Thanks for the replies. It was booked after the initial booking and unfortunately no one in the Indian call center seemed to have a clue... As mentioned above the seat is blocked next to me on MY seating plan but not the PUBLIC one i.e. looks like the seat can still be selected. Call center said the airport staff will sort it out to which my response was , it's a bit damn late at the airport if someone else can select the seat first! She told me though that the card payment wouldn't go through if someone tried to make a booking having held that seat which makes no sense to me as a seasoned flyer who knows how blocked seats worked. It's either blocked or it isn't but it wouldn't surprise me this is some half assed BA IT way of doing it...

So JAXBA thanks... I think this is the issue that there is a hidden PNR but I have no proof other than a receipt for something that doesn't even say what it's for that I paid for the extra seat, just got to trust the IT works :-)

They've obviously done the payment and added some kind of seat reservation to the system but it's worrying any other PAX can still select this seat and without actual buying a ticket I can't prove it doesn't work.. My obvious worry is that plane is full, someone else has selected the seat and we're in for an airport argument... but unfortunately seems like no one has first hand experience of the seat map conundrum!

It's a bit complex but it looks like they've done half a seat reservation :-) I can see a blocked seat next to me but Johnny New Booking can still select that seat when they waltz along to buy a ticket for the same flight i.e. makes no sense .... When is a blocked seat not a blocked seat....