Haagen Daz

Last week, during online check-in, at the last moment my chosen seats were bumped to (marginally) less favourable ones (for context, we were flying in CW and I am a GCH, so didn't pay for seat selection). I elected not to continue online, but waited to check in at LHR. I politely asked why my original choice of seats had been changed, to which the delightful agent replied that one of our selected seats was U/S. Fair.enough.

After boarding the flight, imagine my surprise to see said seat not only occupied but fully functional (upright, flat, IFE working perfectly).

I don't think for a moment that the ground agent lied to me, she was reading off a screen, but why the porkies from BA?

Not looking for anything, the flight was excellent and the crew as good as any, so no hardship imposed.

msm2000uk

Its entirely possible that the seat was reported InOp, but Engineering were then able to repair it.

I've had this a few times.

M

Haagen Daz

Fair enough but, given that CW was full, what would BA have done had Engineering not been able to fix the seat (our booking was for 2 pax)?

hydro001

Invol downgrade/ upgrade

Also sometimes Inop seats can be used for staff travel customers only, depending on what the issue with the seat is.

1Aturnleft

​​​​​​Exactly this. I'd noticed the seat behind mine in CS was showing as blocked as opposed to occupied in GDS seat maps before travel the other week. As I was at the boarding gate having my boarding pass and passport checked I happened to be level with another passenger who was on a staff travel ticket as they were being advised their seat wont be able to be reclined and that the IFE wasn't working. Low and behold a few minutes later the poor girl is settling in for 11 hours in the seat behind me.

docdee

I had this coming back from JFK in first Dec 2019. I had 1a and got bumped to 8a. Was told the seat was broken but there was definitely someone in it during the flight. I just assumed they were more important than me. Night flight so I slept most of it anyway. Didn't make a fuss. Sad though as this was the last opportunity to have 1a in the nose of the 747, but I didn't know that at the time.

OddJobMan

I had the same problem last week coming back from VCE. I selected 2A and 2C months ago. The evening before the flight I looked at Expert Flyer and noticed they where blocked. When I did OLCI I had been moved to 8A/8C. There were other spare seats behind. Upon boarding 2A/2C were occupied by another couple. My first thought was that some shenanigans had been going on, If the seats were faulty why not use the other empty ones.

Cymro

This sounds like a change of aircraft or a moved curtain, then a change back, and thus the loss of all original bookings to an algorithm that rearranged the cabin.

OddJobMan

Possibly, I just found it a bit strange that only blocked seats were the ones I had chosen.

NickB

Moved curtain would not, in itself, result in loss of seat assignment, especially in CE, unless you went from before the curtain to after the curtain (at the front of Y, it could be more complicated but you are normally moved back a row or two). A change of equipment, however, could have that result.

JD1905

I had this happen once before. There was an issue with my seat in CW prior to boarding, my name was called in the lounge (I missed it)but when we got the the gate I was told that me and my partner had been moved seats.

When we boarded, somebody was in my original seat. The 'Issue' with the seat is that it required the crew to put it into a Lie-Flat position and there was masking tape on it, so it wasn't really in-operable as they had another passenger occupying the seat...so i'm not sure why they moved me to be honest. Would it have been a status thing maybe "Ah he's a moaning b*stard so lets not give him that seat* flagged up on the iPad or something?

mikeyfly

Assumed this thread would be them telling "porkies" when denying compo which is becoming rampant !

However, regarding this - I don't think anyone told a porkie at any point, it's just things have changed since the original defect

fdem

Flew in from LHR/PMI on Sunday I religiously checked seating as we had 12c and 12d ( we both like aisle seats) which are emergency exits all ok when checked in, sadly when we boarded were squeezed into zero legroom seats on the dreaded 319 ( original flight was a 320). I am 5 foot 11 and my husband is 6 foot 5 so could hardly squeeze my legs in, extremely uncomfortable and I know first world problem. We retained silver for almost 30 years with the main benefit being able to choose seats ( couldn’t care less about priority boarding and lounge access, so it is becoming apparent there is not much point in striving to achieve status in future. This has happened on 3 out of 4 of my past flights. If I wanted to fly in a nightmare seat, I would choose Ryanair! Also since when has it been legal for children to be seated in exit seats (2 kids of about 6 and 10) obviously BA changed aircraft at the last minute and didn’t apply protocols for exit seating. We ormally fly club but even if we had the 319 seating is appallingly and should be scrapped from the fleet