BA seat selection aggravation
Nov 25, 2014, 8:25 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Fayetteville, AR
Programs: AA
Posts: 49
BA seat selection aggravation
Flying on BA tomorrow ORD-LHR and wasn't able to select a seat for wife to sit next to me (business class) ... so at the appointed 24 hour mark went through all the bs redundancies (enter bday and PP numbers for the eleventeenth times) to finally select her seat and move mine if necessary, only to find they've assigned her a seat (NOT next to me) and it's no longer possible to change either of our seats.
What a totally crap process.
I am Sapphire on One World, and if that isn't (wasn't) helpful when I called to ask if they could please "let us" sit together a few days ago (NO - must wait until 24 hrs prior for hers) I would think biz class seats might "allow" for such a modest accommodation. Expert Flyer now shows "error" on that flight seats (BA 0296 on 26 Nov) to try to gain any further seat info.
What a totally crap process. Any suggestions? I guess I'll call Hong Kong BA# again late tonite on Google voice and plead for a little help. Again.
Did I mention I think this is a crap process (?)
What a totally crap process.
I am Sapphire on One World, and if that isn't (wasn't) helpful when I called to ask if they could please "let us" sit together a few days ago (NO - must wait until 24 hrs prior for hers) I would think biz class seats might "allow" for such a modest accommodation. Expert Flyer now shows "error" on that flight seats (BA 0296 on 26 Nov) to try to gain any further seat info.
What a totally crap process. Any suggestions? I guess I'll call Hong Kong BA# again late tonite on Google voice and plead for a little help. Again.
Did I mention I think this is a crap process (?)
Nov 25, 2014, 9:37 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Fayetteville, AR
Programs: AA
Posts: 49
(OP)
Thanks for the response - I'm giving up, after calling again and trying to explain such a simple request and being told it's impossible for them to help now that it's under 24 hrs (Catch 22 -- can't be done MORE than 24 hrs out, and can't be "fixed" in the period less than 24 hrs, even tho BA assigned it willy-nilly). I was on the system within 15 minutes of 24 hr mark. Why would they assign it like that (and then refuse to adjust it)?
Yes, separate PNRs, so a (very) modest level of accommodation. Plenty of seats showing before the errors started ... but now, having followed prescribed seating policy, and this level of incompetence and inflexibility?
Breath-taking.
Thanks for the response - I'm giving up, after calling again and trying to explain such a simple request and being told it's impossible for them to help now that it's under 24 hrs (Catch 22 -- can't be done MORE than 24 hrs out, and can't be "fixed" in the period less than 24 hrs, even tho BA assigned it willy-nilly). I was on the system within 15 minutes of 24 hr mark. Why would they assign it like that (and then refuse to adjust it)?
Yes, separate PNRs, so a (very) modest level of accommodation. Plenty of seats showing before the errors started ... but now, having followed prescribed seating policy, and this level of incompetence and inflexibility?
Breath-taking.
Nov 26, 2014, 1:21 am
#5
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: GGLfL
Posts: 1,126
It's quite easy to see BA's seating policy. It you took a few moments to see how BA offers allocated seats, you wouldn't have got yourself in such a pickle.
1. You could have booked on the same PNR and both selected seats at the time of booking.
2. You could have paid for your wife's seat, in advance of T+24. This option would have been available in Manage My Booking, Seating. Hardly rocket science.
3. You could have checked your wife in first, into a seat next to your (if available) at T-24
4. You could have checked in online at T-24 and selected "collect at the airport", to enable further seat changes.
The only valid point in your rant is that there is no warning at the online check-in page that "if you select, print/fax/email/collect on my mobile you will not be able to change seats again". But many airlines don't allow seat changes about printing the boarding pass. Some do (S7), some don't (BA).
At this point your options are to ask to be offloaded (make up some excuse that you want to change flights, but make sure they don't make any changes on the phone), then start OLCI all over again. Or ask at the check-in desks at the airport.
1. You could have booked on the same PNR and both selected seats at the time of booking.
2. You could have paid for your wife's seat, in advance of T+24. This option would have been available in Manage My Booking, Seating. Hardly rocket science.
