SCOTS creator Sir Ian Rankin has been left bemused after British Airways allegedly “bumped him” to economic system seating regardless of his enterprise class ticket after “overselling” their seats.
The 63-year-old is famend for his crime and thriller novels similar to his long-running Inspector Rebus collection, however was left scratching his head himself when he arrived at Heathrow Airport yesterday.
The penman had been en-route to Greece alongside partner Miranda Harvey and their mates however have been knowledgeable on the flight’s boarding gates that there have been no seats left within the enterprise class of the airplane.
After explaining that they had booked enterprise class again in February, Rankin was then allegedly informed by employees that British Airways “oversell” their seats, within the hopes that folks don’t flip up for his or her flight.
Rankin later added that he now has to fill in a claims type however was uncertain of receiving a refund.
The creator took to social media on Thursday to share his predicament, writing: “Off to Greece on vacation. Handled ourselves to enterprise class. British Airways – tickets purchased in February.
“[We] arrive at Heathrow to seek out we’ve been bumped to economic system [seats]. Story of my life.
“In response to the gate employees at Heathrow, British Airways oversell seats.
“98% of bumped passengers discover that their authentic seats are reinstated on the gate. Mates, my spouse and I are the two%.
“I attempted [to check-in] 48 hours earlier than flight. Acquired error message. Phoned assist desk who stated check-in at airport.”
The publish obtained 5,262 likes and a whole lot of feedback from a slew of followers and fellow celebrities alike, who have been shocked by the Scotsman’s state of affairs.
Scots broadcaster Martin Geissler stated: “Precisely the identical occurred to me earlier this 12 months.
“Had a decent turnaround in Heathrow from a flight from Oregon however, after a dash, made it to the Edinburgh flight on time…to seek out they’d bought our seats.”
Broadcaster Terry Christian added: “Dangerous present certainly. Airways aren’t even significantly apologetic about these things both in my expertise.”
Author S. J. Watson queried: “That is appalling. I do know it’s not your fashion, however did you strive ‘are you aware who I’m?’ and chuck within the odd ‘Sir’?
“That is one event when it’s greater than acceptable.”
Fellow creator Harlan Coben joked: “Now that you just’re a knight, does your armour set off the metallic detector?”
In the meantime one fan wrote: “Blimey, who’s on the flight that you just’ve needed to downgrade Sir Ian Rankin?”
One other commented: “And also you’re an excessive amount of of a gentleman to play the ‘don’t you realize who I’m?’ card.”
A 3rd added: “Do they know who they’re speaking to?”
British Airways later responded to the publish, writing: “Hello there, Ian. We’re sorry to listen to this has occurred.
“Please, when you’ve accomplished your journey, DM us and we’d be pleased to look into this additional for you. We apologise for the inconvenience attributable to this.”
Nevertheless, Rankin then added: “Automated apology, innit? Plus types (on-line) to fill in after your vacation.”
British Airways at the moment issued the next assertion: “We do our greatest to keep away from disrupting buyer journeys by utilizing historic knowledge to match the variety of accessible seats to the variety of clients we anticipate to journey, however on uncommon events, we get this flawed.
“We’re sorry for our buyer’s expertise.”
