Thunderroad

For my upcoming BA SFO-LHR-SFO J trip with my wife, I have complimentary seat assignments by virtue of my AA status. For some reason, I foolishly did not book my wife on the same record locator, but instead bought her ticket separately. (We're both revenue tickets.)

Under these circumstances, is there any way to get her a complimentary seat assignment more than 24 hours ahead of the flight, to ensure our sitting next to each other? I fear not, and will call BA about this myself (though sometimes getting through can take a long time). But I thought I'd check just in case the collective wisdom here offers some solution.

Thanks for any help.

Genius1

IIRC only BA Gold members can link bookings to enable seat selection together.

Ldnn1

Other posters here have indicated that other OW Emeralds - not just BA - have been able to do it too, but in any case as a OW Sapphire (AA Plat) it's a definite no.

corporate-wage-slave

For free, no I don't think you can, this is a benefit reserved for Golds and Emeralds. Obviously at T-24 you can play around with the options, and depending on the flight/date it may work out fine. Though it's possible that because FLY will prioritise your seating that the options won't look very good for this. But I don't know of a way of merging your bookings for this purpose, short of you rebooking yourself to make it a 2 person booking. Some tickets come with free seat reservation (flexible tickets, corporate tickets). So if you're not ready to wait until T-24 you may need to pay up for her reservation.

orbitmic

+1.

HIDDY

I suppose much depends on what seat you have already selected for yourself.
If it's a good one you have a greater chance of swapping with the person next to your wife, especially if she ends up in a middle middle seat. Or you could just change your selected seat to a middle middle one which will improve your chances of getting her in beside you at OLCI.

Makes a game of chess against a grandmaster look like child's play.

Thunderroad

Ah, good points. Though I'm lousy at chess...and at poker as well.

Flexible preferences

Another solution could be that you pay for your wife's seat selection @:-)

HIDDY

Even the bond of love I have with my wife isn't that strong.

Thunderroad

Folks here were very helpful when I sought clarification regarding a different BA J seating question. (Thanks!) I hope I might get some more help now.

For an upcoming SFO-LHR-SFO trip in J (revenue tix, FWIW), leaving in a few days, I am currently in 15A and 59A, with the seat assignments free by virtue of my AA status. Because my wife has no AA status, she does not have a seat assignment yet. (She has a different reservation number, so does not benefit from my status.)

I'd assumed that if I paid online for her to get seat assignments, she could be in 15B and 59B, as these show as available when I check the seating map for my reservation. BUT I just checked the seating map for her reservation and those seats are not available. In fact, compared to my reservation's seat map, hers just shows about a third of the seats available, with no option for us to sit together even if I move.

So...Am I correct in understanding that not only does BA charge for J seat assignments for non-status passengers, but many otherwise available seats aren't even available for those without status, even if they are willing to pay for the assignments?

FWIW, in addition to trying to find seats online, I tried calling BA but the CSR was not able to get her 15B. We also tried inputting her Executive Club number (her status is only Blue) into her reservation, but that did not open up the seat either.
Finally, we tried switching me to 15B to see if 15 A opened up for her, but that didn't work either.

If anyone knows any workarounds or whether I'm doing something wrong here, I'd welcome any advice you could provide. Beyond that, any advice on trying to sit next to each other, aside from simply seeing if someone else will switch with one of us? Thanks.

Andriyko

I believe with the new system passengers are offered seats based on their status. You should first select a seat for your wife and then select a seat for yourself next to her.

scottishpoet

BA does block some seats for status flyers until around 72 hours before departure

DaveNCL

I think this will be because of Fly, your status gives you a better option of seats. This has recently been introduced, for more details see one of the responses from CWS on the subject from the main thread.

Personally I think this is a good benefit for shorthaul or Y but I don't see much benefit for J or F.

Thunderroad

Thanks, but at this point there are not two unbooked seats next to each other. That is, no seat I could pick comes next to an empty seat.

Thanks. That sounds promising, though we're less than 72 hours before the flight and there is still a big difference between the available status and non-status seats. But I'll check again later.

Thunderroad

Sorry, what's "Fly" and what main thread are you referring to?