms a court may conclude that they are unfair and/or unreasonable. I would be looking to claim the difference between the premium economy fare and the business fare for that leg of your journey, because the main difference is the bed and you didn't get that.
Generally speaking, they will settle before it comes to court to avoid the expense and hassle. I say generally because they don't always; I took BA to the small claims court as they denied a valid claim for a cancelled flight. The case was continued three times as BA (or their solicitors) were unprepared, and each time I attended the Sheriff was getting more and more irritated by their behaviour and ultimately threatened them with an unrestricted expenses/award if he saw them back in court again. I finally received £1050 for what would have been a simple £250 claim. Madness!
REM2112 said:
Before anyone shouts at me, I accept this is a first world problem. After 2 & 1/2 years stuck at home, I treated the family to business class flights from the UK to the US. The only reason I would spend my own money on BC is to have a bed and a reasonable kip.
On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
On a recent Heathrow fly on the wall thing there was an issue with a seat on an Emirates business class seat, I think it was something to do with a adjustable cushion. The customer was told before the flight and there was a problem (which was resolved before take off in the end I think). At the time they were offered an economy seat with compensation in cost.On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
REM2112 said:
Before anyone shouts at me, I accept this is a first world problem. After 2 & 1/2 years stuck at home, I treated the family to business class flights from the UK to the US. The only reason I would spend my own money on BC is to have a bed and a reasonable kip.
On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
If you paid by credit card and no middle man, lodge a section 75 claim with your credit card provider.On the way home my bed was broken so I sat up for 11 hours, surrounded by snoring.
Offer from the airline was some more airmiles to add to the pile I cannot seem to use. Presumably somewhere in their T&Cs I have agreed to let them be the sole judge of everything.
Is there anything I can do apart from being irritated?
Rob
Airlines must have clamped down, on my Virgin UC return flight from San francisco (night flight) back in 2012 my entertainment system didn't work at all and they had no spare seats, I don't sleep on night flights but luckily my partner at the time did so we swapped seats, Virgin refunded the 100k airmiles I used for my flight and gave me a bottle of bubbly
matrignano said:
I had a broken business class seat on a BA flight once, they had to manually put in the bed position and back up.
Think the plane was a 777.
Couldn’t they manually adjust it?
Apparently not. Apart from the drive through check in and lounge at Heathrow, I think Virgin are now pretty average. Think the plane was a 777.
Couldn’t they manually adjust it?
I've recently had a successful claim against BA via their CEDR dispute resolution scheme. It's a bit of a tedious hassle to work through, and every time you submit anything it's more than a month for a response, but I put a clear and plain case together and the judgement went my way, which BA commit to abide by.
It did involve me reading the T&Cs and the law (which is a bit contrived post-brexit), but I found all the relevant parts eventually and was able to reference. BA's defence was quite comical, clearly written by a junior lawyer, and tried to reference all sorts of legal precedence and create a general cloud of legal babble and confusion, it took me only about a hour to pick it apart and counter it all in to irrelevance.
It did involve me reading the T&Cs and the law (which is a bit contrived post-brexit), but I found all the relevant parts eventually and was able to reference. BA's defence was quite comical, clearly written by a junior lawyer, and tried to reference all sorts of legal precedence and create a general cloud of legal babble and confusion, it took me only about a hour to pick it apart and counter it all in to irrelevance.
tgr said:
I suspect Virgin are out of their growth phase, during which they had to be on a permanent charm offensive, and are now in the mature 'run the business on a shoestring' in common with most airlines. Add COVID and you don't have a propitious basis for good customer service
I just think it's changed to this since delta took the Singapore share that had basically zero shareholder pressure. Too much pressure to run on low cost as you say now.
Petrus1983 said:
I totally know the frustration. I was in BC to Dubai when a flight attendant spilled a glass of red over my ex. My ex didn’t respond in the best fashion - but the air miles equating to around £4.50 were equally as bad.
I was flying back from KL with Malaysian Airlines. The aircon condenser or a water pipe above my seat failed soaking me at take off. I spent 16 hours in wet clothes. They offered me a 30% voucher towards another flight. Vowed never to fly with them again.
My hold baggage looked as though it had been dropped from 30,000 ft as well….
Miserablegit said:
Petrus1983 said:
I totally know the frustration. I was in BC to Dubai when a flight attendant spilled a glass of red over my ex. My ex didn’t respond in the best fashion - but the air miles equating to around £4.50 were equally as bad.
I was flying back from KL with Malaysian Airlines. The aircon condenser or a water pipe above my seat failed soaking me at take off. I spent 16 hours in wet clothes. They offered me a 30% voucher towards another flight. Vowed never to fly with them again.
My hold baggage looked as though it had been dropped from 30,000 ft as well….
Miserablegit said:
I was flying back from KL with Malaysian Airlines. The aircon condenser or a water pipe above my seat failed soaking me at take off. I spent 16 hours in wet clothes.
They offered me a 30% voucher towards another flight. Vowed never to fly with them again.
My hold baggage looked as though it had been dropped from 30,000 ft as well….
At least it showed up. We flew Malaysian business class to Bali in 2017, my bag didn’t show up to which the ground agent just said “oh this happens to about half the bags every day”. Riiiiggghhhttt, maybe do something about that? No apology or anything just hoping it would come on the next flight and be dropped off at our hotel. I ended up just going back to the airport when the later flight landed and barging my way through staff security to get into the baggage hall and collect it myself. They offered me a 30% voucher towards another flight. Vowed never to fly with them again.
My hold baggage looked as though it had been dropped from 30,000 ft as well….
Then the volcano went off and the real trouble began. Flatly refused to change our flights or help in any way, shape or form. Took months and threats of legal action to get the return element of our fare refunded and a separate insurance claim for our costs. Never again.
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