When can 1A/K be booked?
 

I have booked 2k and 3k for a 747 flight this week. Up until today 1A/K were not available on the seat map but I have now seen them come up ...however when I try and select i'm advised to phone BA...

As a blue can I assume T24 is the eariest I can select them, is that correct?

Thanks for any advice 👍

They should be available starting at about 72 hours. See this thread and the linked threads within:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-question.html

I believe that's correct.

Bronze or Silver could select them now. You could also call up to pay for them, perhaps, if you were very enthusiastic.

It is possible to pay for seat 1A/K?

I hadn't realised this...👍

No, it's not possible to pay to select.

(I'm not sure that bronze or silver could select them before T-72 but then I've never flown in First as a silver card holder).

I was suggesting that it might be possible to pay for 1A and 1K in the time between them becoming available for non-gold, and the time that OLCI opens and non-status passengers can pick a seat. If you really wanted to pay.

But I forgot that tickets in First come with seat selection at time of reservation (except 1A/1K ) anyway, so that is a moot point, and there's no payment - any passenger ticketed in the cabin can select them when the "gold only" time runs out.

Ok so to confirm I have to wait until T24 as a blue?

Yes. You can't pay to select seats in F.

They may come available anytime starting from 72 hours. You might also have to wait until OLCI opens. You could also try calling YouFirst after 72 hours. Also see the responses here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ba-flight.html

Or sooner - but above I was mainly talking crap, sorry about that.

Indeed, three possibilities:

- they may become available for anyone to select at t-72
- they may become available for anyone to select at t-24 (the most frequent scenario I believe)
- they may never become available for anyone to select, especially if a GCH or GGL chose 1A or 1K and the cabin is reasonably empty in which case BA will occasionally automatically block the other row 1 seat (I stress "automatically": GCH and GGL people out here, there is no point in calling anyone to "ask" that it be blocked, this is not done upon request).

From my limited experience with non-golds on the same booking, I fully agree that t-24 is more likely than t-72.

Many on this board seem to believe that 1A/1K are automatically released at t-72, but I can certainly vouch for that not always being the case having had to wait until t-24 to grab one.

Thanks, very confusing!

They show as selectable on the seat map but when i "confirm" the message is to call BA...maybe worth calling incase they can select for me??

I booked a First as a Silver and couldn't select 1A/K, so I assumed they're reserved for Golds (the rest of the cabin was available.)

Was it on a 787-9? There was a glitch which has been corrected since.