ssconfiguration

Hi,
I'm not a regular BA flyer but it was the only choice for a family trip this year for me, the wife and our 2-year old. We're flying BOS-LHR-DEL and return around Christmas.

Only after buying the tickets did I realize that you need to pay for advance seat seat selection on BA. The only thing we want is to be able to sit together, but for our four journey legs, that would work out to almost $400.

We don't have any particular interest in exit seats, bulkhead etc. We just want three seats in a row in Economy. I'm trying to work out whether it is worth paying for this, or whether BA will normally just give us seats together as a family since we're on the same reservation. I don't want to shell out a lot of money for some gimmick meant for single flyers who really want an aisle seat, for example.

Any advice would be great. Thanks.

JAXBA

With a child in your booking, BA will automatically give you seats within 5 days of departure. Ideally. they'll be able to sit all 3 of you together, at the very least, they will sit the child with one adult, with the second adult as close as possible.

See relevant page from ba.com here

Quote:

When you are travelling with children

Enjoy your flight together

Choose seats for the whole family so that you can be sure you're seated together.

You may be able to reserve seats for free if you have an infant in your booking, otherwise there will be a charge.

If you decide not to reserve your seats in advance, we'll do it for you 5 days before departure. If you can't be seated together, we'll make sure each child is seated with an adult from your group.

SteveF

You will almost certainly be given three seats together. I say almost, because in the case of a full plane with a high number of status passengers and those willing to pay for seats, BA can fall back on their guarantee to seat each minor with at least one adult in the party, which could leave you split up.

Edit: As usual someone said exactly the same thing while I was typing this . Must. Type. Faster...

ssconfiguration

Thanks for both replies. This is very helpful.

By the way, SteveF your reply was not redundant. It's helpful to understand that the chances of getting seats together depends on when you fly and how full the plane is. Since we're flying on Christmas Eve (partly because that's when flights were cheap, suggesting that the plane won't be full) we'll take the chance and hope we get seats together.

Cheers.

lizban

Another happy client at BA's policy!

(As aside and maybe helpful for future trips if you book via some travel agents you can get free seat selection)

GaxxyFlyer

in my experience you 'should' be ok. The other thing in your favour is that if you check in as soon as you hit 24 hours, you will be also be able to check in to your connecting flight in advance of the 24 hour limit.

So your second flight is almost guaranteed to be your choice of seat.*

*no promises, don't blame me if the flight is full of gold card holders.

kered

Another bit of advice would be to be "Johnny on the Spot" at +24hrs when online check-in opens to try & snare three seats together ^

Edit to add..... Beaten to it

Cap'n Benj

If you are able to Check in Online 24 hours in advance of the flight you will have no problems selecting seats together, I would never waste my money booking seats in economy, if you can check in on time, there are always many seats free to choose from.

Looking at Wednesday's LHR-Delhi flight for instance, there are 32 available blocks of 3 still available and 25 on the BOS-LHR sector.

As you can check in for both flights when you check in for BOS, you will have a massive advantage on the LHR-DEL sector to those who can only select seats from when checkin opens 24 hours before that sector

ssconfiguration

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

But now I'm a bit confused: many state that if I'm able to check in at the start of the 24-hour window I should probably be fine. But the link to BA policy states that they assign seats to families with kids 5 days in advance. Presumably that means we should be especially ok, since we will be given seats before anyone can check in online, but it also suggests that checking in at the start of the 24-hour window should not matter for us after all.

JAXBA

You'll be assigned seats within 5 days of departure (not necessarily exactly 5 days out). If you don't like the ones that have been chosen for you, you can change them to anything else that's open, at check-in online, from 24hrs before departure.