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More evidence of British Airways prioritising Avios bookings for downgrades?

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A month ago I ran this article speculating that BA has begun to target Avios ticket holders for downgrades.

This would be economically rational.  Under EU regulations, a downgraded passenger is automatically due a 75% refund on that leg of their ticket.  For a cash passenger, that is expensive.

For an Avios passenger, it is not expensive to downgrade.  All the airline has to do is refund a few points.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

For an Avios passenger travelling on a 2-4-1 voucher, the downgrade is free to BA.  It has been telling some passengers that as their ticket cost zero Avios, the refund is 75% of zero which is, erm, zero.

After my original article there was some debate about whether this is actually happening.  Some BA staff told me that it isn’t easy to tell whether a passenger is on a 2-4-1 ticket or not, although it is easy to spot those on redemptions on the manifest.  Some agents have implied that it is functionality in FLY, the new check-in and passenger management system, which now allows this policy to be implemented.

It is worth noting that the person involved in my original article issued a Small Claims Court against British Airways after being refused any compensation.  As per this page of Flyertalk, it appears that BA chose not to fight the case and settled for the unspecified amount the passenger demanded.

In the last couple of weeks, two more readers have contacted me with linked stories.

The key one came yesterday from a reader.  I always weigh up news I receive by email from readers to see how truthful and verifiable it seems, but this is one I trust implicitly – the person involved is a regular commentator and has even written a guest article for the site in the past.

If you read the comments on HfP yesterday, you would have seen his regular updates as the situation developed.

This is what he said to me by email:

“At Edinburgh to start our trip to Gatwick and then what was meant to be Club World BAPP 241 reward seats to Male.  At checking in for EDI-LGW we have been told we have been downgraded, either both to World Traveller Plus or just me with my wife staying in CW.  We have been told that BA has oversold the flight and it’s because we are on reward tickets that we have been selected to be downgraded.”

Here is another email I received two weeks ago:

“I have read your article re 2-4-1 downgrades and it almost exactly mirrors our experience.  The Duty Manager was adamant her instructions were to target Redemption ticket holders first.  Given that our seats were showing as still allocated to us that morning (albeit not available to be printed due to “system error” at the hotel), it appears BA have chosen to sell more CW seats on the day . . . knowing they had a supply of 2-4-1 pax ready to be downgraded

It is a largely win-win situation for BA . . .  if there are any no-shows, no skin off their noses, but hey, why not sell an equivalent number of CW seats to exactly match the number of 2-4-1 holders on every flight!  Cheap trick but as I learned in over twenty years with them, the internal “bar” is set at the greediest money-earning opportunity.”

The reader above is not one I have met but I have no reason doubt the accuracy of what he sent me.  He had even paid to reserve specific Club World seats but even that did not protect him from being downgraded.

To clarify, there is no specific proof that this is going on.  No BA employee has yet sent me a copy of the relevant memo or email.

Do let me know if you are also impacted by this and have been told that the staff that you have been downgraded specifically because you are on an Avios ticket.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (353)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Steve says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:03

    Goldsmiths offered me coffee and biscuits when I bought my last watch. If it was run by BA I’d have paid extra to sit on the Rolex desk, paid to buy a biscuit in store, had my coffee taken away once they’d found out I was paying with Tesco vouchers and paid extra to use my Goldsmiths credit card.

    • Sideysid says:
      26 Feb26 February 07:55

      Ahh so a fellow HFP reader has also got a Rolex through Tesco vouchers. You can’t do that anymore as they have caught on, what model did you get? I got myself a very nice Datejust II with white gold bezel a few years back.

  • Cate says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:07

    So if we turned up at the airport and a companion had been downgraded and BA wouldn’t budge, we could simply walk away from the airport. Does the voucher get returned to us? I presume associated hotel bookings through BAEC would also be impacted.

  • Lewis Watson says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:07

    Did they offer the option of staying in club for a later flight

  • Mark says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:16

    I’ve got a 2-4-1 in F and CW coming up. I will be recording any conversations should this situation arise.

  • uk1 says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:45

    This is a lot more complex than I think is currently appreciated and I think the least worst option for anyone finding themselves in this situation is the money claim court option claiming the nearest value of a replacement ticket ie full class CW or First. It isn’t what BA reimburses that is the issue it is what the passenger had lost which is a first class seat or CW seat and any unfair contract termsthat prevent this might be invalid in the UK. A further complexity which I haven’t seen discussedanywahere is the much more complex nature of the return leg. On this leg, having taken the outward leg, the BA Amex 241 passenger cannot change or cancel his ticket without losing it completely. So they in BA’s view have no choice but to accept that BA still reserve the right to try and sell that uncancellable ticket for a seat to someone else and bump them down. British Airways are clearly saying – wrongly in my view – that even though they have a passenger with an inflexible ticket that they presumably are highly likely to use if they do not wish to be stranded abroad or pay for a different ticket can have their seat sold to someone else. I’m not sure that would be considered in the UK to be a fair contract. Anyway, no one knows the answers to these questions even lawyers so trying the court process is a decent eay to test BA’s resolve.

  • Ro says:
    25 Feb25 February 12:59

    Sorry but why are you waiting for them to do this to you? After your next trip just start flying other airlines! Not saying they are all perfect but BA really does so often sound awful

  • Nick says:
    25 Feb25 February 13:01

    HFP, please update the stock picture you use! That jumbo is a Classic, in the OLD livery, both of which disappeared from the skies a good fifteen years ago. Keep up!

  • Talay says:
    25 Feb25 February 13:52

    Whilst I think Messrs Sue, Grabbit & Run would be instructed after the event, it does not help our understanding of what options are available should we be presented with this at check in.

    Obviously we can accept or decline whatever BA choose to impose but there are likely to be large consequential losses arising from any refusal to fly. Hotel bills come to mind as the biggest expense followed (or perhaps preceded) by my time.

    Should we choose not to fly in the rear of the plane, then are we in danger of failing to mitigate our losses should we then claim thousands of pounds a day for hotels and time ?

    Likewise, where do we stand if offered a later flight in the booked class ? After working for a year someone might claim their day missed was worth many thousands of pounds. If a family, then a multiple of this ?

    What about a 4 class flight where 241 business are downgraded but space is available in first ? Unlikely you may think but perhaps also there might be 241 in F.

    I think we need to know what our legal position is as in the absence of documentation from BA showing discrimination on the basis of how the ticket is purchased, I fear many cannot take the risk to decline an economy seat and claim for a ruined holiday plus time.

    • Lady London says:
      25 Feb25 February 18:37

      But it’s not operational reasons. Sounds like it’s greed and welshing on their commitment to an existing passenger.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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