I was trying to get a better seat than I was preassigned, and for the first time tried the OLCI in the summer last year. On the site I was offered the seat I was assigned and nothing else, and nothing would change it. I eventually rang the exec club and a nice lady told me that she'd have a go at changing it at her end. She couldn't do it and called the supervisor over who could do nothing they called someone else about it & they were told they unable to do anything either. She told me that it was normally very easy and that this was the first time she had see it all preassigned, and had just been told that it could only be changed at the departure point, i.e. Heathrow on the day. To get moved I just arrived early and asked politely.

Compare this with a Telesales bloke at First Great Western who told me that a sleeper berth (BA don't fly to Plymouth) was assigned by the computer, and he couldn't change it. He stubbornly refused to believe it was possible, even when I told him they'd done it before, and refused to try and change it. I then asked to speak to a supervisor, and said that I knew it was possible, it had been done before, could he have a go please. He said no not possible and did I still want the booking, to which I said no. Phoned that evening spoke to a girl who knew that it could be done and went and found one of the people in the office who knew how to do it. Getting the correct berth is vital, as those trains are very bumpy.