Any way to leverage not paying for seat selection?

This will be my first time flying BA, and I don't really have many miles on other airlines. I have an Amex Platinum, but I can't choose BA as my airline for the airline credit.

Is there any way to avoid paying $34 each way and each seat to select ahead of time? Is it necessary? There will be 2 of us and I really want us to sit together.

You will sit together if you are on the same booking.

Unless you have status, you'll just have to be ready at 24 hours before departure to pick seats with OLCI.

Yes we are! Which brings up another (very dumb) question - I have never flown with more than just me on my booking. So my daughter will not get her own confirmation? Will we just have the mobile pass on my phone that's good for both of us at the gate?

You have one booking code (PNR) which includes both of you - have a look on BA MMB and you should see both passengers listed. You will each get your own bp when you check in.

OK great. I'll make sure she also has the BA app. Thank you!

Your daughter will need her own boarding pass even if she is on the same booking as you.

Every passenger needs his/her boarding pass to board a flight. You can download both boarding passes to your phone and/or print them out at the airport.

But if we wait until 24 hours before, how can we ensure we'll sit together just because we're on the same booking? What if there are not 2 seats available together?

How old is your daughter?

You will get your own separate boarding passes, but you can store several on the same phone. Unless you are very adept at the BA App and do it regularly, I would not recommend this - it's a bit finicky. Indeed I would perhaps suggest getting printed boarding passes (you can email them or print them direct from BA.com) just to be one less thing to go wrong. There's no such thing as a group boarding pass.

I would keep an eye on the service, which you can do via ExpertFlyer, or asking about seating in the relevant thread in this forum: do this 48 hours before travel and you should be able to gauge whether you'll get a good pair of seats. If your daughter is under 12 years or has special needs then you can call up to sort out seating a couple of days before travel.

There is a module called "Theoretical Seating" which largely keeps couples and families together. It's not totally guaranteed to work, if you want that guarantee then you better pay for it. But depending on both loadings and the composition of loadings, you should normally have at least one pair of seats offered to you at Online Check In.

If your daughter is very young (I believe 12 is the maximum limit), then BA will commit to seating you together one way or another. If she is older than that, you cannot be absolutely certain and indeed, there is always a small risk that no seats together are left, but depending on which cabin you are flying, this is not very likely: only a minority of people have status, and most people without status do not pay to pre-assign seats. What you could do is check the seat map 'as though' you were going to pay to see if many seats together are left. If at any point you see that there are only 2-3 pairs of seats left in your cabin, then you could make the decision to pay to be sure. If on the other hand there is plenty, then as c-w-s mentions, theoretical seating should ensure that you are not split, and checking in as soon as check in opens will further guarantee you the best choice of seats.

There are no way to avoid the payment if you really want to pre-assign, have no Oneworld status, are not flying on a full fare ticket, and did not book a specific corporate rate some of which include free pre-assignment as a perk.

The daughter is 26 as mentioned on another thread.

If checking a bag, no need to bother with the BA app or physically printing boarding pass ahead of time, you will get them when dropping the bag off.

Thanks - I do usually print out boarding passes just to have as a backup but prefer them to be on my phone. I can print them both out.

My daughter is 26 so she can download the BA app to her phone as well and get her own mobile boarding pass.

Thank you - I'll keep an eye on the seating chart. It's not really that much $$ in the scheme of things but I would feel better about paying if the $$ went to extended leg room or the exit row or some seat where I felt like I was getting something "extra" for paying for a seat assignment.

We are not not not not checking any bags!