Bronze = worst seats in cabin?
 

Yay, went bronze this year! Well, I only just started back into travelling for business, so bear with me :p

First flight after getting "status" : short haul, no baggage, find myself shoved into the back row with zero option to change seats at check-in (24hr before flight). Ok, my fault I guess for being "frugal" with my employer's £ and getting a no baggage fare, won't make that mistake again, move on....

...move on to today, when I go to reserve a seat in PE for LHR->LAX on a 380, 6 days ahead of the flight. There are apparently exactly three seats available in a cabin which accommodates 52, and they are of course centre seats on the back three rows.

Last year, I had no status and got decent seats on all my long-haul trips in PE, via online check-in 24 hrs before the flight.

WHY AM I BEING PUNISHED LIKE THIS!? :D Is there some obscure seat reservation rule of which I am ignorant? Or is it really fact that the 49 better seats in the cabin were already reserved? COMPLETELY unlike any flight I took in the past 2 years before getting "status"?

Full disclosure, I did book this flight a long time ago (like 6 mo+) so it might be a crummy fare code

(Oh, apologies if this was covered before somewhere)

It's the new system which blocks - and doesn't release - select seats for higher status. I'm regularly flying the GLA route now in row 1 with often one or no one at all in the other five seats!

Welcome Captainnajork.

See the Theoretical Seating thread.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ts-status.html

Best advice is to keep rechecking to see if other seats are opened up. Remember, preivously you were selecting at OLCI? so you will probably find more flexibility then.

Thanks

So, try again at T-72 hrs and T-24 hrs?

And finally at the desk at the airport

If on an HBO fare, does not check my trip or similar actually show you the provisional seat assigned by BA. ?
If so you can decide to accept it or pay for a better seat,
It might be worth removing your exec card and seeing if that changes the status quo (and add it in again after you have checked in?

Theoretical seating is only active from t -72. It will not affect seat choice 6 days out. Check on expert flyer what's blocked occupied and open.

Welcome to Flyertalk captainnajork, and welcome to the BA forum. It's been a busy day for new people making their first forays on this board, but you are very much welcome here. I hope we hear more from you in the future.

You've been pointed to the right thread above. I would check 2 or 3 times a day, until you are happy with your choice of seats. T-72 is a key point here, so make sure you check the seating soon after that. I would expect you to have better choices somewhere along the line and before OLCI.

Thanks - got an expertflyer alert set up now, and will keep checking.

It's a full time occupation isn't it, getting a decent seat!?

This sounds extremely strange!

Just to add a data point: In the past couple of weeks, I flew over 10 segments on BA with someone who is OW Ruby (AY+ silver), and this OWR (on their separate booking) was able to reserve any seat in both Euro Traveller and UK Domestic, a week in advance already, using the BA android app. As OWS, I could do the same. We found it particularly convenient, surprising even, that this was possible even for Ruby, and got the exit row on every single leg.

It seems very odd that a BA equivalent of Ruby flying BA had no access to such a function. Could this be LH-specific?

That didn't work last night from GLA - row 1 (with at least 2 GC holders) all seats taken, row 2 withn only 4 out of the 6 seats taken.

I experienced two trips in CE last year with Bronze. Nothing decent at 7 days, but after setting seat alerts for 1A/1F in Expertflyer the email duly arrived at T-72 saying available so quickly booked. This suggests T-72 is the best time for Bronze. I found that all seats shown as X rather than occupied then became open for lowly Bronze.

Just to add a data point as another Ruby (AA) flying on BA recently. On most of my domestic HBO fares with a no status friend, coming from EDI & GLA to LGW and back we've always been assigned good seats (3BC, 4EF etc) towards the front of the aircraft, when checking in at T-24.

On domestic connections to long haul I've been able to select 1C or 1F at sometime near T-72 too, usually just a couple days prior the seats would open up. This is to LHR. On the long haul cabins the luck is not as bad either.

So I guess as a Ruby you probably have to work a little bit harder for the seats... but if I manage to remember to OLCI or check the seat map near the appropriate times (I think I checked in a couple hours after OLCI opened) I've been assigned a decent seat. From one Ruby to another -Good luck!

Paid to select one of three seats showing as available on the BA2152 from Barbados last month only discover a 20% load factor and a row of three to myself.....

That's the spirit! :D