Killian_S

Dear all, I am flying with my family in a few days. The designated aircraft was a 3-class 772, we are in the club cabin, all seated together in the middle. However, we just got a message now that the Aircraft has changed to a 4-class 773 with Flub and we are now separated. For some reason, my wife and son are in the middle but I’ve been moved 3 rows back. I called up customer services and they said nothing they can do as the flight is full. Unusually, there were quite unhelpful (normally they make magic happen).

I know that one option is to request the passenger next to my family to move once we board the aircraft, but that is unfair given that they will need to move 3 rows back. Are there any other options open to me? Thanks a lot,

corporate-wage-slave

Without specific details you will only get general responses. But the passenger in question near your wife and child may also be split from their family, and / or only to happy to move away from their current position. It's only a few rows back so most people wouldn't be bothered by that. If Flub gets used then that will make it easier. Normally Contact Centres can't move other passengers on a full service (there are limited exceptions) and they also can't help with seating requests when the aircraft is under Airport Control. That's normally at T-24 but it can be sooner. Finally there is also the possibility there will be further aircraft changes.

Often1

It's never unfair to ask someone. Not everyone will view the other seat as less favorable and perhaps she's been moved as well. You won't know until you ask.

There really isn't anything BA could have done on the phone if there aren't any other seats.

Do keep an eye on the seats because, depending on how F-Light is filled or not, there may be seats in the current J cabin which become available.

T8191

My sympathy. Clearly a LGW sunshine run, and this has happened to us (2) too. Random seating instead of our Gold pre-selections, and BA don’t seem to care. We had a trip to KIN in CW where we ended up in aisle seats behind each other, and nobody could/would do anything. And don’t talk to me about Flub!

[/rant]

southlondonphil

I'm sure most people would not object to a polite "would you mind swapping seats with me so that I can sit with my family?" anyway, but could your child be relied upon to make a mildly irritating nuisance of themselves during boarding so that the request to move back 3 rows is suitably sweetened?

trains

I'm always marginally reluctant to change unless the request comes from a crew member, isn't this something that the crew would be best to try and handle?

mikeyfly

The 77W never operates LGW so I’d assume LHR

Often1

I am much less likely to move if asked by crew on behalf of someone who can't be bothered to ask themselves.

It is one thing for crew to become involved in situations where a passenger is ordered to change seats to deal with one of a number of situations where the move must occur. But, if someone else can't be bothered to ask, I can't be bothered to life a finger.

Unless of course it's to a better seat.

RockyRobin

I’m not sure I like the “move so I can sit with my family” all sounds a bit emotional bribe? Maybe just a straight swap ask?

Dont know, could be being over sensitive

tuonopepper

I'd have no issue moving if asked by the OP, so long as there was no fundamentally bad aspect to the move, 3 rows back wouldn't bother me really.

g289t

I've never been bothered about being on either side of this scenario. If I'm separated from my family, we'll either ask a neighbor if they will switch seats or we'll just sit separately. Interestingly enough, every time we've sat separately, we have always end up at the same destination anyway.

If someone asks me if I'll switch seats because they want to sit with family or friends, I'll gladly do it. I'll even do it cheerfully if the seat is less desirable. (I have twice that I can think of traded my aisle seat for a middle or window seat on a trans Atlantic flight.)

JessicaB

I am confused. If you are on the same booking and have pre-booked seats together, can BA split you up? Depending on the age of the child, I would think that if you said the child had behavioural needs and therefore needed to sit with both parents, they would move someone else and let you sit together. Especially if you had pre-booked seats.

IAMORGAN

Yes they can. Contractually they can move anyone for operational reasons and they don’t guarantee not to split families up. In practice as you say they will normally try to help but it just depends on where everyone is on the day as obviously there are only a certain number of seat pairings and there might be other families / groups too.

UKtravelbear

OP does not mention the age of the 'child' and that is an important factor. If the child is in fact an adult or verging on it they may prefer to be say away from mum and dad so they can just do a seat swap. They may value a little 'indepedent' time and it's not like you'll be separated by a long distance.

Many years ago when I worked in GP practice I answered a call from a mother who said her 'baby' was sick. I just said 'wrap them up in a blanket. bring them down and we'll fit you in'. The response came that her 'baby' was 23 and carryign them would be a little hard!

Ages matter.