sanfran767

Have a weird itinerary today: BCN-LHR-PHX-OAK (don't ask), and was blocked from online seat selection for the last leg (AA418). Despite my status which should permit us (4pax) to book into seats in rows 7 & 10 showing as available in Expertflyer, we were placed into row 25.

When I tried to call the BAEC Gold number last night, they said they were unable to change the seats within 24 hours of departure, so I needed to have them changed at the aiport. Upon checking in an hour ago, the counter agent told me he was unable to make seat changes. Can someone help provide insight as to who isn't telling the truth here?

As a sidenote, I was pretty shocked to learn that Iberia doesn't even operate their own lounge here (and the contract one is on par with a non-flagship Admirals Club)... Catalan bias at play, perhaps?

corporate-wage-slave

Seat changes within 24 hours of departure OR after you have checked in are generally under airport control. Furthermore AA is on a separate GDS to BA and Iberia so the chances of getting a change aren't high this side of the Atlantic. You will have better chances once you get to the USA (though you can try in the AA Club in LHR T3). Still, it's only a short flight, it won't be much more than 90 minutes in reality.

For BCN, in common with all Spanish airports except MAD, the lounge system is provided by the national airport authority AENA. Their lounges are pretty much middle of the European pack in terms of lounges, nowhere near as good as some, much better than many other lounges in Europe. I know it's not often believed here, but we are to some degree spoilt by BA's lounge network.

sanfran767

Whiney footnote: while boarding I realized that my boarding pass for BA289 had the dreaded "SSSS" on it, so I (and about 50 other pax, never seen so many on one flight) got the "royal patdown", delaying our departure by 20 minutes or so. Still, the passes were botched; KTNs not carrying over for the final leg so rather than cruise thru TSA Pre we had to queue to take our shoes off, etc. The AC lounge folks couldn't even fix it. Go figure.

Also, curious about something else slightly off topic: after hitting gold last year, I was greeted by name about 75% of the time by the head FA on long hauls, which for whatever reason I found pretty impressive. Even in WT in April in 25C on a pretty loaded A380. However, hasn't happened for my 4 long hauls since May (including BA2278 a couple of weeks back which was below 50% occupied). If it weren't for the half empty 777, I'd have attributed it to summer travel. I'd be surprised if the greet list is also generated by DUT, but who knows. Is there an actual policy on it?

corporate-wage-slave

The greeting is done if there is the time and it can be done without (e.g) disturbing sleeping passengers. There is a thread on it here, but in summary of currently 373 posts - some like it, some don't, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Gold member personal greeting

Infinite Possibilities

corporate-wage-slave

That's a slightly different point - changing seats when checked in. Many (most?) airlines now offer that, including Iberia and Vueling. But not BA.

Andriyko

Not when your trip does not start with AA and you first check-in with a different airline. I was in a similar situation as the OP when we lost our pre-assigned seats during check-in and could only get them back (good that they were still available) once we reached the AA desk at the airport of departure. Calling AA, using the app did not help at all.

Often1

OP - The best bet is to call AA directly. Frankly, true of any seat selection issue on any carrier.

AA would either have made the change for you if the seats were available.

schrodingerdog

There is another reason apart of the one mentioned by @corporate-wage-slave applying specifically to BCN

IB (only) operates the so-called 'air shuttle' from BCN to MAD. The idea is that you show up to the airport and pretty much take the first available flight (there should be one each 15-30min). With this concept in mind, there is no reason to have a dedicated lounge if >95% are just going to ignore it because people is turning up just 30min before the flight.

https://www.iberia.com/es/news-updat...e-air-shuttle/

orbitmic

Infinite Possibilities

I tried this today. I checked in with BA, and was able to select seats for my later AA flight. (I didn't follow through to confirm a change, since I was happy with the seat I already had; however, it gave every indication that it would have succeeded.) I was crediting to my BAEC account and not logged in to my AA account at the time. I entered the AA PNR to manually access the booking.

I'm not disputing your past experience; I'm merely reporting on my experience.

Andriyko

I am not sure I understand what your experience was. Did you check-in online on ba.com and was able to access the seatmap for the later AA flight? I believe that's standard.

In my case, we had pre-assigned seats on AA but when we checked in at the airport with BA the boarding passes that came out had us in different seats (and not even together). The check-in agent could not access the seatmap and neither could anyone over the phone/in the lounge. We only got our seats back once we reached AA agents at LHR.

Infinite Possibilities

I checked in with ba.com, but was not allowed to print my boarding passes. I collected my boarding passes from BA at the airport. Afterwards, I was still able to access the seat map for my later AA flight via the mobile app.

Andriyko

So, was I. The app allowed me to change the seat but it never went through after I hit 'submit.'

Infinite Possibilities