BA Punishing Low fare ExClub Members?
 

I have been a member of Ex Club for some years - though busted back to Blue recently for lack of flights. But I tried to select a seat on a LHR-RUH flight today just after check-in opened. There was nothing available except my assigned middle seat at the back of the aircraft. I cannot believe ALL the other seats in economy had been assigned, so am I being punished for buying my ticket via a low-cost outlet rather direct from BA? Is this treatment a deliberate marketing policy by BA? Yours disgusted.

PS I cannot upgrade with my 000's of Avios either. The website just refers me back to the ticket seller. Grrrrr.

Welcome to FT!

Just ask at check-in for a better/your preferred seat.

Thanks, will try it!

Did you buy an HBO fare?

Sounds like you bought a cheap ticket, that plus buying it from a non-BA source can result in upgrade restrictions.

EDIT: Welcome as well, am on my phone so can’t see post count.

Welcome to FT Robin_Saunter!

It does look fairly busy on the flight tomorrow F0 A0 J0 C0 D0 R0 I0 W0 E0 T0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

There should be no difference on your ability to seat select generally based on your channel through which you purchased - you would likely see exactly the same had you booked this one through ba.com

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...921/3T6UNw.png

Welcome to Flyertalk Robin_Saunter and welcome to the BA forum, you've certainly come to the right place to find out about the tricks and treats of the system, so I hope you will continue to participate.

The key question is - have you printed or downloaded your boarding pass yet? If not, hang on in there, I'm sure a better seat will come up, about a third of seats shift hand in the first few hours so if you keep checking you may well get a better option. You should still check in, just be careful not to download the boarding pass.

It is the case that a significant perk of BAEC is that regular BA flyers will get first dibs of the seats. Keeping Bronze with BAEC isn't too arduous I would suggest, so that if free seat selection matters to you then you may want to peruse this forum for ideas, and indeed this flight alone gets you on the way to Bronze.

That said, the flight tomorrow is overbooked somewhat, if I'm guessing correctly. You will see just one clear seat in my ExpertFlyer extract below - that seat will move around a lot, and you will also see X seats, these are reserved or Theoretically blocked, but these too will move. So keep trying.

Companies won't pay for flexible business class tickets like they used to and I'm forced to fly economy and at bargain prices. I understand that BA's first priority is to make a profit by encouraging full fares but this kind of behaviour makes me disinclined to use BA in the future. Like so many others...

Many thanks for the information. Much obliged.

That's very good to know. Many thanks for the quick reply.

You're only allowed 5 posts on day 1 on Flyertalk, that's get lifted after 24 hours. If you want more information or advice, I'd delete some of the contents of your "thanks" post, use the Like button instead and then ask the Mod to delete those posts via Report Bad Post, the red triangle on the left. If you're OK with what you have now, you don't need to do anything.

[Except Prospero works faster than I can type! Just use your remaining posts wisely, a message valid for all FTers actually!]

If you are not in a hurry, you should ask if VDB is needed for that flight - it is sold out and most like oversold, so there is a fair chance that VDB will be needed. Ask at check-in and again at the gate if interested in getting a monetary compensation for taking a later/another flight

On the other hand if you paid full flex, have a Gold/Silver card, do a lot of business buying straight from the source (i.e. BA.com) and had no advantage over anyone else... would you feel rewarded for giving so much business to BA and for your fidelity?

It’s a similar thing all over the shop and beyond the airline industry. I use Avis car hire a lot; because of that I get upgrades and, crucially, I get to jump the queue, go to the car park and, ka-ching, my car’s already there with the keys in and my name scribbled on the papers on the dashboard. It’s great service and makes me want to use nothing but Avis (which I do).

Did you have the option to purchase a seat before check-in opened? I'm pretty sure you should have been able to do that even for a TA booked flight. It's not ideal, but at least it guarantees that you would not face the dreaded middle seat on a long haul!

Maybe something to consider for future flights.

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Robin_Saunter

I’ve merged three of your posts together so this will free up two additional posts for you should you wish to follow up during the next 24 hours.

Prospero
Moderator: BA forum

OP talks about buying the ticket from "a low-cost outlet" so it might be some sort of bulk or consolidator ticket. Would those be eligible for advance seat purchase? OTOH, perhaps the OP didn't try to look at the PNR on the BA website.

Only group bookings are ineligible, subject to different conditions. With TA bookings paid seating comes on stream after the ticket is issued

this is one of the effects of what is called "theoretical seating". as you see from the seat map posted there are many blocked seats (those with X) and over the course of the check in period those will open up as more and more people check in.

i suspect that there is a group of 3 people on one PNR still to check in hence the three seats in row 36 being blocked as it wants to allow them to sit together. This is one example of the effect of TS.

The software that does this is now used by many airlines (although their seat blocking rules may differ) and you will see the same effect of lack of available seats at check in.

Rather than a consequence of a low cost ticket it is more a consequence of being a single flyer without status.

Other seats will free up, so keep checking the seat map and hopefully something "better" will become available.