PointsPointsPoints

I'm trying to chose my seats for a flight in June 2018, but all the seats shown are unavailable?

Is this because it is too far out to book, or have all the seats been booked already?!

Thanks in advance.

(BA2157 in CW)

Side note - It also looks like this flight may be the 4 class 777-200 but not operating first? Is this a glitch on BA website and we are more likely to be on the 3 class version?

corporate-wage-slave

Bit difficult to say without giving the dates. Speculating, it could be they aren't sure which aircraft to allocate, they put the 4 class in and may be they will switch to a 3 class. The 4 class aircrafts do have to be allocated to service, that is entirely normal, but usually it's just the First cabin that would be blocked out. It could be fully booked already but I'd be very surprised.

PointsPointsPoints

2nd June, if that helps...

corporate-wage-slave

2 June is open, it has only just been put on to the marketplace, no one has been allocated a seat yet, it is not sold out. On MMB there is a glitch which means you can only see the blocked First cabin, and being blocked it is stopping you from selecting any seat, but if you call up they can allocate you a seat in the main CW cabin. All seats there are currently available. Alternatively wait a few weeks and they'll move the focus to CW rather than First.

T8191

As C-W-S says, there's a bug floating around which we encountered recently. We resolved the problem by using Twitter [via DM] with the helpful Social Media team, who managed to allocate us seats in the J cabin.

Seat selection on LGW 777s is becoming a right PITA. However, the CSD on our last return said that all the 3-class 777s are being re-configured to the 40J version, so at least that will be one less configuration to deal with

SoggyDollar

I use this service regularly and it is normally 3 class in the winter, 4 class in the summer (but only sold as J). What generally happens when it is 4 class is that I can initially select a J seat, but any attempt to move shows up the first cabin map without an option to select. At OLCI I find I have been reassigned to the F cabin.

PointsPointsPoints

Are there any specific seats if chosen will mean you end up in the first cabin when you get to OLCI?

corporate-wage-slave

No. If they need to use the First cabin (and the assumption is that they won't) they first allocate the First cabin to status cardholders who didn't allocate their seats in advance, then work down the list. Those without status and who paid for their seats in advance are effectively at the end of the list.

T8191

That's clearly where we failed to get an in-use F cabin on the 2 occasions we've been in J when a 4-class was subbed in. It takes a bit of courage NOT to select the few decent seats in J, in the hope that the F cabin will be used as J, though.

PM incoming for CWS

corporate-wage-slave

Well there are two points to be made here. This forum is understandably very focused on seat selection, out in the real world many passengers aren't that bothered - a fair chunk of status passengers don't get around to selecting seats. It just isn't something they worry about when they can select seats at OLCI. I tend not to bother on short haul, particularly now that Theoretical Seating is out there. More to the point here, though, is that the reason the First cabin gets opened is because of high sales, so these will typically be in the final few days before departure. So at that stage passengers typically won't be able to select seats, status or no status, so at OLCI First needs to be used, and it will be pre-populated with the status passenger who are not yet seated. In Club a lot of sales are made in the last 2 weeks before departure.

T8191

I take your point, with the small caveat that all they did on our flight was move 9/10 pax from J to F, leaving 10 empty seats in J

No W pax were moved forward to fill the new spaces in J!

corporate-wage-slave

What was the point in opening up First then? By the sounds of it everyone would have fitted into CW. Unless there was some complication with the St Kitts connection perhaps, or some defective seating.

T8191

Exactly!! That's what really tripped my gyros!! One defective seat wouldn't generate 10 pax moving to F, leaving empty seats behind

A similar discussion in parallel here >>> http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-st-kitts.html

The 'onward pax' aspect didn't seem relevant, as both cabins had disembark/onward pax

ThatT1Feeling

Oohh now I am going to be very brave and offer a different experience from that of c-w-s. The two times I have been on a 4-class aircraft, I have reserved seats in CW and checked in, only to be moved to F by the airport on the day. The F seats didn't become reservable at any time before the flight.

T8191

I suspect that GfL and GGL live on a different plane* to humble marginal Golds

And solo pax vs. couples is probably an additional dimension.


* You know what I mean!