Scots author Sir Ian Rankin left bemused after airline allegedly “bumped him” to economy after “overselling” their seats

SCOTS author Sir Ian Rankin has been left bemused after British Airways allegedly “bumped him” to economy seating despite his business class ticket after “overselling” their seats.

The 63-year-old is renowned for his crime and mystery novels such as his long-running Inspector Rebus series, but was left scratching his head himself when he arrived at Heathrow Airport yesterday.

The penman had been en-route to Greece alongside spouse Miranda Harvey and their friends but were informed at the flight’s boarding gates that there were no seats left in the business class of the plane.

After explaining they had booked business class back in February, Rankin was then allegedly told by staff that British Airways “oversell” their seats, in the hopes that people do not turn up for their flight.

Rankin later added that he now has to fill in a claims form but was doubtful of receiving a refund.

The author took to social media on Thursday to share his predicament, writing: “Off to Greece on holiday. Treated ourselves to business class. British Airways – tickets bought in February.

“[We] arrive at Heathrow to find we’ve been bumped to economy [seats]. Story of my life.

“According to the gate staff at Heathrow, British Airways oversell seats.

“98% of bumped passengers find that their original seats are reinstated at the gate. Friends, my wife and I are the 2%.

“I tried [to check-in] 48 hours before flight. Got error message. Phoned help desk who said check-in at airport.”

The post received 5,262 likes and hundreds of comments from a slew of fans and fellow celebrities alike, who were taken aback by the Scotsman’s situation.

Scots broadcaster Martin Geissler said: “Exactly the same happened to me earlier this year.

“Had a tight turnaround in Heathrow from a flight from Oregon but, after a sprint, made it to the Edinburgh flight on time…to find they’d sold our seats.”

Broadcaster Terry Christian added: “Bad show indeed. Airlines aren’t even particularly apologetic about this stuff either in my experience.”

Writer S. J. Watson queried: “This is appalling. I know it’s not your style, but did you try ‘do you know who I am?’ and chuck in the odd ‘Sir’?

“This is one occasion when it’s more than acceptable.”

Fellow author Harlan Coben joked: “Now that you’re a knight, does your armour set off the metal detector?”

Meanwhile one fan wrote: “Blimey, who is on the flight that you’ve had to downgrade Sir Ian Rankin?”

Another commented: “And you’re too much of a gentleman to play the ‘don’t you know who I am?’ card.”

A third added: “Do they know who they’re talking to?”

British Airways later responded to the post, writing: “Hi there, Ian. We’re sorry to hear this has happened.

“Please, once you’ve completed your journey, DM us and we’d be happy to look into this further for you. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this.”

However, Rankin then added: “Automated apology, innit? Plus forms (online) to fill in after your holiday.”

British Airways today issued the following statement: “We do our best to avoid disrupting customer journeys by using historical data to match the number of available seats to the number of customers we expect to travel, but on rare occasions, we get this wrong.

“We’re sorry for our customer’s experience.”