Best-selling author books business class tickets, gets bumped to economy at airport

Scottish author Ian Rankin was recently rankled to learn that he had been downgraded from his business class seat to economy class by British Airways. Rankin, 63, took to the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) to express his disappointment, noting that he was bumped from business to economy class because British Airways had overbooked its flight.

The best-selling novelist, who was recently honoured with knighthood at Buckingham Palace, said that he had bought business class tickets for a trip to Greece back in February. However, when he arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport this week, Rankin was told that he and his wife would no longer be able to travel on the tickets they had bought and would instead be downgraded to economy class.



Rankin explained in follow-up tweets that British Airways oversells its seats in hopes that some customers will be no-shows. “They depend on a certain number of people not making the flight (change of plans; delayed connection; et cetera). Means they get a full flight,” he wrote.

While travelling from London to Greece in economy class, Rankin and his wife were not offered an apology or any freebies to make up for the airline’s oversight. They had to pay for their meals and drinks. Even more shockingly, Rankin did not get an automatic refund for the difference in cost between business class and economy class seats. Instead, he will now have to fill out an online claim form to get a refund from British Airways.

The Scottish crime writer said that it was only when he and his wife reached the airport that they were informed of the downgrade.

His account has led to much criticism against British Airways, with several commenters slamming the airline for its treatment of customers. On its website, the airline writes: “In order to minimise the effects of customers who book for travel but do not turn up, British Airways, like most major airlines, may overbook flights. In extremely rare circumstances where more confirmed customers are present than there are seats available, a customer may not be able to travel on their original flight and will be moved onto the next available flight. In the unlikely event that this occurs, customers will receive compensation.”