3. You could have checked your wife in first, into a seat next to your (if available) at T-24
4. You could have checked in online at T-24 and selected "collect at the airport", to enable further seat changes.
The only valid point in your rant is that there is no warning at the online check-in page that "if you select, print/fax/email/collect on my mobile you will not be able to change seats again". But many airlines don't allow seat changes about printing the boarding pass. Some do (S7), some don't (BA).
At this point your options are to ask to be offloaded (make up some excuse that you want to change flights, but make sure they don't make any changes on the phone), then start OLCI all over again. Or ask at the check-in desks at the airport.
Nov 26, 2014, 1:31 am
#6
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Krakow
Programs: BAEC Silver, Miles and More(FTL), IHG(Platinum), Accor, HHonors(Diamond), SPG, Hertz Five Star
Posts: 5,916
or when you get on the plane ask the person sitting next to you or the person next to your wife if they would mind moving.
Nov 26, 2014, 1:50 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,520
Go to the airport early and ask if there are any two seats together in the cabin. Hopefully, they might be able to help.
I think that there is a bit of confusion in the "not possible more than 24 hours // not possible less than 24 hours" because we are not talking about the same thing:
- more than 24 hours before your first flight, we are talking about seat pre-assignment. It is free for you as OW sapphire and anyone on your PNR, but if anyone else is on a separate PNR, you won't assign them a seat for free. BA will absolutely not bulge from that (it would be exactly the same if you were OW sapphire through a BA silver card) because what you are asking them is not "minor accommodation" but for a fee to be waived. There is nothing preventing you from sitting people on other PNRs next to you, but there is simply a fee associated with it. Only BA Gold get that fee waived through TCP in such circumstances and not anyone else.
- less than 24 hours before your first flight, we are talking about check in. At that time, the flight has moved to airport control so in effect, it is not a case of assigning seats but of checking in. As others have pointed out, a particularly annoying aspect of ba OLCI (and I can't think of many other airlines doing the same) is that once your print your BP/check in on mobile phone, you can't change the seat any more. You can call again, ask them if they can cancel your and/or your wife check in so that you can check in again knowing that but you may well lose whatever seat you like in the meantime. Alternatively, as mentioned, ask at the airport, unless flights are full, you may well be able to sit together but probably not in your favourite seats.
If not, as mentioned by others, you can ask onboard with the standard decent practice being that you offer the "better" seat to someone in a less good one and not the other way round.
PS: a minor error in the way you are reading things: BA won't have "assigned" a seat in your wife as in advance-assigned. Basically, at the time she checked in (and that one time only) she will have been put in a seat best corresponding to her visible requests (usually window/aisle/anything). This is not a pre-assignment but an oddity that means that once the check in process is started the passenger is given a seat which can then be changed. And of course no particular reason that seat would have been next to you as separate PNRs (if on same PNRs people are usually automatically proposed seats together if available).
I think that there is a bit of confusion in the "not possible more than 24 hours // not possible less than 24 hours" because we are not talking about the same thing:
- more than 24 hours before your first flight, we are talking about seat pre-assignment. It is free for you as OW sapphire and anyone on your PNR, but if anyone else is on a separate PNR, you won't assign them a seat for free. BA will absolutely not bulge from that (it would be exactly the same if you were OW sapphire through a BA silver card) because what you are asking them is not "minor accommodation" but for a fee to be waived. There is nothing preventing you from sitting people on other PNRs next to you, but there is simply a fee associated with it. Only BA Gold get that fee waived through TCP in such circumstances and not anyone else.
- less than 24 hours before your first flight, we are talking about check in. At that time, the flight has moved to airport control so in effect, it is not a case of assigning seats but of checking in. As others have pointed out, a particularly annoying aspect of ba OLCI (and I can't think of many other airlines doing the same) is that once your print your BP/check in on mobile phone, you can't change the seat any more. You can call again, ask them if they can cancel your and/or your wife check in so that you can check in again knowing that but you may well lose whatever seat you like in the meantime. Alternatively, as mentioned, ask at the airport, unless flights are full, you may well be able to sit together but probably not in your favourite seats.
If not, as mentioned by others, you can ask onboard with the standard decent practice being that you offer the "better" seat to someone in a less good one and not the other way round.
