AviationMoose

Not really. I just tend to look into things like booking and seat selection policies before procuring services, rather than doing as such and complaining it's not what I wanted afterwards.

Visconti

You know, initially when I was hit with this, I had thought it was one of the most stupid & irrational fees I had ever encountered whey trying to buy a plane ticket; however, after reading your collective rationals, though I haven't completely been swayed, I can at least appreciate the reasoning behind it and see where y'all coming from.

In the end, BA takes in extra marginal revenue and at the same time rewards those with elite status, and I certainly can't disagree with this in practice or principle.

Dave Noble

orit might simply be that BA makes more money with selling fewer seat selections but at a higher cost. I doubt that the aim is to reduce income. If there are, say, 50 seat savailable forr sale, selling all at GBP20 brings in GBP1000 whilst selling 15 at GBP100 brings in GBP1500.

BlueThroughCrimp

As a fairly infrequent flyer and don’t have status and I don’t mind it.
Why chase status at a much higher cost for the odd long haul flight?

GM1985

No doubt there’s a revenue optimisation component to it. If the sole aim was to dissuade early seat selection, BA could put a ridiculous £500 price tag on seats or simply prevent seat selection before OLCI on cheaper fare buckets for those without status. I’m sure the sums have been done on the optimal fees per flight to keep a reasonable % of seats free in the cabin while maximising the revenue from this ancillary sale for those who want it.

Dave Noble

I doubt that BA actually has a desire to keep seats unsold for the benefit of those with status - I think it much more likely that it has looked at what gives the best return on average. That this leads to benefits for those paying full fare or holding status is, I reckon, a coincidence rather than an intent

I haven't seen anything else to suggest that BA has a particular desire to provide special benefits , beyond those published, for those holding status

etiene

Again: members of this board report actually having discussed this policy with BA - the intent of the policy is to avoid late-booking high spenders being relegated to elbow-bumping in the love seats. Furthermore, free seat selection is a published benefit on BA.

Magic01273

Honestly, you can stop waving these anecdotes around as if they will magically stop any debate on this topic. Scepticism is still perfectly valid, even if this was how BA publicly - or privately - positioned (spun?) their intentions around the high pricing of seat selection.

As others have mentioned, if their desired outcome really was to simple "dissuade" advance seat selection, then they do in fact have the ultimate power to do that... by simply not allowing it at all for anyone without status. Or by allowing it to happen at a lower price, but limiting things to only a set number/% of seats being pre-purchased. They have ways to manage seating inventory beyond just stemming the flow by trying to price people out of purchasing, if that truly were their only objective.

Tobias-UK

Before the current policy was introduced it was impossible for those without status to select a seat prior to checkin unless travelling on a flexible ticket. That policy was changed because of the number of complaints from passengers who were unable to preselect their seat. The current policy was introduced to provide the option for those without status to pre-select a seat before checkin opened. The pricing was set deliberately to discourage passengers from doing for the reasons set out above.

Not all unoccupied seats are available for purchase.

It’s certainly a case of dammed if they do, damned if they don’t.

Flyertalker001342

I've experienced the reality of being at each tier of customer selecting seats in CW, CE, and long haul first, having no ("Blue") status, then Bronze status then Silver status and now Gold. I didn't even know what status was when I became bronze, and wasn't paying any attention to it when I became silver. I only really gave it any attention when I decided that I wanted to attain GC status.

The importance of advance seat selection varies by the aircraft layout and the duration of the flight. In many cases it makes next to no difference (think a 1 hour flight in CE or ET) and in others (think old style dormitory CW on an 11 hour flight) it makes all the difference in the world. But even having advance seat selection (think bronze or silver) doesn't necessarily open up to you the best seats on the plane. I remember being Blue or Bronze and trying to get a window seat on the upper deck of a 747 in CW. It didn't matter if you paid, you probably couldn't get that seat, at least not until you waited until 24 hours before the flight to see if any of them were left.

Now that I have GC status it's definitely easier, but I do see the reason why BA does this, for better or worse.

steveholt

Today, AF/KL announced they'll also be charging for seats in J. This is quickly becoming the industry standard. https://onemileatatime.com/news/air-...usiness-class/