Dave Noble

1st class passengers that book into J or C onto BA connecting services can select seats without charge

Globaliser

One of the results is that we keep coming back to BA. It must therefore be a really dumb policy. Obvs.Do you remember how it was in the previous iteration of the policy? Those who now have to pay a fee couldn't select a seat at all before OLCI opened. And yet the CW cabins were often almost completely pre-allocated by the time that OLCI opened.

That is how many seats BA would have to save for full-fare and higher-tier frequent flyers. The net result is that those who can now pay to select almost all CW seats would be restricted to choosing from only a small proportion of the seats in the CW cabin. And once they were gone, they'd be gone; they'd be waiting until OLCI.And that's before you ask the question why the complaining passenger booked BA to begin with, when they're clearly not even a moderately-regular BA or OW passenger.

I think that the last time we had this discussion, the complaining passenger was very frank. Normally he'd book UA. But this time, UA was much more expensive than BA. So he booked BA and saved a shedload of money. And then complained about BA's seating fee.

I think that in those circumstances, you'd have to regard "free seat pre-allocation is a must in business class" as something akin to a tenet of faith. There are plenty of us who like it - and we are the ones who are the regular customers.

UKtravelbear

LX does for certain 'premium' seats but are free for certain status passengers.

Though of course what is a premium seat is in the eye of the beholder and is down to personal preference.

mwp1

Globaliser

And this doesn't have to be an either/or decision made now, because:-

1. [*]

mwp1

Globaliser

This is because someone who has free seat pre-allocation can get anything except 64A (bassinet) and 60B (if blocked for crew on that flight). However, if you have to pay, you are limited to 60B (unless blocked), 63AB, 63JK and 64B - exactly as you see.

Can't help with the morphing aircraft, though!

Deckard

Sweet - so my upcoming JFK 62A would have cost me Ł100 if it weren't for BAEC? Didn't know it was that much!

mwp1

KARFA

62a and k are direct aisle access (as are 64a and k on the UD).

Deckard

Direct - hence choosing it

mwp1

Deckard

I'm struggling on which seat to choose coming back from BOS as it's a 380 and I've not flown one before. On the bright side BOS has TSA PreCheck which will be a pleasant novelty now BA use it

markle

deleted

lwildernorva

I see from your profile that you've become a BAEC member. That's good because there's no reason to waste the 360 tier points you'll earn on this flight--which will qualify you for BA Bronze, expanding your window for selecting seats from OLCI at 24 hours to 7 days until the end of your membership year. For business seat selection, that may not be very helpful as the Club cabin tends to attract a decent share of Silver and Gold members, but it's still an improvement.

Should you find BA a decent enough carrier--a subject of much debate!--and take another business class flight within your TP collection year deadline, you'll reach Silver status and get free seat selection at the time of purchase. Plus, as a BA Silver, you'll get oneworld Sapphire status, which will provide you with the ability to pick any seat on AA in an economy cabin, including MCE and exit rows, with the associated fees waived. And, on most domestic routes, you'll have access to Admirals Clubs for free--a benefit most AA status holders do not get unless they purchase an Admirals' Club membership. I fly ORF-JFK on a regular basis and find those benefits make flying on small regional jets more tolerable.

Yes, BA's rules regarding seat selection disfavor infrequent flyers, but given their route network, if you're flying to Europe from Seattle, they offer a lot of opportunities to become a "frequent" flyer fairly quickly and get some benefits that I've found improve my AA domestic flight experiences.