PS: a minor error in the way you are reading things: BA won't have "assigned" a seat in your wife as in advance-assigned. Basically, at the time she checked in (and that one time only) she will have been put in a seat best corresponding to her visible requests (usually window/aisle/anything). This is not a pre-assignment but an oddity that means that once the check in process is started the passenger is given a seat which can then be changed. And of course no particular reason that seat would have been next to you as separate PNRs (if on same PNRs people are usually automatically proposed seats together if available).
Nov 26, 2014, 3:35 am
#9
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Free pre-allocation for a non-status passenger who's travelling with a status passenger but on a separate booking is expressly a benefit for Golds/Emeralds. If they start allowing Silvers/Sapphires to have this "modest level of accommodation" as well, how fair is that to Golds/Emeralds?
The reality appears to be that many other people had better and prior claims to specific seats than your wife did. You could have jumped the queue by paying, but you chose not to. That's one of the risks of gambling - you can lose.
Your experience probably demonstrates exactly why BA does operate such a restrictive seating policy - it's needed to keep enough choice for those who have better entitlements than your wife did.
The reality appears to be that many other people had better and prior claims to specific seats than your wife did. You could have jumped the queue by paying, but you chose not to. That's one of the risks of gambling - you can lose.
Your experience probably demonstrates exactly why BA does operate such a restrictive seating policy - it's needed to keep enough choice for those who have better entitlements than your wife did.
Nov 26, 2014, 5:28 am
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Fayetteville, AR
Programs: AA
Posts: 49
(OP)
Interesting reading all the interpretations, and am learning much, thanks. I see only a somewhat silly semantics difference between being assigned a seat and "put" in a seat at check-in as one response suggests (and then no simple way to change it). Save for the off-loading request (requiring yet another call to a call center, long hold, etc) which may have worked, the process seems intentionally muddled, restrictive, and largely irrevocable --- to teach you to pay for advance selection. Well done BA. The separate PNRs were for a reason, and have certainly contributed to this.
Interesting reading all the interpretations, and am learning much, thanks. I see only a somewhat silly semantics difference between being assigned a seat and "put" in a seat at check-in as one response suggests (and then no simple way to change it). Save for the off-loading request (requiring yet another call to a call center, long hold, etc) which may have worked, the process seems intentionally muddled, restrictive, and largely irrevocable --- to teach you to pay for advance selection. Well done BA. The separate PNRs were for a reason, and have certainly contributed to this.
Nov 26, 2014, 5:50 am
#12
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: GGLfL
Posts: 1,126
It is extremely unlikely that she was "put" in a seat with no option to change, unless the cabin is full (and all 3 BA flights show J9 today).
Even if OLCI is interrupted, it still doesn't lock in the seat these days.
If you go back to OLCI, does it offer the option of changing seat? If not, it would appear that you selected print/email/fax boarding pass.
Nov 26, 2014, 7:19 am
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
However, the bigger issue seems to me to be the fact that if you're on two separate bookings, this sort of thing is a risk. The OP seemed to expect that the non-status passenger would be TCPd and seated next to him, but was correctly told no by BA. And being separated would be liable to cause a lot of upset. Yet the OP didn't do the thing which is routinely recommended here as the sensible thing to do in these circumstaces: pay for the other seat allocation.
Even if one takes the view that one shouldn't have to, it's still the sensible thing to do within the system that BA operates; not doing so is a gamble, and on this occasion the OP lost.
Nov 26, 2014, 9:54 am
#14
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA; SQ; Hyatt; Hilton
Posts: 422
Why does everyone assume the OP had checked in (and printed/emailed the boarding pass) for one or other (in fact, necessarily both) passengers before trying to change the seats? That would be an illogical thing to do and he doesn't say that's what he did.
In his situation, it is perfectly reasonably to wait until T-24 and try to allocate adjacent seats. There is a risk that there won't be any adjacent seats, but that doesn't seem to be the case here - instead he is unable for some reason to allocate a seat for either passenger, other than that allocated by default at OLCI. Seems the OP is the victim of a BA IT bug, of which there are many.
In his situation, it is perfectly reasonably to wait until T-24 and try to allocate adjacent seats. There is a risk that there won't be any adjacent seats, but that doesn't seem to be the case here - instead he is unable for some reason to allocate a seat for either passenger, other than that allocated by default at OLCI. Seems the OP is the victim of a BA IT bug, of which there are many.