corporate-wage-slave

The best way is to get a shiny Gold card (though other colours from elsewhere in oneworldland also work). Your analysis would have been correct before TS was introduced and TS has changed this since non status passengers can be fed very limited choices. But you've kind of missed the obvious one: you need to identify a solo Emerald, work out his/her TS block and feed off that. By carefully looking at the seat map, or better still EF, 8 days before travel you can probably work out where they are, and I can tell you now that it typically won't be right at the back! Which in WT is silly for all sorts of reasons, not least because if it is a full flight, and someone has to go middle, then they too will strive to go near the front. So this leads to the further complication, you need to identify an Emerald not just for their CIV, but also IQ, who has found a sensible seat away from the front, but who has a TS block. You then go one over from the block.

Right at the back isn't best, usually 80% of the way down is a more fruitful area.

Ajm1987

@corporate-wage-slave I'm trying to find a recent post of yours about checking in on the app and not getting your boarding pass, can you please point me in the right direction? Many thanks, Andrew

corporate-wage-slave

I think you are referring to the following thread:
How to change seat selection after online check-in

which I have just updated with an additional screenshot.

CloudCoder

Yes indeed. I do have one of those green ovals, and in many cases I enjoy an empty adjacent seat. Yet during peak travel periods, EVERY seat in the cabin is filled. Sometimes there's just ONE empty seat. I'd like to be that ONE lucky person on occasion.
Agreed. On many configurations, the last row of the cabin of adjacent to the lav. I once read a scientific article about particles which are projected through the air when a lav is flushed. I'm not sure if I totally believe the article, but it was believable enough to cause me to choose a set a few rows away, LOL

Pocalypse

I want to share my experience of 'fighting' with theoretical seating.

I'm flying in CW with a family member on separate bookings. I'm gold and he's silver. We picked middle seats together weeks ago, but now that the bassinets are open (at T-36 ish) I wanted to move us there for the direct aisle access. TS became active at T-72 so I was worried that if I did it in turns, as soon as one of us moved TS would block the other seat preventing another move.

So what I did was, log in on RJ.com and use that to move myself to the newly opened bassinet seat (since it wouldn't let me pick it on MMB anyway). At the same time, I had his MMB open and moved him to the next seat. Both changes saved within 10 seconds of each other, and seemed to stick before TS could have it's way with them .

I think I could have done something similar by calling and using the TCP gold benefit, but that has to go to a back office and I wasn't sure it would work well with a bassinet and timing issues. Also if I can do something myself online I always prefer that to calling.

Wanderlust888

On an almost full flight HAJ-LHR where the only exit row was row 10, I noticed that there was a couple in 10D and 10F, with 10E (which I, as Silver, had been unable to select) empty.
How did they manage to pull this off? I had assumed that exit rows were useless for TS blocks as the check-in staff would obligingly put tall people in any spare seats.

teledude

TS will keep it blocked for below Gold unless the flight is totally full if there is a Gold/GGL in either seat

CKBA

I still struggle to try a decipher the nuances of theoretical seating, and rarely find it works (at least as I think it should).

Upcoming flight on Thursday, we are booked in 32J/32K (Gold/Silver), in a vain attempt that 32H would remain empty. Alas, it's been taken, despite numerous empty seats elsewhere. So, was 32H ever blocked, and if so, who overrides the blocking? (This being at about T-70).

corporate-wage-slave

If this is a reasonably full flight, and someone with a late booking or paying for seats wants an aisle seat near the front, then I think this is going to be a risk. Look at it this way: right now, if you were a GCH wanting an aisle seat, making a booking at this moment, where are you going to go? At the moment it's going to be 33H (or 32C) since 32H has just been taken. On the map above, and assuming there will be some unsold seats, you are best to go for something like 47J and 47K, with the GCH in J. If the aircraft is filling up then TS isn't going to save you particularly if near the front of the cabin. Isn't 53B and 53C available to you? Ditto H and J? This is all assuming you are booking via BA.com, some travel agency bookings don't pass over the BAEC number properly it seems. Incidentally it's also worth looking at the seat charging map by doing a dummy booking without being signed in - some exit row seats won't be taken due to the high extra cost, and Silvers won't get access to them for free either.

CKBA

But surely, if 32H had been blocked, why was the person now in 32H able to book it if nearby similar seats - 33/34/36C or 35/36H were not blocked? Yes, I can see that once all the unblocked seats are occupied that blocked ones would start to be unblocked/taken (and presumably then by low to high status?).

corporate-wage-slave

Golds get to see and have access to all Silver and Gold blocks. Silver too, if the Silver was in 32J. Not sure about paid for seating. So TS is blocking only those with lower status, a Bronze should not have access to that seat unless the flight was full already. If a Gold made a booking and wanted to be near the front, they or their travel service would have alighted on 32H.

BertieBadger

Well, I think here we get into an area that has seen some considerable debate in the past (and I don't intend to rehash that here). But in essence, you see the difference between what may be considered the primary intent of TS and the practical effect. The primary intent is to make a number of "good" seats available to (only) high status holders close in to the flight date so late bookers can get "good" seats. The practical effect is that status holders get empty seats next to them.

In practical terms, this would mean 32H was always available to a GCH even after TS kicks in - at least until the flight goes under airport control - and it could be that is what has happened (as per corporate-wage-slave's explanation).

So, if you are a Gold wanting to make the best of TS, I think a good strategy is to check your seating once TS has kicked in, and if someone has taken the seat next to you, consider a move. Even if someone hasn't taken the seat next to you, consider how "good" that seat might be and are you on as status heavy route that is close to full up. i.e would it appeal to another Goldie? If so, consider a move to part of the aircraft where the "spare" seat would not be considered desirable, which I guess means towards but not at the rear?

scottishpoet

How did the seat map look at T-75? Was the seat already occupied before TS kicked in? if so then nobody "over rode" the blocking

I have, on several occasions, found that at T-72 the seat next to me is already occupied so decided to move

CKBA

Actually, if only a GCH could override a blocked seat to sit next to another GCH this would still be odd, in that if they sat one row back as a GCH they too would be able to block the seat next to them - so at least have the potential to have an empty seat next to them, rather than knowing that they wouldn't... .

I suppose if 32H is another GCH at least it saves the CC having to scramble around the cabin offering out 'welcomes' - but I won't hold my breath on that one!

flying_pig

I wouldn't overthink this... My bet would be on a very common case of a passenger telling the travel agent or corporate travel desk or PA to "get an aisle seat as close as possible to the front of the aircraft", which would have been the one next to you. Not everybody spends time studying the map and playing the odds of what seats might get filled or not (as we do on FT )