Be Careful With BA Checkin

[Big Vern]

Please be careful when you check in with BA on line and then when you bag drop they don’t change your seats! Despite paying extra, being a Silver Member, and paying for WTP they spit our party up this morning without us realising at checkin! Staff just put it down to change in aircraft (this is pants as they’ve clearly put two flights together as the flights full!) and told us the only someone had to compromise - they did t even apologise! The aircraft we are on is old and poorly maintained in the cabin and frankly is pretty shoddy (foot rest is broken, IFE screen is tiny and lost most of the colour definition) A pretty crap start to a holiday and a pretty crap show from BA! Just please double check your seats at checkin!

[Lostbrain]

Oh no that’s rubbish, did you pay for seat selection? If so they should certainly refund you that.

[Hammerstone]

Sounds identical to my outbound trip. We were shafted with a change of plane but it ruined pretty much everyone's arrangements. (I always pre book the seats of two rather than the 3, however on the older crap plane we had that config didn't exist).

[loldis]

Sorry to hear that. Assuming you're on the LHR-MCO flight, you were originally scheduled to be on a 777 that was refurbed in 2018, so sounds like that plane has gone tech and was a last minute replacement.

No flight consolidation that I can see either, they only fly once daily in winter so it can get busy.

[Disney_time]

Originally Posted by Lostbrain

Oh no that’s rubbish, did you pay for seat selection? If so they should certainly refund you that.

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There's a form on the BA website for this

britishairways/en-gb...es-and-refunds

Have a read of this and if it applies click the blue highlighted "apply for a refund"

[stanleycamel]

Originally Posted by Big Vern

Please be careful when you check in with BA on line and then when you bag drop they don’t change your seats! Despite paying extra, being a Silver Member, and paying for WTP they spit our party up this morning without us realising at checkin! Staff just put it down to change in aircraft (this is pants as they’ve clearly put two flights together as the flights full!) and told us the only someone had to compromise - they did t even apologise! The aircraft we are on is old and poorly maintained in the cabin and frankly is pretty shoddy (foot rest is broken, IFE screen is tiny and lost most of the colour definition) A pretty crap start to a holiday and a pretty crap show from BA! Just please double check your seats at checkin!

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Sorry to hear of the problems you have had but loldis is correct there has been no consolidation of flights there is only 1 flight per day from LHR to MCO (BA205) and there has been a substituion of aircraft.

As a BAEC Silver member you are entitled to free seating allocation from date of booking as long as everyone is on the same booking reference so I would certainly apply for your pre-paid seating refund.

I hope the rest of your holiday improves and that you have a super time.

[Big Vern]

Thanks for your advice guys! Just as a quick update:
The IFE on this plane (it had MMR painted above the cockpit) was not on demand and only had a few channels. The map channel did not work and frankly it was pointless! The interior of this plane is tired and broken in places (such as the foot rests). There are stains on the seats that look suspect and the tray tables get stuck in the arm rest and you have to hit them to get them back in. Whilst some of the staff were amazing, others were not. I overheard one of the cabin crew making some sarcastic comments about some members of my family - they obviously didn’t realise I was there! The meal was a choice of veg risotto or chicken curry (which was really quite hot!) or nothing! The snack was a small roll with either cheese and turkey or cheese and raw onion - both of which were at best just about edible. The snack also included a fun size crunchie and a bottle of water! They couldn’t even stretch to a bag of crisps! To be honest I was really surprised at the level of service and disappointed. I absolutely understand the pandemic has been hard for airlines, but poor service and badly maintained planes is not the way to win customers back. I’ve never had bad staff on a BA flight (and we have flown loads with them both for holidays and business) but for whatever reason this seems to be the aircraft they sent them to! Customer facing roles are hard - I’ve done one for over 35 years - but making comments about customers on the shop floor is unprofessional. All in all a real shame and a bad start to what was already a stressful holiday! Still it’s 30c out here and not raining so it’s not all bad!

[MissMayhem]

We were on the same flight. BA2039 out of LGW. I think they combined with a LHR flight. We were also in world traveler plus. Drinks runs were mainly just water or juice. If they did have a trolley with then, they did not want to service with a proper drink ie can or bottle. The gentleman crew member was amazing and helpful but several woman were verging on bitchy. It was very odd. No on board fizz welcome, not ice cream mid flight and food was basic. It all sounds a bit picky but we treated ourselves to WTP and it’s not cheap to upgrade. The standards are very poor. Worse than any other experience in economy. We were told no one knew about the seat changes but that is just a bizarre lie. When we dropped our bags, they changed our seats without telling us. They would have known! Anyway, need to follow up with BA once we’ve enjoyed our trip!

[Hammerstone]

Originally Posted by Big Vern

Thanks for your advice guys! Just as a quick update:
The IFE on this plane (it had MMR painted above the cockpit) was not on demand and only had a few channels. The map channel did not work and frankly it was pointless! The interior of this plane is tired and broken in places (such as the foot rests). There are stains on the seats that look suspect and the tray tables get stuck in the arm rest and you have to hit them to get them back in. Whilst some of the staff were amazing, others were not. I overheard one of the cabin crew making some sarcastic comments about some members of my family - they obviously didn’t realise I was there! The meal was a choice of veg risotto or chicken curry (which was really quite hot!) or nothing! The snack was a small roll with either cheese and turkey or cheese and raw onion - both of which were at best just about edible. The snack also included a fun size crunchie and a bottle of water! They couldn’t even stretch to a bag of crisps! To be honest I was really surprised at the level of service and disappointed. I absolutely understand the pandemic has been hard for airlines, but poor service and badly maintained planes is not the way to win customers back. I’ve never had bad staff on a BA flight (and we have flown loads with them both for holidays and business) but for whatever reason this seems to be the aircraft they sent them to! Customer facing roles are hard - I’ve done one for over 35 years - but making comments about customers on the shop floor is unprofessional. All in all a real shame and a bad start to what was already a stressful holiday! Still it’s 30c out here and not raining so it’s not all bad!

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Not too different to my experiences. BA are very much scaling back any class/elegance. To me they have gone from the Harrods/Rolls Royce standard to a Londis franchise.

I watched a clip for JetBlue's LHR to JFK economy..it was astounding the difference! You from your seat custom build your meal and the crew put it together accordingly. Even little things like there's a pantry at the back of the plane with help yourself crisps etc. Small things like that. My personal take on it, is BA and its staff do not value those in economy classes. I found a fair few of their cabin crew very smarmy. I would be amazed to know how ontime BA flights are, and also where there isn't late changes because they've been too inept to get the right plane ready in time.

[mental4ever]

We are not due to fly until May/June but have already been told of seat changes on our return journey. From what I can see it is a smaller plane. I hope it does not equate to less service.