High level BA complaints contact needed ASAP

High level BA complaints contact needed ASAP

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pidsy

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

156 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
Having huge issues with BA at the moment - cant seem to get hold of anyone willing to help.

long story short:

Flying out in the next few days to St Lucia on BA - Mrs P is registered Disabled and for spinal reasons needs legroom. BA apparently have a specific department for helping - who have been worse than useless so we binned that idea instead, choosing to pay for additional legroom ourselves and sort it out ourselves. all fine (a few hundred £'s lighter) but hey ho.

got an email from BA today stating that their original seat plan released was in fact wrong and they have moved us from our legroom seats back into the middle of the plane.

calls to a manager at BA today resulted in "theres nothing we can do. speak to check-in when you get to gatwick"

im not at all happy - MRS P cannot hack an 8.5 hr flight in a standard seat.

i'd appreciate it if anyone has contact details or a phone number i can contact a bit higher up the chain. im not a user of FB or twitter so cant take that route.

hoping PH can come to the rescue on this one!

matt3001

1,991 posts

196 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
How far do you live from the airport?

If not far, to be on the safe side you could always pop in and see the customer services people one day between now and you go?

Perik Omo

1,883 posts

147 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
If you don't get any useful response here then have a look at the BA section on Flyertalk : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-exe...

There are BA staffers on there and you might have more luck.

pidsy

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

156 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
cheers Guys,

i did think about going to gatwick but is a couple of hours each way. im still tempted to though.

i'll take a look at the forum.

Fas1975

1,777 posts

163 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
Which legroom seat? Emergency exit? With a medical condition, she would be denied anyway as she would be unable to help in an emergency. If bulkhead, then you're genuinely better off in a standard seat as with a bulkhead, there's nowhere for your legs to go, with a regular seat, you can at least stretch them out. Worst case scenario, get a standard seat and then speak to the crew on board and they will usually let you use the cabin jump seats if you really need it, and there's a few to choose from.

Also, if you've already paid for seats and BA were not able to fulfil, then you can request a refund online: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/publ...

pidsy

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

156 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
quotequote all
Fas1975 said:
Which legroom seat? Emergency exit? With a medical condition, she would be denied anyway as she would be unable to help in an emergency. If bulkhead, then you're genuinely better off in a standard seat as with a bulkhead, there's nowhere for your legs to go, with a regular seat, you can at least stretch them out. Worst case scenario, get a standard seat and then speak to the crew on board and they will usually let you use the cabin jump seats if you really need it, and there's a few to choose from.

Also, if you've already paid for seats and BA were not able to fulfil, then you can request a refund online: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/publ...
we usually end up with bulkhead seats and a couple of airlines have been fine with exit rows too - her condition means that she can walk (though not far) but she can get around. going through the refund process now - thank you for the link.

i'll keep the jump seat option open but its really upset her - she like to have everything planned beforehand and that's a bit last minute. it is a handy option i can suggest if we get nowhere else with proper seating.

Kenty

5,029 posts

174 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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mailto:keith.x.williams@ba.com CEO

tim0409

4,354 posts

158 months

Tuesday 6th October 2015
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I would contact them via twitter - I had flights cancelled recently when I was on holiday so tweeted them and got it sorted out; much better than spending an hour on the phone to an overseas call centre.

trickywoo

11,701 posts

229 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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The one time I went BA with a disabled relative was a nightmare. Sorry doesn't help but forewarned and all that......

Good luck.

deuchars

260 posts

214 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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tim0409 said:
I would contact them via twitter - I had flights cancelled recently when I was on holiday so tweeted them and got it sorted out; much better than spending an hour on the phone to an overseas call centre.
This appears to be the most efficient method nowadays. I've previously done the CEO and board of directors email route with success but takes a fair bit of time to resolve. Another method worth trying and normally gets you to someone relatively high-up straight away is to call IAG claiming to be a potential investor. Either way, resolving issues with BA is painful!

pidsy

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

156 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
thanks for all the pointers everyone.
had some enlightening responses on flyer talk (cheers perik omo)

it would appear that BA make no provision for people with disabilities at economy level across their fleet at all.

so... had we known that at the point of booking - we'd have gone world traveller plus. it wasnt offered at the time and the booking agents were aware of the situation.

current offer from BA to upgrade now - £1k.

so pretty much stuffed.

Stevanos

700 posts

136 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
pidsy said:
thanks for all the pointers everyone.
had some enlightening responses on flyer talk (cheers perik omo)

it would appear that BA make no provision for people with disabilities at economy level across their fleet at all.

so... had we known that at the point of booking - we'd have gone world traveller plus. it wasnt offered at the time and the booking agents were aware of the situation.

current offer from BA to upgrade now - £1k.

so pretty much stuffed.
I wonder where the law stands regarding accessibility for disabled people with airlines, many other businesses have to conform, why not a large airline? People do need to travel in 2015!

pushthebutton

1,096 posts

181 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
I guess the booking agent isn't BA?

Were the seats you booked part of an emergency exit row?


pidsy

Original Poster:

7,958 posts

156 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
That's where (again) we've been given conflicting info.

We've paid for the centre seats in an exit row (which BA said yesterday would be fine) but having spoken to two BA employees would appear to still constitute an exit row so they are well within their rights to refuse us those seats. I've since checked with BA's own policy on seating restrictions and it says the same.

There's nothing else I can do other than hope that checkin staff are a bit more helpful.

What makes it worse is that if checkin decide we cannot have those seats, we will then be allocated according to what's left so we could end up not sitting together at all.



Jos Notstoppen

495 posts

140 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
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The emergency access seats vary depending on the aircraft hence the confusion. I think on the 747 the entire row is classed as such but the 777 only the outer 2 each side (it maybe the other way around, it has been 10 years since I flew).

Should the seats be empty it should be OK to use them during the cruise but return for landing. I doubt they will allow use of crew jump seats.

If you can get to the check in early, also if no joy, get to the gate promptly and explain to them there


pushthebutton

1,096 posts

181 months

Wednesday 7th October 2015
quotequote all
pidsy said:
That's where (again) we've been given conflicting info.

What makes it worse is that if checkin decide we cannot have those seats, we will then be allocated according to what's left so we could end up not sitting together at all.
I wouldn't leave it until check in if I were you. You can obviously check in 24 hours before departure so that gives you an option of selecting seats before your arrival at the airport. You can also pay to select seats further in advance of that (now?) as long as you have your BA booking reference. The issue will be finding extra leg room seats which aren't part of an exit row.

I wouldn't give up on BA's disability assistance:

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/sp...

even thought I fully accept how terrible they can be at answering the phone. It's got to be worth pestering them right up until you leave?