ShuttleRunner

Call me baffled. 'A' seat is now blocked to all, even me. I'm in F with nobody in the surrounding area, but everything around me is available on ExpertFlyer. Oh well, at least I won't have crushed knees.

Castle25

Mrs Castle is gold and we flew to ACE and back in the last week. Was the first row behind the curtain both times - got DE outbound - Empty in F. Inbound AB with Empty C. Both flights were pretty full.

A1pax

I understand that at T-72 BA system may assign high tiered members with better seats - like an empty seat next to members. I have this happened twice in the last 12 months.

I have a slightly different question but hope someone will be able to clarify. I have booked flights last week to the US for travelling in 6 weeks time. As a gold I tried to select seats and the majority of windows seats (lower and upper deck) were not available to select. Does this mean there will be no chance that these seats may become available from T-72?

PS - With Qantas, on domestic flights they block row 4 right behind J class. However, at T-80 all seats (not selected) would be made available to all. Is this the same with BA?

Banana4321

Update. Due to Travel Agent Incompetence flights were eventually booked rather than reserved.

Now it's just 6D that shows occuplied on expertflyer. The erst of 5&6 show blocked on Expert Flyer.

I'm not sure if I was clear before but the entirety of rows 5&6 show unavailable on ba.com. So this is a mismatch in data between EF & BA....or at least a mismatch in how status is displayed (i.e. does one show "unavailable" or "occupied" for a seat that is occupied but would in any case be blocked/unavailable to the viewer?

wrp96

Who are you and what have you done with rossmacd?

MPH1980

You're far too early for theoretical seating (which is the point of this thread) to have kicked in. It only applies from T-72.

What you are seeing is the standard curtain block.

I've had a look at the seat map myself and it looks to me like the entirety of rows 5 and 6 are unoccupied.

Even IF someone was in one of those seats - you'd only ever see 'unavailable' on BA's site - it doesn't distinguish between blocked and occupied.

It used to be that the 'curtain block' would occupy around 4 rows at the front of the economy cabin behind the current predicted position of the curtain. A few months back - BA adjusted the calculation to only be 2 rows - hence rows 5 and 6 here.

zat_dude

Can i tap into the collective knowledge of the board here?

I have a Y Avios redemption to OSL. I had pre-selected 6A (front row) after booking.

There's about 12-14 seats reserved in total.

At T-72 I had a look and rows 4&5 opened up so I snapped up 4A. About 8 hours later I looked at the seat map again and Y starts with row 6 again. My reserved seat is still 4A, albeit the app suggests it's a middle seat.

Have I shot mysef in the foot here and shall I expect to be thrown farther back?
What would be the best course of action?

corporate-wage-slave

I'm guessing this is WT. If so, yes, BA do reserve plum seats for Golds well ahead of T-72, and if you are managing the booking then these should be available to you. It's of course possible that these seats have already been snaffled up by other Golds/Emeralds, it's a bit difficult to say without more details. But to directly answer the question, it is possible that more seats could be made available at any stage, being 6 weeks out you will appreciate that it only takes one extended family to shift to another flight and a lot will change. In WT the impact of FLY is going to be limited, depending again on the details, since as a general rule WT goes out full. And though FLY can greatly improve the experience for Golds/Emeralds, nothing in that is going to stop BA selling seats where it can.

corporate-wage-slave

Is this an A321 or 767? A seats are always windows, but they can look different on the App if looking at the longhaul seating. It's difficult to give anything but general advice, given the details we have here, but two rules are (1) when playing curtain roulette, the house tends to win. And (2) you are best to select a seat you want rather than let someone throw you into a middle seat at the last moment.

If it is longhaul seating, and you have a fare bucket higher than N, then you best ring up and try to UuA into Club "Europe". Or POUG if offered.

orbitmic

Yesterday, my flight in ET about 90% full.

I had selected the exit row, all four of them had the middle seat free - check

One guy moved from his seat, settled between my aisle neighbour (whom I did not know) and myself extending "his" territory to about half of each of our seats and typed furiously throughout the flight elbowing every fourth second - uncheck

greg5

Yesterday ET, about 80% full, A319.

We had 10AB and C was blocked. Another pax asked the FA if he could move into C and she gave the okay. Wasn't the greatest experience, but I wasn't so fussed about it. Still, I didn't feel guilty at all when I woke him up to head to the WC. On the other segment we had 10AB and C seem to have been blocked as well.

flyingcharlie

A quick request on behalf of a friend who has hopefully just taken off on the delayed BA 3277 from LCY to DUS. He's a silver with BA but had paid £11 to choose a seat with extra legroom (I assume that's the exit row). However, he's not in his seat as requested. Upon asking a crew member, he was told this was due to 'weight and balance of the aircraft'. As the flight is full, he's understandably annoyed. The CC member said there was nothing they could do so he should contact BA to reclaim his £11. Apparently the flight is operated by Eastern Airways - so is this simply due to a change of aircraft and to be expected from BA?

corporate-wage-slave

It sounds more like an aircraft change and/or your friend didn't spot the configuration after the change. It doesn't happen often, but with an Eastern aircraft it was going to be more likely. He will get a refund, he just needs to complete the form via the seating page on BA.com

flyingcharlie

Thanks CWS for the good advice as always - it's turned out to be one of those trips for him as when he arrived at DUS he'd been bumped from his hotel too.

Koru Flyer

What is the easiest way, at the airport or when checking in to know if the seat next to you is blocked or taken.

In the app, they just looked greyed out, and at least in the CCR when the lady brought up the seat map it looked full and she said all seats were taken. Then onboard I had the whole row (#6) to myself.

KF