babypuwet

hi all, I have searched this and am still a bit confused. I have a BA booking JFK-LHR and have OWS thru Air Berlin Gold. I can select seats, but the exit rows are blocked, I can't even pay to select them. When will exit row seats be available for selection?

chriscol

Hi All - my first post here! I wonder if one of you experienced flyers could advise me?

My wife and I have a long-haul flight coming up. I'd already paid for reserved seating, but the exit seats were released yesterday, and I was able to reserve a pair of these (by selecting the exit seats online and then paying the difference in price).

I was planning to do the same for the return flight when the exit seats come to be released in a couple of weeks. However, as soon as I swapped to the exit seats on the outbound flight, I noticed that the instructions for both flights had changed. Where it previously said something like:

"Change to any available seat at no extra cost" (or pay the difference)

... it now says:

"Select different seats for £30 each"

And now, when I go to the seating plan and experiment by clicking on different seats, it shows me the full price, and so it does look like it would want to charge me the full amount for changing seats - even if I select seats that are the same value or less expensive than the seats I've already reserved.

This is the same for both flights, i.e. the outbound flight where I've already changed my seats by paying the difference, AND the inbound flight where I paid to reserve some seats at time of booking but have not made any changes since.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Will I still have a chance to reserve the exit seats for the inbound flight by paying the difference (once these are released)? Or would I have to pay the full price of £55 per exit seat, on top of what I have already paid to reserve my existing seats?

Globaliser

Welcome to FT, chriscol!IIRC, reports here suggest that what's displayed is a bug, and that you should only actually be charged the difference between what you've already paid and the current price of the new seat you're selecting.

AdamUK

Hello.

We have flights in WT+ LGW-MCO flying out on Saturday. There is a 4 and 7 year old flying in our booking.

My understanding is that seats are allocated 5 days before because of the children - is there a specific time 5 days before, or can it be anytime that they are allocated, as they are still showing no seat allocated. (This thread says 72hours, but BA site says 5 days before).

Also, does anyone know what sort of power sockets/supply are on the older 777 plane used for LGW-MCO in WT+ ?

Many thanks.

chriscol

Many thanks Globaliser, that's good to hear! Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Genius1

EmPower: http://www.britishairways.com/cms/gl...uide-Oct12.pdf

concordino

Hi, travelling on BA Club World for the first time on a paid ticket costing over 3000 £. I now discover after booking that the seat selection will cost me 80£. Is this a joke, I mean honestly, is this Ryanair? UA, LX, AF and many others offer the possibility to choose and change your seat at time of booking at no charge. I was looking forward to my first experience in CW, now I'm scared I'm going to end up in a middle 4 seater section of the 747. I was sure I misunderstood, but BA customer service tells me this is an "additional service" they offer to their customers. Very disapointing!!!! Is this a new policy?

SteveF

No it's not new policy; it's been that way for several years. Just think of it as the flight being £3080 and you can save £80 by not paying for seat assignment .

Joking aside, it's unlikely that you will end up in a centre seat; you can keep monitoring the available seats until the window and aisle seats start to fill before you pay, but even if you do end up in a centre seat it's really not that bad.

paul4040

It's not a new policy and is well advertised on BA.com before you spend £3000...

I can see your point of view but I'm afraid there will be little sympathy on this forum; the issue comes up about once a week and we're mostly Silvers and above on here. That means we experience the flip side of that policy; plenty of seats to choose from, and for free.

It's just one of those things I'm afraid.

britsv

Just made a flight+hotel booking (LHR-Paris) in economy and although I was allocated a window seat, it will cost 10 or 15 pounds to select another seat, even though I'm gold. The flight+hotel includes checked luggage, so it wasn't obvious to me why the new HBO rules should apply. Is it the case that any G class ticket has no free seat selection?

benberg2013

The only helpful advice I can think of to help you is: If you have Miles & More Gold or some other airline elite status, you can ask for a status match from Air Berlin who will give you Air Berlin gold, equal to BA Silver giving you free-seat selection. See here.

concordino

I understand this is a status issue, and this is great for Status holders. I just find this rediculous for a 4 star airline. I mean honestly who else charges this service...?

corporate-wage-slave

In a sense they all do, it's just visible / optional with BA if you follow SteveF's logic. Luckily getting status on BA is relatively easy.

Globaliser

That's only because you're not even a moderately frequent oneworld passenger.

If you had even oneworld Sapphire, you'd quickly see why this feature puts BA ahead of other airlines in this respect.

Ausscot

I'm flying on BA190 Sunday (AUS-LHR) in WTP with wife and 2 kids (11,7).

Decided to trust BA that families are assigned together, but still don't have seats assigned and only single seats showing in map. Called BA earlier and they said seats would be assigned at the airport.

We'll see how it works out - was enough stress on the wife that I plunked down the money to reserve seats on the return for peace of mind.

Should I be worried for the outbound?