orbitmic

??? Now I wonder why you would say that. As someone who books 'discounted' J flights from many markets I can tell you BA is certainly not unusually generous overall. They are cheaper from some markets to some destinations, more expensive from other markets and other destinations. In other words, their policy on discounted J is absolutely bog standard, and offering typically bog standard value, and certainly not more generous overall than AF, LX, let alone TK, LO, or AY.

This being said, I agree with conformance and like others (although I benefit from it) I like the current pre-assignment policy.

zkzkz

I suspect the reason they elicit very different reactions is that food and lounges cost the airline money to provide. If they charge for those benefits and its in line with competitors practices then you figure that's just what it costs for that service.

Seat selection is just nickle and diming the customer for something that costs the airline nothing. It actually costs BA more to implement a system like this than to just give everyone the same UI.

angatol

.....

stifle

Or Ł0 if any member of the family has status, or Ł0 if they wait until T-72 when the system will auto-seat them together.
Or, it's offering a cheaper service to passengers who have status or are okay with selecting their seat at T-24.

The marginal cost of an average lounge guest is pennies. The $50 AAdmirals Club day pass goes straight to the bottom line.

angatol

.....

lizban

Probably very true - but current BA has one very p off customer - how is that a good thing?

paulwuk

I'm annoyed at Ba too because of the downgrading to the first class lounge. The business clas lounge is almost as bad as a flagship lounge now!

However when it comes to being able to select a good seat when I buy my ticket at less than a weeks notice, or change it the day before? That's a happy customer on an expensive ticket.

T8191's WTP to iad is Ł900. Mine are well over twice that, an come with free seat selection for non status holders.

I do wish that you got more tier points for a ticket in w/c/j/f than discounted ones in e/t/i/r/d/a

(I believe C is fully flex like B and H are, and thus comes with immediate seat selection)

An alternative woul be free seat selection for non status business class clients, but only in the middle 4 seats on the lower deck near the back. Leave the upper deck and windows to those that fly more than once a year. Silver is insanely easy to get when you fly in CW cabins. In fact I think it's easier to get than star gold on agean.

Hyperacusis

AA's system allows you to pay for those 'premium' seats, while allowing free selection of other seats if you are not a status/card holder. A much better policy than BA's blanket pay-for-seating policy, especially in premium cabins. As an OW Emerald member who gets free seat selection, I would be perfectly happy if BA simply blocked, say, UD access and select window seats in CW for status members and allowed free seat selection in the rest of the cabin for non-status members. This way everybody is happy - card holders for their preferred seats, and the infrequent flyer for free seat selection.


Like many posters here, I too have tales of friends/family/coworkers who have selected BA for J travel and have been disgusted by the fact that they were asked to pay extra to select their seat. You can argue that it parallels checked bag fees/lounge access fees all you want, but paying for seat selection in a premium cabin is something you simply do not do if you are a full service airline, which BA markets itself as.

stifle

Except clearly it is something that some full service airlines do do. In your opinion, it is distasteful. In others', it isn't. I doubt that if BA's customer surveys and feedback found that this was an issue, that the policy would have remained for so long.

[Although given that BA's customer surveys found that people didn't want hot food between 10 and 12 or 3 and 5 in Galleries Club...]

apodo77

I originally had 2 CW award seats from YVR-LHR and had no issues paying the $120 USD to get 2 upper deck seats.

Eventually got 2 first seats out of SEA (lovely flight and service yesterday) and without even asking the $240 USD was refunded to me. I just assumed it was money lost.

umaa83

Again, the fact here is name one premium carrier, such as SQ,CX,EK, all of whom are light years ahead of BA in terms of onboard product, lounges, service, etc, that charge for a seat in J? I often fly AA to LHR and have the option to fly BA or EK to DXB. Nine times out of 10 it will be the same price to fly BA or EK, and nine times out of 10, I'll forgoe the AA miles and fly EK. Not only will I get better service on EK/lounges/onboard product, but it won't cost me $600 for the extra six passengers booked in separate reservations on top of the $5K we've already shelled out on tickets. Sure this board can rant about AA's lounge product, but outside of BA's lounges at T-5 and and JFK, BA's lounges are nothing special and the food offerings at out stations is slop on a plate.

If BA want's to charge for economy seats, fine, they wouldn't be the first, but charging for seats on a $5K seat is ridiculous and I personally choose to avoid them whenever possible, despite the fact I can get it for free. Apparently it's working for BA, otherwise they wouldn't continue it, but until their competitors follow suit, I'll rarely be onboard.

umaa83

I'll gladly send you a receipt for a JFK-ZRH flight booked with Avios. Cost of the PAID coach ticket $550. Cost of the flight booked with Avios, $600 plus miles. What's the point? I'm not going to use my miles on a 300 mile trip, and therefore incure a lower fee.

The chest thumping on this board about BA's product is amazing. I'll be the first to admit that AA is nothing special, it get's me from point A to point B for I feel is a reasonable value, however, I also feel that BA is nothing special when compared to it's non-US competitors. I'll take AA's domestic First over BA's Club Europe (basically economy with a nicer meal) anyday. The one area that I would vote BA ahead of AA is in Y service/seats/entertainment, not J or even F on AA's new 777-300s. Since I'm rarely in Y, its a moot point.

paulwuk

Unsurprisingly BAEC isn't the best scheme to be in if you're not based at a bA hub

The main benefit of CE is the blocked middle seat. You get more personal space in CE than the domestic first I saw on a UA (maybe us?) flight LGA-DCA a couple of years ago.

But yes, ba's product is fairly far behind, although WTP beats almost every carrier's Y product.

Jagboi

I mainly do TATL, and my choices are basically BA or Air Canada. AC has a good product in the air, for sleeping I prefer their pods. They have no charge for selecting a seat in J and the prices on BA and AC usually are within a few dollars. So why pay more for selecting a seat on BA? If I've paid $6300 for a CW ticket, it really strikes me as nickling and diming to ask for a further $120 to select a seat.

I don't understand the argument here about those who buy a seat at the last minute not being able to get a premium seat if people were allowed to select seats at time of ticket purchase. Whatever happened to first come, first served? Should blocks of cheap tickets be held back for those those who can't make up their minds as well? Or sell them to those who plan ahead, and if you can't plan ahead you face the prospect of buying a full fare ticket. Why should seats be any different, the best seats go to those who buy them first.

I bought a CW ticket, and I paid for seat selection (while grumbling under my breath). 7 months in advance, there were only 2 seats left on the UD, so I don't see how it helps the passengers much and just lines BA's pockets. It feels very parsimonious to charge for seat selection in a premium cabin.

stifle

So when I point out that...
...your response is to...
...cherry-pick again

Two can play at that game. How many miles for BOS-JFK on AA? 25000 r/t isn't it? That'll be 9000 on BA. Taxes are the same $5 TSA fee.

...in your opinion, maybe.