Dear All, I purchased 4 x return tickets (London Heathrow to Istanbul) from BA in August 2016. The tickets were for July 2017. At the time food and drinks were included with my ticket. In January 2017 BA ditched free food on board and started charging for M & S meals. Is there anything I can do to take action against BA? Many Thanks for your replies in advance. Sam

Many people had their Bank Holiday weekend ruined thanks to IT problems at British Airways. If you were affected by this - you are entitled to compensation. You will find out how to do this in the articles linked below. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40082519 Apparently the sooner you submit your claim, the better - it could take months for them to settle !

British Airways is to make radical changes to its airmiles scheme used by millions of travellers - called Avios - which will slash by 75% the airmiles the cheapest economy class tickets will earn, while giving business and expense-account flyers more rewards. First-class and business-class customers benefit most from the new changes, with 'flexible' fare bookers earning 300% of the miles travelled in Avios points for first-class (up from 200%) and 250% for business-class (up from 200%). Non-flexible fares for first-class flyers also see an increase in points to 250% of the miles flown (up from 200%). Conversely, economy-class customers will see a drop of up to 75% in the amount of Avios points they can earn on BA flights, while flexible fares remain unchanged at 100%. The changes are being introduced on 28 April 2015, although you will continue to earn and spend at the current rates on bookings made before 28 April, even if you fly after that date. http://www.which.co.uk/news/2015/02/economy-class-customers-lose-out-under-new-airmiles-scheme-393961/

Travelling to Zambia from Heathrow with BA, we decided to 'take advantage of the generous hand luggage allowance' as BA encouraged one to do. We turned up with two sets of hand luggage which were purchased to fall inside the measurement criteria i.e, one large hand luggage and one handbag each. At Heathrow the BA Customer Services Manager!!! denied our handbags with the spurious reason that they were neither briefcases nor laptops and he pointed to a sign which mentioned briefcases and laptops but had no mention of handbags. I objected that online reference is definitely made to handbags but I was flatly refused. There was no opportunity given for us to measure our handbags in a handbag bin (I do not even believe I saw such a bin-only for the large handluggages which our large hand luggage fitted) and a tape measure was certainly not used to dismiss our bags which anyway were within the 45x36x20 cm limit for handbag, briefcase or laptop. On complaining to BA I have merely been told they will not refund me but their reply did state that hand luggages included hand bags!!! Big deal! How can I take BA to court since they wrongly charged me 270 pounds for these hand bags which were within all the criteria of weight and size and type. I still have the handbags and the recent ebay purchase information of our hand luggage/hand bags as proof of sorts. The maddening thing is that the reason for rejection was so spurious!!!!

Arrived at Heathrow T5 - 4 of us in the group. Must have arrived about the 45 minute mark before departure. pushed it fine because of a 40 minute tube delay - unfortunately they don't compensate consequential loss and my insurer doesn't cover domestic flights. My watch was 47 and justification came when the check in desk said bag drop closed 50 minutes before! We had all checked in online and only 1 person needed to bag drop. so 3 of us could have gone through no problem, just one person could have stayed behind with checked baggage and took the hit for being 'late'. However, this was not permitted! We were all on one booking and were told we cannot split the booking that way. Obviously, panicking at this point, as facing paying for 4 people to get home - we were directed to the customer service desk. Couldn't have imagined worse customer service - just repeated we are late... etc. even though we were not late per se - just too late to bag drop. Anyway - the guy insisted nobody can travel on that flight. duty manager [name edited] (aka why are there 20 million unemployed people in europe and this guy has a job?) made a brief appearance to say he had made his mind up before meeting us and would be royally shafting us for every penny (paraphrased) then walked away mid conversation. arguments that we were on time (despite tube problems), it is christmas etc... ignored. anyway - they charged us almost £700 to fly on a short domestic flight at Christmas. no leniency whatsoever - only threats that we have to take the next flight or we will lose our return leg (even though we thought we booked two singles). with it being Christmas and family waiting for us; nuts were in a vice. my questions are these: Obviously they ignored my (professionally worded) complaint and i was wondering if it is possible when i take them to court (under EU denied boarding rules) that they are forced to show from their computer records when bag drop closed for the flight? Secondly, with which party does the burden of proof lie? is it on me to prove i was on time, or for them to prove i wasn't? clearly CCTV in the terminal would show we arrived well within the time to go with hand luggage, even if a minute or so too late to drop bags (which i deny anyway)? Thirdly, just in general, what are the chances of success in court? we cannot prove we arrived on time - it all relies on information they have - terminal CCTV, computer searches they made etc... thank you in advance for your opinions?

Please help! I'm having a nightmare with Qatar Airways. 12/09/12 - I booked flights to Dubai via Doha Later the same day I decided to cancel this booking and put through a refund request online (you can't cancel flights on the phone!) 13/09/12 I found flights with far better transfer times so I made another booking I arrived at Heathrow and gave the checkin desk my passport and paperwork for reference for the second booking. When I arrived at Doha, I went to the transfer desk and was told that I had been checked in on my original booking. This was a mistake made by the check-in clerk, she had obviously not read my reference number. I explained to the transfer desk in Doha I did not want this flight as I had requested a refund because the transfer times were too long. I was informed that it was impossible to transfer me on to second booking as my luggage was already routed. 16/09/12 - I was sent an email from Qatar airways inviting me to checkin online under my second booking. I was delighted that I had been sent this communication meaning I wouldn't have to take the booking with the longer transfer time and I therefore thought there was no problem with cancelling my previous booking as I had not been sent an email to checkin for that flight. Now I'm back they are offering me just £113 refund from my original £600 flight as it was partially used. I've explained that I didn't want this flight and it was the mistake of the check-in clerk but they're not budging! Any ideas gratefully recieved.

Hi folks I purchased a BA ticket to Amsterdam about 18 months ago for a personal development conference - all paid for by myself. Before leaving and at the last minute my employer asked me to go to Washington just before - which meant i had to fly London to Washington, then Washington to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to London. My employer purchased the equivalent of two singles: London to Washington and Washington to Amsterdam, and I assumed I would be able to jump on the return leg of my BA ticket back to London and not use the outward ticket. I didn't let BA know that I still wanted to keep my seat for the Amst-London return flight. When I got to the airport in time for the Sunday evening flight they would not let me board - saying they had cancelled my return ticket. I asked to board because i had purchased the ticket and they told me the flight was full (i.e. someone was IN my seat). I had to buy an Easyjet flight (now late at night) which you can imagine as it was also last minute was a ridiculous price (about £300). I complained to BA - and they said their action was justified because it is in the small print. I asked Which?advisors and they said there is nothing i can do and this is ok for airlines to do this. However, i would argue that i SHOULD be given a refund (not to mention compensation for the inconvenience and additional potential risk that they subjected me to) because: a) the small print for something as BIG as that should not be so small (they have a responsibbility ot make it clear). b) they have all my details in their database (their frequent flyer scheme) - and while they were able to email me about one of their (unwanted) offers they failed to email me or phone me querying why i didn't turn up for the flight and asking me if it is OK for them to cancel my return leg and sell my ticket to someone else. 3) I don't care what their small print is - if I have paid for a seat it must be illegal for them to sell the same seat to someone else whatever the situation and surely ridiculously greedy to not even give me a refund as they had sold it to someone else. Ok, so greed is unfortunately not a crime but unfair business practices (or something similar) is? I would be grateful for insight from any legal wizard who know the aviation industry. Lesley