Originally Posted by
meech
Was looking at the demo for online check in on the BA website. It says that "you will see the seat you have preassigned or been allocated by us...you will then have the option to confirm those seats or change to another seat."
It would seem to follow that if all seats are preassigned or allocated by BA prior to online check in opening, there wouldn't be much if any choice available at check in.
Is this actually how it works?
Before OLCI opens, some passengers will have chosen their own seats (whether for free or for a fee, depending on their circumstances). Other passengers will have been pre-allocated seats by BA (eg families with children).
However, BA doesn't otherwise pre-allocate seats before OLCI opens. So if you start OLCI sooner rather than later, the chances are that you will have a better choice of seats (although this is not necessarily true as there will continue to be cancellations of reservations even after OLCI opens).
When you do OLCI, and assuming that you haven't chosen your seats in advance, I think you will find that ba.com will automatically offer you seats. At that point, you can either confirm those seats, or change them to something you like better out of the others that are still available at that stage. I think that this is the step being referred to in the sentence that you've quoted.