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BA Seat Selection Issues for AA Flyers - charges, seating, award, etc.

Old Mar 26, 16, 7:38 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: Prospero
AA Flyers and Seat Selection on British Airways Operated Flights
Link to FlyerTalk British Airways | Executive Club / BAEC forum guide thread with Wikipost: BA Seating Policy Guide

Link to BAEC forum Dashboard, including seating guides for BA aircraft. Please make enquiries regarding BA aircraft seats in the appropriate thread in the BAEC forum, not here in the AA forum, for better response.

Link to britishairways.com page "Choosing your seat" (policies and how to).

Link to BA Speedbird Club (agent site) seat policyFor Country select "Global"; for IATA number, press on "I don't have an IATA"

Code:
The Passenger should be advised

BA will pre-seat the customer subject to availability & seat requests
are never guaranteed and always subject to operational needs

Subsequent seat change

Should an aircraft or configuration change generate an automated
operational seat change that separates the party, the request seat
process must be initiated again. The travel agent would need to
remove and re-enter the TOGT keyword.
Also from the BA website:


Code:
Members of the Executive Club and other oneworld frequent flyers are able to
reserve seats at different stages, depending on their tier.

Tier Seat selection

Gold/oneworld Emerald Free seat selection from the time of booking
for everyone in your booking and friends and family on other bookings,
who are travelling with you in the same travel class and on the same flight*.

Silver/oneworld Sapphire Free seat selection from the time of booking
for everyone in your booking*.

Bronze/oneworld Ruby Free seat selection from seven days before
departurefor everyone in your booking*.

*You must be travelling on the booking (or in the case of Gold Members,
one of the bookings) for these benefits to apply. They apply to British
Airways flights only and are not available on Basic (HBO / hand baggage only)
fares or group rate bookings. Exit row seats are not available to Silver or
Bronze Members on long haul flights until 24 hours before departure.
On some occasions, exit rows seats on short haul flights may not be
available in advance due to operational reasons.
Selecting seats can be done via the BA "Manage My Booking" tool (link) which may recognize your AA PNR (you will need your PNR and last name to log on to MMB). If not, you can get your BA PNR by calling AA, or you can go to the Qantas website, enter your AA PNR and you will be presented with your BA PNR.

Updated 26 Oct 2016 - JDiver
Print Wikipost

BA Seat Selection Issues for AA Flyers - charges, seating, award, etc.

Old Jan 5, 20, 8:49 pm
  #1  
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Pre-2020 posts on this topic have been hived off into an archive here.

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Last edited by Microwave; Aug 18, 22 at 6:28 am
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Old Jan 5, 20, 8:49 pm
  #2  
 
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Pay for Seats on BA? AA award or paid AA ticket

I am purchasing a ticket through AA but flown on BA metal, EWR-LHR-FCO. The first segment is in Premium Economy. If I was flying AA metal I could get seats for free. BA charges for seats if booked on their website. Would I be eligible for free seats since it is an AA ticket if I try to get seats from BA?
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Old Jan 5, 20, 8:51 pm
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I think you have to be BA/Ow premium flyer to get the seats for free.
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Old Jan 5, 20, 8:51 pm
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I've you have status, you could select seats free of charge, otherwise wait 7 days prior and select for free.
You could ask AA to assign you seats as well.
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Old Jan 5, 20, 9:03 pm
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Originally Posted by arollins
I
You could ask AA to assign you seats as well.
So after booking, I could call AA and ask them to get seats, and there would not be a charge since I booked through AA? No AA status here.
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Old Jan 5, 20, 9:15 pm
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Originally Posted by TonyBurr
So after booking, I could call AA and ask them to get seats, and there would not be a charge since I booked through AA? No AA status here.
Without status, your choices are either to pay BA for seat selections now, or wait to select seats when check in opens for free.
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Old Jan 5, 20, 9:35 pm
  #7  
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Originally Posted by arollins
I've you have status, you could select seats free of charge, otherwise wait 7 days prior and select for free.
For a non-elite I believe its 24 hours in advance. 7 day is for AA Gold/OneWorld Ruby status.
You could ask AA to assign you seats as well.
Pretty sure they wont do it for free.
airb330 and apeortdz like this.
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Old Jan 6, 20, 7:37 am
  #8  
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If you are flying BA metal, then you are governed by BA's rules for seat selection. So without status, if you want to select seats earlier than 24 hours before flight time, then you must pay, even in business class. If you call AA, they will just refer you to BA for seat selection.
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Old Jan 6, 20, 9:55 am
  #9  
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Without appropriate OW status, you must pay for seat selection on AA until you hit your window.

