Reassigned Seats
 

I was randomly checking my reservation today for our upcoming flight and noticed that we have now been reassigned seats, due to an change in aircraft. When I purchased our flights I had pre paid for 4 seats and had selected a window and an aisle, one in front of another. These were up at the front in WTP and the most desirable seats (not the bulk head). Now today I look and we have been assigned seats in the middle of the plane in a row of 4, for both of our flights which are much less desirable and cheaper. I understand that seat selection is not guaranteed but I would have expected to be informed about the seat change. I have called BA and there are no other seats available to be moved to, as a row of 4 really isn't ideal for our family. Is this common practice for BA to charge you a huge amount of money to pre select seats and then reassign you in cheaper seats without any form of notification? I find this to be very sneaky and deceptive. Should I call BA back and ask for a refund?

Yes, request a refund, you're entitled to it under BA's own terms and conditions for paid seating.

https://www.britishairways.com/travel/paid-seating-terms/public/en_gb

It's a pain when seat changes happen but ultimately there isn't much you can do that I'm aware of :(

Good point, thanks for adding that. ^

That is indeed a good example of the benefit of advice from someone with more experience/knowledge than ourselves.

I do wonder though if you can claim a refund after having accepted the change to your pre-booked seating. I would think that you would have to refuse the seating change to qualify for a refund.

Good point, but the T&Cs are explicit that if you are moved you can claim the refund if not "completely satisfied"

Since such an appraisal could arguably only be made after the flight, the OP is fine to claim afterwards. Furthermore, aircraft swaps can happen right up to time of departure so some claims are necessarily retrospective.

I don’t think there’s any way of formally accepting the change. Just do nothing.

-and keep checking as seats may open up if passengers change their travel plans.

But don't forget to breathe in and breathe out... :D

Breaking this down :

Is this common practice for BA to charge you a huge amount of money to pre select seats ... depending on how you define "huge amount" then yes, if you do not have status it is common practice for BA to charge you if you want to pre select a seat

Is this common practice for BA to reassign you in cheaper seats ... I believe no, BA has many hundreds of flights daily. A very small amount would be affected by changes that would cause seat reassignments.

Is this common practice for BA to reassign you in cheaper seats without any form of notification? It appears you have been notified, otherwise you would not be aware of the change. However BA does not, in my experience, proactively call or email everyone who has pre assigned seats (paid or status) and inform them of such a change. You only find it by checking in MMB.

Thank you all very much for the replies. I will put in for a refund after all our travelling is finished. I am glad I checked with all of you before asking for the refund!

Well I paid over $600 in seat selection fees for my family, I would call that a huge amount of money. At least for me it is.

I wasn't notified, I logged into my reservation and noticed the seat selection was not what I originally selected. I then checked and saw the plane type had been changed. BA in no way notified me.

I just find it to be very poor customer service to charge a customer to pre select their seats and then to change their seats for far less desirable seats which are cheaper to purchase and not even send a notification of change. But at least I have found out in advance and we have all been placed together.

Do you know if the aircraft change result in fewer rows of WTP seats? If that was the case, and more window pairs were pre-booked than were now available, then something had to give. Putting a family of four who were split 2/2 into a row of 4 would be a obvious choice over moving two couples. Only one party is disrupted instead of two, and the party that is disrupted still have no strangers sitting next to them and are in a self-contained row of 4. Aircraft changes do happen, and no seat selection is guaranteed. I do think BA should have pro-actively let you know about this - after all you did purchase a product (window pair seat selection) which they are no longer supplying. Sounds like you will get your current seat selection for free so at least that is something.

Duplicated.