TravelManBiz

windowontheAside

Anyone can TCP but only Golds can then request seating for other bookings.

BertieBadger

Just to expand on the answer given by windowontheAside, my understanding is that UKtravelbear is correct, but I can see where the confusion arises - I've been guilty of it in the past and I know people tend to conflate TCP and Gold seat requests, although they are not the same thing. Corrections most welcome but this is how I understand it works:

- TCP, as stated, is available to anyone. It simply creates a manual linking between 2 bookings. In normal operations there is no practical benefit to doing this, but in IRROPS it may become useful allowing an agent to see that 2 distinct PNRs are travelling as one party, to try to keep them together etc.

- A Gold seat request for someone on same flight, same cabin but on a separate PNR is done by sending a manual request to the seating team. As a prerequisite, the agent will link the 2 bookings via TCP (as a way to let the seating team know who the other passenger is?). This facility is only available to Gold and above.

So, since 99% [1] of "TCP requests" are actually Gold seating requests which have the TCP step as a prerequisite, people naturally tend to conflate them and will colloquially refer to the seating request as a TCP, even though it is not strictly the same thing. It is, however, less characters to type

[1] Warning: made up statistic, hat tip to c-w-s for stealing this phrase.

NickB

This is a perfect example of a non-starter. The fact that a policy might have been worse in the past tells us absolutely nothing as to whether the present one is a good one.

The fact that a cook used to use rotten eggs and tomatoes and now no longer uses rotten tomatoes but still uses rotten eggs does not mean that what is now provided is a sound and healthy meal on a par with those that contain neither rotten tomatoes nor rotten eggs..

Either the policy is a good and sensible one on its own merits or it is not. Whatever policy might have been there before does not have one iota of relevance in determining whether it is a good policy or not.

1010101

It doesn't bother me too much as long as I have status but i will always steer friends and family to other airlines because the cost is usually so prohibitive.

It's telling that after all these years BA is still the only major airline charging for seat selection in business.


BA's model is so heavily dependent on keeping its BAEC members happy, much moreso than other airlines, i assume that is exactly why they keep the charges. Last minute J on other Oneworld airlines could leave you sitting next to the toilets but on BA there's almost always at least a half decent seat left.

HIDDY

Pretty sure the driving force behind it all was to get more people to join, take part and enjoy the benefits of the BAEC reward programme.

A move which seems to have worked.

VSLover

Sealink

In many many fare comparisons, BA J class has been cheaper than other airlines. So paying £2k with free seat reservations on another airline or £1.5k with paid seats on BA is often the choice I see.

Globaliser

Because:-

1. [*]
2. [*]

So it is not actually that easy to do this without irritating your best customers.

FWIW, as an anecdote: I have just booked a flight that's 2½ months away. One sector is on a 744. Of the 6 upper deck seats that can be paid for, four have been taken. It's not possible to say whether any of them were paid for, but I strongly suspect that at least one (60B) wasn't because 60AB are both taken and it's unlikely that a singleton would take 60B when there are other options. Of the remaining 13, which can only be accounted for by Golds, Silvers and full-fare passengers, 12 have been taken. I think that this rather illustrates the "substantial proportion" point. Others will also remember how the main deck cabin used to fill towards the date of the flight, especially on some routes, even when it was basically only Golds, Silvers and full-fare passengers who could do this.

subject2load

1010101

BA will know exactly what the prime seats are. They know which seats people pay for or select first.

KARFA

As always, it really depends on what dates you look at, there are other random examples in June where EK is much more expensive for a 7 day LHR-DXB rtn than BA, and other dates where BA is more expensive. Much more relevant would be mean or average fares rather than looking at one date.

BA

EK

subject2load

KARFA

so fewer than half of the days EK is cheaper than BA? I guess for those people travelling on any of the other 17 days which you could have picked at random BA would be cheaper, and with the saving more than covering a cab at each end.

EDIT: just to add that tbh I don't really have the same concerns as others do on this issue. it works very well for me and has done for years. I fully appreciate that for those without OW status it can be an issue, but with the amount of options out there for alternate carrier they can easily avoid BA if they wish to do so.

HIDDY

Surprising a state run airline can't always offer a cheaper direct fare to its home hub than the competition. Maybe something to do with the EU investigation into how they operate?