les37b

My flight from LHR to Singapore for the 23 March was booked about 10 months ago, but I decided not to prebook seats after seeing they wanted £56 pp each way and just thought there wouldn't be a problem in wating until the 24 hour check in slot.

When I looked last week, there still seemed to be lots available, but now there appears to be only 3 window seats left with 90% of seats taken, so I'm thinking I need to take the plunge to avoid getting split. I am however not entirely sure that the details shown are necessarily truthful..... ie are BA after last minute panic buys from people like me thinking they are at risk from not getting a decent seat and getting a sale they wouldn't otherwise get by not displaying all the seats available? I begrudge paying £112 just to get a seat reservation...... I remember when people used to mock Easy Jet and Ryan Air for making you pay a couple of £s to pick your seat. This seems like extortion by comparison!

konagirl2

I am sure there will be a formal welcome soon, but welcome to the BA board! You are experiencing Theoretical Seating, which kicks in 72 hours before departure. This excellent wiki tells you everything you need to know: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ts-status.html

You are not seeing all seats that are available, but you also cannot pay to see more seats now; BA is restricting the seats that are available to you by frequent flyer status. But having said that, it is very likely that your flight will be full, the SIN route always is, so whether or not you have a choice of seats together at check in (exactly 24 hours before departure) for everyone in your party is an unknown.

UKtravelbear

what would have happened late last week - when 7 days before the flight kicked in - is bronze card holders would have been able to book seats for free hence the almost sudden increase in seats taken.

What also happens at around T-72-48 is that BA starts to pre-allocate seats to passengers needing a basinette or those travelling with children and who need to be sat adjacent to an adult. Once OLCI opens at T-24 all that messing around will have ended and you will see a firmer seat map.

corporate-wage-slave

And yes, welcome to the British Airways forum here on Flyertalk les37b, it's good to see you here and I'm sure you are looking forward to your trip to SIN. Online Check in opens in a few hours for you presumably.

Both flights do look to be sold out to me, but there seems to be a lot of blocked seats on the BA11 (the 380 service) so I think it's unlikely you would be split up (if that is your primary concern) on that service. BA15 looks packed out, but again if Theoretical Seating is working properly, you should not be split up. It would help if you could indicate how many are in your party, but if it's 2 and both are adults, given OLCI is near, I'm not sure there is any point in paying at this stage: if it really mattered then it would make sense to do it when first buying the tickets, but at this stage you've missed the advantage of purchase, which is more about getting particular seats rather than avoiding a split.

However here is the key tip here: check in at the first opportunity online, so you get Checked In status, but do not download your boarding pass or print it, or email it etc. Just focus on check-in. Then after 30 minutes check again, and move again if new options come up. Leave it another 30 or 60 minutes. About a third of passerngers will check in online in the first few minutes and the available seating will shift around a lot there after every check-in.

Corpt

Without wanting to be the bearer of bad news, both flights (BA11 and BA15) are showing very full seat maps, with no remaining window seats and very few unallocated pairs of seats.

You should therefore follow the sound advice from C-W-S and check in without obtaining your boarding pass, but keep checking back for what might have changed.

les37b

Thanks all for the info and advice. 9 mins to go before check-in now,so finger crossed.If I bomb out this time, I shall probably bite the bullet on the return as there are lots available on that flight (about 95% availability still)

I'll update shortly.


Thanks again for advice and welcome.

Corpt

15J/K, a good aisle window pair, are available.

les37b

Managed to get a pair of window seats near the rear of the lower deck which I'm happy with..... I not sure if I followed CWS instructions to the letter as while i did manage to amend a couple of times, it said to check in but not print or anything. So I clicked to check in and I guess game is over now to make any further changes. If I could have got a pair of seats further forward on the upper deck, I'd have been much happier, but I'm relatively chuffed I managed to blag what I have. I was allocated 2 aisle and middle seats together initially. All in all, it wouldn't have been a huge issue.

Thanks again for the advice.

Corpt

Well done. If you’ve checked in but not yet printed or downloaded your boarding pass, then it’s not too late to change.

corporate-wage-slave

If you didn't get the boarding pass then you should be able to change the seats. "Checked in" status allows seat moves, so long as you didn't download (etc) the boarding pass So if you go in again, you may still be able to monitor / amend the seating.

les37b

Cheers guys, you were of course (as you knew) correct with that. The option is "what do I want to do know" and change seats was an option.

I have looked a few times and nothing has popped up so i think its fair to say, thats it. As the return leg might be a bit more awkward to do this,I might actually do a reservation.

Thanks again guys....

Just hope they are not to strict on luggage weights... I think both cases are 1/2 Kg over.

rossmacd

This thread gets me thinking why BA frustratingly doesn't allow seat changes after issuance of BP.......unlike so many other airlines.