I, like one of the previous posters, rarely join forums. This is my third post, and I'd like to add my two cents. What I'm going to say has been said before by others here, but hopefully someone with some power from BA is reading this, and repetition of similar complaints will get attention.

Simply-- we are four people (a family, all of adult age) flying from New York to Asia via LHR. Booked in I (Business). Spent close to $20,000 on all four tickets. A lot of money by any measure. If I had booked on Virgin, or an American airline, we would have been able to get advance seat assignments in business together.

The BA policy really short changes people like us who've spent a small fortune to fly in Club, but don't have status in the BAEC and haven't quite paid full price. So all the people who've paid full price or who have status (an overwhelming majority in the business cabin) will have seat assignments well in advance of the 24 hour check-in, and we'll be stuck with single seats scattered throughout the cabin.

The new policy is supposed to give a greater choice of seats. I suppose this policy makes some sense in economy, where the situation is reversed from business-- in economy, a minority of people will have selected seats before the 24 hour check in period begins, whereas in business, most of the seats will be gone. I would have never spent the $20,000 on these tickets had I realized what this new policy really means. I'm not asking for the coveted seats upstairs, exit row seats, etc. Just four seats together.

They've put notations in, promising that the check-in people will see we're a group--I'm somewhat skeptical though that this will do anything. Is it an "operational" reason to move people around so that a family can sit together? Something tells me no.

Especially in today's world, where people like my parents are nervous about fying, the airline should have MORE flexibility for allowing families--especially those spending as much as we have--to sit together in a premium cabin.