BA Premium Economy. Hidden Costs

[disney4me]

Crikey how on earth do you remember a post I made last year! yes I complained that Virgin Holidays took my booking for a family room at All Stars and then a week or so later cancelled it because of lack of availability. Something I know a lot of people have raised as an issue. Does this then prohibit me from complaining about a different issue with a different airline? I think you will find that I did what I said on the tin and tried a different airline but have regretted this.

[gemma-lou]

you get a cooling off period though don't you to cancel and receive money back?

[munmun]

Originally Posted by disney4me

Crikey how on earth do you remember a post I made last year! yes I complained that Virgin Holidays took my booking for a family room at All Stars and then a week or so later cancelled it because of lack of availability. Something I know a lot of people have raised as an issue. Does this then prohibit me from complaining about a different issue with a different airline? I think you will find that I did what I said on the tin and tried a different airline but have regretted this.

See more...

I just remembered you had complained to different people with no success. Of course it doesnt stop you complaining about another airline but it did make me think you wouldn't have gone with Virgin anyway.

Probably I'm wrong but just how I see it.

[munmun]

Originally Posted by disney4me

I can assure you that at no point in the booking process of the BA holiday was it said that you have to pay to reserve your seats. BA themselves use both Premium Economy and WT+ when talking about WT+. And yes they made it clear that I would have to travel Club or First to get the kind of benefits that are included in Virgin Premium Economy. As far as I can see for the extra quite large amount of money that I have paid for PE/WT+ all I get is a larger seat in a smaller cabin (not guaranteed if the flight changes) and my food served on china crockery.

See more...

You have to pay for club seats too, unless you have status as with the other cabins. No different in club

[can't_wait]

I don't think its a hidden charge as such as its up to you if you want to pay for seats together. I know BA offer a cooling off period. If it was just a flight booking it does offer you to book seats with the charges.
We have always found British Airways customer service to be good.

[thefourDs]

We are flying to LA this year with BA, it was just shy of £2000 cheaper than Virgin, no brainier! Back to Florida next year and again we will book the best priced.

[wifey]

We booked BA seats on our flight this year (VA are now far too dear) we read they had a booking fee at the time of making the booking and making payment. For us it wasn’t something to stress about. We have chosen and paid in full for them and still come out with a price in our favour for both outbound and return flights. We will be using the BA lounge at Gatwick which is a good size with great amenities and will help us make a great start to our journey. Not sure about other airports having a decent BA lounge but they must exist in some form at the major ones.

[princess allie]

We have never paid to sit together, but we always have been seated together with BA. I’ve also always found there customer service to be good. I guess it just depends who you get to speak to on the day.

[toonarmani]

Why are these deemed "hidden costs" (as per the subject), which suggests BA are doing something a little underhand, or was it more you assumed they would be included based on your Virgin experience and are not, or you simply didn't read through what you'd bought?

Also they're not "free" with Virgin, they're just factored into the overall price.

[Peko]

In fairness to the OP, I was curious about this and just did a dummy booking for a package (flight+hotel, 1 week LGW-MCO in WT+). Unlike the flight-only path, it didn't give any opportunity to reserve/pay for seats before submitting credit card details to pay (tried with both deposit only and full payment).

Yes, one could always argue that it's on the customer to research these things first, but it is a bit poor that this is not available, or at least clearly notified, in the booking path before you pay anything. I'm guessing it's a fair way down the BA IT priorities to fix it.

So, I do have some sympathy with the OP's complaint on this point, though reiterate that complaining won't get anywhere material.

As for the other product differences to Virgin, well they are what they are. I don't agree that all you get vs BA WT is a bigger seat and china plates. You get more space (legroom), priority boarding and a bigger baggage allowance, plus upgraded main course and in some cases a larger IFE screen. The value of these is, of course, subjective.