planes&trains

I recall reading here a while ago that BA holds 1A (and, perhaps 1K) in F for their top customers. I have a booking LAX-LHR for Jan and all seats in F are open except those two. Does anyone know when would be a good time to check back if 1A/K open? I'd rather set an alert instead of checking everyday.

mikeyfly

Circa 48-72 hours. And you’ll likely need to call. Some threads covered this if you want a look

747 1A/K - 'Blocked' or reserved?
1A / 1K in First
Seat 1A!
When can I book seat 1A on a 777 BA flight?
When are 1A/1K seats released to non-GCH in MMB?
When Do Seat 1A and 1K on the 744 Open To Non-BA Golds

planes&trains

I am facing this across multiple routes/

planes&trains

Thank you. Added it to calendar. Much appreciate the links as well. Looks like I missed half of them in my search. Ouch.

orbitmic

Note that they may well never open for non-Golds as well due to theoretical seating (though in fairness this was mostly the case with the 744). But yes, if there is any chance at all for non-golds that would be around t-72 - t-48 or sometimes even later.

Jet Ranger

Both seats were vacant on my last MIA-LHR in F. I am currently working up to my EXP on AA, as I already requalified for BA Gold this year, so I couldn’t book 1K on my AA Platinum status. My other half was in 2K and I was in 2A. The centre pairs were both taken. There were obvious workarounds (changing status at checkin - yes I know. I had a blonde moment)

Still didn’t open at T-72. Still nothing at t-48 so I called You First. BA said the flight went under airport control already, both seats were now blocked off, and this could only be looked at, at checkin. Nothing could be done now.
At check in they said the seats were still blocked off, for social distancing apparently, in First as it was pretty full. 1K was still empty on boarding and the crew were happy for me to switch across to 1K, so we could sit together on the same side of the plane.

I don’t know if this is a new thing, or just an anomaly of my flight last week, but bear in mind, in case it doesn’t free up at T-72.

planes&trains

Well, it looks like I will stay put in 2A. If there is only a slim chance that 1A will open for non-Gold and given the complaints on the other threads linked above, I got lucky with 2A for the A380 LAX-LHR.

Swanhunter

Row 1 on the A380 isn’t that great. Row 2 better. Row 3 even more so.

1AK were special on the 747 but not worth stressing about on the rest of the long haul fleet.

mikeyfly

I’d say 2K is my preferred A380 seat

1Aturnleft

Only half? 🤪

orbitmic

See my post just above yours - no, it's not new, it's happened since the start of theoretical seating, 1A and 1K may never be open for non-golds, though in my experience that mostly happened on the 744 where the distance between the two seats was relatively narrow, but I've also seen it happen with an eligible pair in 1EF on other aircrafts.

The current social distancing situation may indeed make those things even more important if there are enough other seats available, though equally, BA does not shy away from using the full cabin if it has enough passenger to fill it.

flying_geek

I recently was the only F pax on LHR-MIA - I had purposely selected 2A since I’d rather have someone cough in front than behind me. 1A/K seemed never available though to self select. I was asked if I preferred 1A when checking in at the first wing. I asked if i was still the sole pax and she said yes - kept 2A

RB211

Why do you say that row 2 is better and 3 even more so? (Curious because 1K is my favourite!)

rb211.