Aloomatar

I'm new to flying BA, made my EC account today. I booked TATL in business (LHR-SFO) but I'm being told by the site that I can't choose a seat until check in opens.
Is this normal for people paying top price for tickets with BA?

bisonrav

Yes. You can cancel for free within 24 hours of booking if you can find a comparable fare with free seat selection.

TTmex

Did you book it via BA or AA today? Do you have status with Oneworld? I booked an AA ticket with BA flights recently and it took some time to ticket and become viewable online. Also, yesterday I noted a BA booking where I already reserved a seat said that I had to wait until check-in, so it may be a glitch at the moment. Also, when you say top price ticket, what do you mean? A fully Flex J fare at 7-8k or a regular J fare at 3-4k?

corporate-wage-slave

It rather depends on the details. For example if you bought an inflexible ticket, even in Business, then typically that doesn't have free seat selection unless you have at least Bronze status on BA (or Ruby on another oneworld airline). If you have a flexible ticket then typically it does have seat selection. Sometimes the seating module has to wait until ticketing is complete, if you buy last moment then you have to wait until overnight. If you bought via a travel agency then they may have a seating deal. Sometimes BA is swapping equipment (particularly on that route) so they haven't yet allocated a seating plan. So there are just some factors, there are plenty more! If you are not flying for a while then you may just need to wait a day or two before seeing the seating menu.

Swanhunter

If you can’t allocate a seat you aren’t paying top price in BA’s view of the world.

chriswiles

It's been like that for ages (years!) now. On my flight back from AUS this week I was switched to this last minute (flight from IAH was cancelled), so only got a seat last minute and still secured 16K which would be one of my first choices anyhow.

With a Club Suite there's not really that many 'bad seats' and, so far, not failed to receive first meal choice either, whether I'm in 5K, 9K or 16K, so I wouldn't worry too much if you don't pre-book a seat.

TTmex

I don't think the question is whether it's free or not, it's the message about having to wait until check in which does seem to appear on mix-carrier bookings and randomly on some itins at the moment.

SonicStar817

Might be due to the lack of ticket number.

stifle

Sounds like your booking isn't ticketed yet, or the website hasn't caught up. Passengers cannot pay to assign seats on unticketed bookings.
Or, indeed, if you can't.

TTmex

Yes, to the OP - a good piece of advice is to give it a bit of time. If it hasn't ticketed yet then that may be the reason it doesn't show yet.

Aloomatar

Ok, I think I might have figured a few things out, although they're just leading to more questions.
LHR - SFO is a BA flight
SFO - LHR is an AA flight

If I go to the BA site, it doesn't let me pick and seats.
If I go to the AA site and manage the booking there, it wants to send me to the BA site to get the seats. The redirect does let me pick seats... if I'm willing to pay ~ GBP 150/seat. The ticket cost GBP 5000.
Apparently this whole thing might be because my EC status is Blue, and when I get to Bronze or Silver it'll get better?

It is indeed an inflexible ticket.

rockflyertalk

When did you buy the ticket OP? Also was this the lowest fare? Are you able to see what the selling class is? Normally found clicking on more flight details via the flight number.

BAEC Bronze means free seat selection 7 days before departure.

BAEC Silver is free seat selection at time of purchase.

Some caveats apply!

TTmex

Ok, so it sounds like two things - one it took some time to ticket, but sounds like it has now. Yep, BA without status requires paying for seats in J. Long-term debate and plenty of threads on it.

bisonrav

If you have OW sapphire or above via AA, you're best using that to assign seats. There wouldn't be a lot of point in accruing points on BA unless you're trying for status there.

You have got the 24 hour cancel if you need it, depending on whether you can find an equivalent flight with free seat assignment for less than £5150

Artpen100

I had made a ClubWorld reservation on BA flights through AA.com using my AA FF number and only made OneWorld Ruby after the reservation was made. When I hit 7 days before checkin, BA was still asking me to pay for seating, so I called in and was told that they only make that free seating benefit available based on status at the time of booking, though as a courtesy they would waive the fee just this time. Is that true? I don’t see where the OneWorld Ruby benefits say that. Though I probably wouldn’t be surprised that BA IT is unable to recognize current AA status.