SJC AA

Just called BA to try to book a seat for my CE flight (full J booking code, Oneworld Emerald) and was told that Row 1 was blocked by the airport. The flight is in nearly 3 months, so this seems odd. As Emerald I have always been able to book any available seat (and was able to get 64K on the connecting flight in CW on a 747). Any ideas about what might be going on?

If it's relevant, the itinerary has a mixture of BA prime flights and AA codeshares operated by BA, and I have two separate BA record locators (plus one from AA), which each provide access to seats for different subsets of flights. The flight where row 1 is unavailable is booked as a BA prime flight.

Gshumway

No flight is going to be under airport control 3 months out.

dkc192

I had the same issue as an EXP/Emerald for a CE flight 3+ months out. Rows 1 and 2 were blocked for me, while other Emeralds were able to pick them. I ended up calling BA; the agent saw the same thing but forwarded my request on to the "seating confirmation team" for manual review. A day or so later, my requested seat (1A) showed up on BA.com as confirmed, with the rest of rows 1 and 2 still blocked.

Weird stuff. FWIW, on my flight in the other direction, I was able to choose 1F online without any issues.

Edit: I just saw that you've tried calling already. I'd suggest calling back again, explicitly stating that you are Emerald and should be entitled to choose row 1 seats if unoccupied. My statement to that effect got them to forward my request along to the appropriate people.

Globaliser

There was a report here of something similar in relation to 747 UD seats, which are blocked for full fare, Golds/Emeralds and Silvers/Sapphires: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...l#post29511747. I have a suspicion that there's a belief somewhere that blocked seats on a seat map are blocked by the airport even when they're actually blocked by policy.

But if you are actually an Emerald, then there is something else wrong too.

robertf999

Often1

It is most likely for a passenger with a disability, some special security need, or some other such thing which does not require and should not be described further.

abitwild

Someone who farts quite a bit?

Pocalypse

I had something similar about a year ago. As a BA gold, all of row 1 was blocked a few weeks in advance and up to departure. In the end nobody sat in row 1 at all.

flatlander

I see no problem at all with asking the CSD/CSM if you can move there if a row 1 seat is empty as the aircraft door closes, or even before if they have the manifest to hand to check if the seats are allocated. I have done this more than once without problems.

dkc192

Another follow-up: having this same issue with row 1 on an A320 on MAD-LHR in November. Outsourced call center has been unhelpful in resolving this issue; will try the UK call center once it opens in the morning.

dkc192

Coming back with some semblance of a resolution on this: the UK call center agent stated that the first two rows of my MAD-LHR A320 are blocked to me as a OWE because "not all rows have the extra oxygen supply for infants". Not sure if I buy this reasoning or not (I've had a previous agent get the "seating team" to manually allocate me 1A in a similar situation), but it is what it is I guess.

flatlander

That is true, but irrelevant unless you have an infant on the booking (or a related booking and the agent checked for comments in the booking notes). If you do have an infant, then various restrictions apply.

Although in CE on an A320 series, there are three oxygen masks for two seats anyway, since the blocked middle seat still has an oxygen mask! Row 1, as a bulkhead, may be out of bounds for infants (and frankly with an infant you may want the bag of infant supplies to hand at all times, so a row with underseat storage in front may be preferable).

I think someone in the call center is using the available facts to come to an erroneous conclusion here.

DFB_london

dkc192

On my flights at least, EF was/is showing all of rows 1 and 2 as blocked, not occupied. Maybe they were holding rows back in anticipation of GGLs/Prems booking closer in? FWIW, the flights were TXL-LHR on a Wednesday morning (got call center to get "seating team" to manually assign 1A), and MAD-LHR on a Friday morning (still stuck in 3F).

dkc192

Alright, a few weeks later and we have some development. Previously I was in 3F with rows 1 and 2 blocked and unoccupied--several calls to the call center did not help unblock them. Now, someone has shown up in 1C, with the rest of row 1 blocked, but row 2 has opened up to seemingly everyone. I was able to move up to 2F online but the call center still wasn't able to do anything about row 1. Don't know what this says about my hypothesis that a "real" Gold (i.e. not a partner Emerald) will be able to choose seats in the previously "hard blocked" row 1 or 2 and in doing so lift the block for me as a partner Emerald, as row 1 remains "hard blocked" as far as I'm concerned whereas row 2 has become available to me along with all plebs, likely as soon as 1C showed up.