Hopefully enough of us OneWorld flyers lurk or post on the BA forum, but if you have not been keeping up it seems our friends over at BA have had a new seating policy implemented and the results for those of us who are OneWorld flyers rather than BA flyers, your guaranteed not to be too happy after reading this.
The thread on the BA about the new rules can be found here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=376368
I feel however this justifies a new thread here on the OW forum as the BA board is merely discussing the new policy from their rather than OW perspective.
I have just gotten off the phone to BA to clarify what their new policy is, but it seems that OneWorld flyers (in particular Emerald and Sapphire members) now are given NO preference when it comes to seating. This means that you have the same access to seats as someone with NO status. In my eyes this effectively means that BA has reneged on one of it's OneWorld benefits. I always understand when the best few seats (e.g. row 64 on a BA744) are only made available for a carrier's own top members, but blocking access to huge numbers of seats just is not fair. Personally I feel that should the rest of the alliance should reciprocate and not provide any preferential seating to BA Gold (Emerald) and Silver (Sapphire) members, but I have to admit that I am now just saying this out of spite!
Could I ask those of you who fly BA as an alliance member passenger to complain to BA by writing a letter to the following address or to your local BA Customer Relations contact:
British Airways Customer Relations
P.O. Box 5619
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2PQ
United Kingdom
It might also be worth sending a complaint via the OneWorld Enquiry Form via the following site:
http://www.oneworld.com/ow/contact/form
Minus lounge and check-in privileges, I am now trying to work out what exactly BA provides me for my continued patronage. I would easily qualify for BA Gold, but for various reasons it's best for me to stick to QF for the time being especially as only QF fly to my home city these days.