Vgravity

Your issue on grabbing F seats when they become available is that BA may switch back to not operating the F cabin.

This could mean you get moved into the worst J seats. This has happened to me - have given up window seat with direct aisle access to pick F, then got moved back to aisle next to the galley and toilet.

You need to keep an eye on Expertflyer loads to assess the risk.

IAMORGAN

I'd hazard a guess that the best thing to do if you're really concerned about getting an F seat is to arrive at the airport early and ask first at check in (explaining "I understand it's a 3 class service today operated by a 4 class aircraft, are there any seats in the F cabin / rows 1-5?" as ground staff may well not know). If you feel you've been fobbed off then try again at the "Flight Management" desk(s) (look at the screens) at Customer Services airside - I want to say it's the desks on the side of the South Customer Service desk but might be wrong. I get the impression the people there are senior agents who might actually know, or know who to ask, and have some authority. If they say no then I guess you've done all you can! There should be a SSR code for "Flyertalker" so they know to prepare for the difficult!

Edit to add: does CWS (or anyone else!) happen to know if there's an equivalent desk at LGW S?

herbertgoon

To add another anecdote to this, we flew out to ANU on Weds and CW was not full (about 75%) but F was. Those who got into F appeared to be special in some way as they made it through the gate before CW was called. They were not special assistance.

We’ve got 13JK on the way back, so won’t risk a Flub as I’ve done this once before at OLCI and had to faff around at the airport only to get reassigned to worse seats. My guess would be it’s invite only.

Still it’s wonderful here so who cares!

Globaliser

And what is more, other airlines do the same too, when they use four-class aircraft to serve routes that only sell three classes. See Bye Bye to First SYD-HKG for an example that immediately came to mind.

What is truly shocking is that someone who paid for J on a flight where J is the highest cabin, and gets the J service but has the good fortune to be seated in a better seat than that for which they paid can say that it's "SHOCKING" to get more than they paid for.

It might be different if you'd paid for J and were op-upped into an F cabin that has been sold as F - but even then it would take a minority FT mindset to complain that you didn't get everything that you might have got if you'd actually paid for an F ticket, or that those who paid for F might be prioritised for the F service.

IAMORGAN

I think the OP you quoted thought FLUB was a real 'thing' - ie that ex Gatwick on leisure routes, First was actually the same as Club, save for the seat! If that wasn't what was meant, I entirely agree!

I was lucky enough to fly BOS-JFK in a J seat on the 321T having paid for Y (with Avios). I didn't expect (or receive) J service!

T8191

Exactly our scenario on our ANU earlier this year {TR lmk in my signature]. Many empty CW seats after the 'migration' to First. Fortunately we were able to shift to the seats we would have chosen if MMB hadn't got confused by the 4-class switch!

One day we may be lucky, and get kicked into FLUB

TheFlyingCyclist

We got Flub in a group of 3 (2 of us silver) this summer LGW to PUJ - great experience with all the bedding too. Only aspect that wasn’t proper F was the F&B. We had selected row 2 via the Finnair app after a tip on here, but on check in were moved to row 1. The flight was full. It was a really nice surprise!

firstlight

To continue the story, expertflyer showed the seat map abruptly change yesterday and fill up the forward section but our seat allocations remained the same. We phoned up last night to try and move forward but the very polite newcastle agent couldn't do anything to move us saying rows 1 to 4 were unavailable to her.

According to good advice posted here, we have just checked in early and lo we are in FLUB in ideal seats. We were not able to change seats but we have not printed out BPs yet and will wait to see if there are any more changes...

Thanks once again for the tips!

sts603

It’s still a stupid BA and typically British policy. When AA flies three class equipment on two class routes, Elite Y passengers can select seats in J regardless of loads.

Globaliser

What's peculiarly "British" about this? Other non-British airlines do the same thing.

I don't actually understand how your example is any kind of contrast, anyway. Suppose there's a flight planned for a two-class aircraft of 20F 100Y and it checks in 100% full with those numbers, but a three-class aircraft is subbed that has 20F 20J 80Y. Letting higher-tier Y passengers sit in the J cabin on that aircraft is the equivalent of what is happening in this "FLUB" example.

firstlight

And just to finish off the story. We indeed got FLUB, seats 2E,2F very nice and Mrs Firstlight was extremely happy. Excellent service from the crew who were quite stretched. The FA who looked after us said that the crews have asked for Gold and above to be placed in the first section when FLUB happens - to reward BA's best customers. Don't know if this is true or not or if crews have some kind of way of suggesting these things.

A P Yu

This doesn't always seem to be the case. I flew LGW to FLL on Thursday which was on a 4 class aircraft operating as 3 class. Expertflyer showed F seats blocked till OLCI opened, And on the morning of the flight 7 F seats had been selected. The booked J load was only 33, so there was no need to seat J pax in F seats. But sure enough the flight departed with 6-7 pax sat in the F seats.

They were blocked to me when I checked in using the machines at the airport, I'm gold but was on a staff travel ticket. It would have been nice to get one but I was just pleased I had a flat seat.

SussexFly

Am I right in thinking that the safest way to be seated in F is to just ask once onboard?
I’ve read a number of reports that say they’ve selected seats in F at OLCI but then get moved back to CW but in a poor seat.
I’m assuming it’s a risk either way - being moved back to CW but with a poor seat, or getting onboard to find that people have beaten you to it and the F seats have all be taken.

SussexFly

First cabin opened up at around T-32 hours but BA had already filled it so unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to grab a seat up the front.
In fact I couldn’t see the First seat map let alone grab a seat.
So do the lucky ones who have been allocated a First seat know they’ve got a First seat? Or do they think it’s just any other seat?

ThatT1Feeling

Are you sure that the cabin is actually opened up or does it just look like that on ba.com?

My experience has been that the allocation of F seats is done only once the aircraft is under airport control which is with 24 hours of departure. I've tried calling the GGL line in advance and they haven't been able to allocate seats in F, whether they appear open or blocked on ba.com or Expertflyer.

One time, after MrsTT1F had only got home the night before off another very delayed longhaul BA flight, then the GGL line messaged LGW to ask if there was anything that could be done. Otherwise it does seem to be something you can't influence. I've never been able to select the F seats online, whether appearing to be available or not. Please keep us informed!