He can always try calling AA to see what happens. But, should accept that even if AA does assign seats without fee, that the assignments will not likely stick.
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Old Jan 6, 20, 12:23 pm
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BA does not include seat assignment with PE or Business tickets. Yup.
You will have to wait until check-in time to select a seat.
You can try calling AA but the seat assignment will most likely not stick.
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Old Jan 6, 20, 1:20 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by TonyBurr
I am purchasing a ticket through AA but flown on BA metal, EWR-LHR-FCO. The first segment is in Premium Economy. If I was flying AA metal I could get seats for free. BA charges for seats if booked on their website. Would I be eligible for free seats since it is an AA ticket if I try to get seats from BA?
Master AA -- BA seat thread
BA Seat Selection Issues for AA Flyers - charges, seating, award, etc.

BA forum thread
no seat selection possible on BA when using AA miles?
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Old Jan 6, 20, 1:41 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by TonyBurr
I am purchasing a ticket through AA but flown on BA metal, EWR-LHR-FCO. The first segment is in Premium Economy. If I was flying AA metal I could get seats for free. BA charges for seats if booked on their website. Would I be eligible for free seats since it is an AA ticket if I try to get seats from BA?
Seat selection is free from the time of booking if you have Oneworld Emerald or Sapphire status, or booked in W class on the EWR-LHR sector, and in Y class on the LHR-FCO.

With Oneworld Ruby, free selection kicks in 7 days ahead of the flight.

Otherwise, youll need to wait until online check in opens.
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Old Jan 27, 20, 4:12 pm
  #13  
 
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Codeshare - seat refund?

Wondering if I can sneak this one past the BA reps - thoughts?

Originally booked a codeshare BA flight through AA.com. Separately paid BA for non-refundable seat assignments. After an EQ change, I was able to convince AA to let me rebook with no change fees - now on a pure AA flight with no BA codeshare.

Any chance I can get the seat fee refunded as I'm no longer on the BA flight? If I call BA, will they show my flight as "canceled" and not refund me?
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Old Jan 27, 20, 4:30 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by AChekhovGun
Wondering if I can sneak this one past the BA reps - thoughts?

Originally booked a codeshare BA flight through AA.com. Separately paid BA for non-refundable seat assignments. After an EQ change, I was able to convince AA to let me rebook with no change fees - now on a pure AA flight with no BA codeshare.

Any chance I can get the seat fee refunded as I'm no longer on the BA flight? If I call BA, will they show my flight as "canceled" and not refund me?
If you look in the many seat threads in the BA forum you will see that seat fees are non-refundable. As in your thread
Anyway a question for BA forum as your money is with BA, FT does not have your money. Phone BA and ask
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Old Feb 15, 20, 4:46 pm
  #15  
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AA Marketed 'Main Cabin' on BA: Pay for seats. What Else?

I have booked JFK-LHR/EDI-LHR-JFK purchased on AA.com

1) JFK-LHR is codeshare on BA metal
2) EDI-LHR-JFK are BA flights

I purchased Main Cabin - AA says I have the ability to choose my seats. BA says that even though I have the ability, I still have to pay extra for advance seat assignments. Am I interpreting this correctly?

Main Cabin includes checked bag -- Will there be any additional fees for the bag, the way there are with the seat assignment?

Should I cancel and book AA Basic Economy, and then suck it up and pay BA's baggage fee and seat assignment fee (which I'd be paying anyway in order to get a seat assigned outside the 24h window)?

Thanks in advance.
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