British Airways seat selection

Kev11491

I'm flying to London on Friday evening and being a nervous flyer I generally select an aisle seat. I would usually wait for the free online check in to select said seat but I noticed that the seats seemed to be booking up quite quickly (around 20 left) so I paid the £13 to select one early. After booking I went into change my seat option to check if I booked the right one and suddenly around 60 more seats had become available.

Nice to see them becoming more and more like Ryanair

:rolleyes:

jjbrien

My mum is going club world to NYC in September and they are charging £80 each way to select a seat. I would have assumed since this is business class it would have been free but nope. Another way to loose customers i guess

lynchie

Free seat selection on BA has always been a perk of their own / oneworld frequent flyer programmes

Kev11491

lynchie wrote: »

Free seat selection on BA has always been a perk of their own / oneworld frequent flyer programmes

Ive no issue with paying, just find it annoying they will advertise a limited amount of seats (obviously in order to make people think seats are being booked) and then after you pay all these other seats become available.

Kev11491

Kev11491 wrote: »

Ive no issue with paying, just find it annoying they will advertise a limited amount of seats (obviously in order to make people think seats are being booked) and then after you pay all these other seats become available.

Were the new seats cheaper ?

Prominent_Dawg

During the snow storm a number of my flights home from Spain got cancelled when finally there was availability on a flight the following day, I contacted Aer Lingus to transfer my booking to this flight, I then a few minutes later looked again at the site which appeared there was only one seat left and the price had gone from 110 to 600 euro, thank the lord it wasn’t me paying for it, out of panic I contacted Aer Lingus again to make sure I was booked on it.. got on the plane to it half empty, seriously don’t know how they are allowed to do this to people!

Kev11491

Deleted User wrote: »

Were the new seats cheaper ?

Free, for the zone I booked in then you pay the difference to move further up. I guess my point is if they had accurate info up and I saw how many seats where actually available I would've waited until this Thursday to select one for free on the 24 hour check in.

paulhardman

You can pretty much only get a seat for free on BA if:

* Your ticket is fully flexible
OR
* You're a Exec Club member - Bronze from 1 week before flying, Silver and above at the time of booking
OR
* You pick your seat at online checkin 24 hours before flying

Kev11491

paulhardman wrote: »

You can pretty much only get a seat for free on BA if:

* Your ticket is fully flexible
OR
* You're a Exec Club member - Bronze from 1 week before flying, Silver and above at the time of booking
OR
* You pick your seat at online checkin 24 hours before flying

I know, I'm fully aware of this. I just wanted to point out how frustrating it is when you see very few seats available so you pay for one in order to secure your choice, then only to see another 60+ seats become available after you have paid

goingnowhere

BA has something called theoretical seating which assigns seats automatically so even if people haven't selected a seat or checked in the system has in the background assigned seats.

The fun with BA is always, check in online, DO NOT issue the boarding card and then go in and check for a better seat over and over right up till boarding

goingnowhere

goingnowhere wrote: »

BA has something called theoretical seating which assigns seats automatically so even if people haven't selected a seat or checked in the system has in the background assigned seats.

The fun with BA is always, check in online, DO NOT issue the boarding card and then go in and check for a better seat over and over right up till boarding

Must remember that thanks.

Kev11491

Kev11491 wrote: »

Free, for the zone I booked in then you pay the difference to move further up. I guess my point is if they had accurate info up and I saw how many seats where actually available I would've waited until this Thursday to select one for free on the 24 hour check in.

No I was just wondering if you paid say £25 for yours but next 60 were cheaper that’s all.

Yeah I agree about BA. Last time I got free seat selection because I had an infant in the booking. Some of the seat prices they charge are crazy money.

CPTM

Hey OP, just a suggestion on the nervous flyer thing. I found noise cancelling earphones (not headphones as they are not allowed during take off) helped with my fear of flying. Throw on your favourite song full blast for take off and landing. It's a bit like watching a scary movie on mute.

dragonfly!

I've never flown with BA
What are they like?
Only looking at Dub - Heathrow so short flight
Flight is an hour earlier going over than Aer Lingus and an hour later coming back and its €50 cheaper...

VG31

dragonfly! wrote: »

I've never flown with BA
What are they like?
Only looking at Dub - Heathrow so short flight
Flight is an hour earlier going over than Aer Lingus and an hour later coming back and its €50 cheaper...

Not much different to Aer Lingus, if they're cheaper I'd definitely go with them.

I’ve always found that pretty much any of the non low cost airlines will change your seat at the check in desk if you ask politely.