AJLondon

LH has it in both C and Y for SENs and HONs.

jkw76

I ditto the experience, when it doesn't a quick call to the right place normally sorts it out.

Moscowflyer

I find that Reservation Assurance works out of Moscow if we're both keen to get to the UK and for some reason the BA flight is full, usually on a Friday. I pay around GBP 250 return these days for my tickets - with a changeable return date for GBP 30 if I need to - and only need to book around a week ahead at this time of year. No miles, no points but I'm not paying $3000 for a choice of main course in a marginally more spacious than economy seat one row ahead of me! If my wife decides she'll come to the UK as well, it's her fault that she has to pay full fare for the leg of the journey to the UK when she doesn't plan ahead ( ) but BA do confirm the seat. I have to explain the concept to them occasionally (and indeed had to search the site pretty thoroughly the first time to find it since it was indeed tucked away in the silver benefits) but Moscow is generally very helpful - to the extent that when I try and buy a ticket to London they start at the cheapest tickets and work up, which is commendable.

Less good is this long-haul waitlist thing I have to say. Invariably when I go to the US (or the Bahamas next week) as a D fare through London out of Moscow - even if I book several weeks ahead - I'm waitlisted in business on every flight to NY except the last one of the day even if I'm connecting with an extra day in London and can take an earlier flight out to the US. In ten days for example I'm confirmed on the indirect flight to Houston and waitlisted on the more useful direct flight, gold card or not. Often it doesn't clear and I end up faced with having to take the very late BA (meaning no time to see a client that evening in the US) or - now that our travel policy has changed (bigger bank paying) - I just take an American flight at a more convenient time and put the miles and points on Cathay (or take Lufthansa to avoid changing in London at all on occasion). I guess BA must be doing well since their US flights are all jammed full and they can do without my money .

Moscowflyer

Edited for duplication

Smirnoff

The thing is, probably, that the cheap ex-DME tickets to the US (I book DME-JFK for about $2300 return in club) book into C class IIRC (although it may be D), and the closer to departure you get, you may find flights to NYC with plenty of full fare J, but no C, D or I, which is needed for the special fare.

Moscowflyer

You're right, I think it's D. I've been looking at the class availability tool and there are a couple of options on the day to Newark (which I never mind arriving at) or early to JFK that have availability in D class so I'll book those. Nearer the time you never know there may be a shortage of high-rolling execs that day and I get confirmed on a reasonably-timed flight at my cheap business fare. $2300 is a good fare, mine are usually $3300-3500 for New York return I think.

KenJohn

I recall a couple years back that this was only a Gold Benefit. Never knew they now regard this as a Silver benefit.

BA has to compensate less to bump someone out of discounted Y so the Silver/Gold member can get their seat in order to meet this obligation if there are zero no-shows at check-in. More expensive with long term commercial consequences if bumping someone out of C, even if discounted fare.

hfly

They've always had it as do many other FF programmes for their top tiers. i use these all the time and here is my tally of how well they work:

BA: 20% of the time, if there is any sort of event whatsoever at the destination BA will usually use it as an excuse to not do it.
BD:90% of the time
DL: 100% of the time
LH: 100% of the time and applies to all cabins

Cargo Cult

Tried - unsuccessfully - to use this today to get a seat back on a fully sold flight from Stuttgart tomorrow. I am now 'waitlisted' for the flight, but my understanding is that RA would get me 'confirmed' on it. Our company travel person told me that the company TA (BTI, to name the guilty party) did not seem to know of the existence of this feature, and very likely did not ask BA for it. I even provided a link to Ask BA. Grrr.

Land-of-Miles

I had a similar problem in the past where BTI were the corporate TA for a major client. What I managed to do in that stuation was arrange the reservation direct with BA, then provide the Res. No. to BTI for them to pick up the settlement and ticketing directly.

This may help, although I had difficulty teaching BTI how to locate their backside using both hands. YMMV

Smirnoff

My TA has never heard of this either, but my waitlists always seem to clear.

What I don't understand is, to get the guaranteed seat in Y, does the TA have to send off any message or do anything other than hold the waitliested flight? Does the system automatically recognise that a Gold is waitlisting and automatically confirm the seat, or does the system have to be asked?

Land-of-Miles

I suppose that periodic auditing of the waitlist will result in Golds being confirmed, but when I have used the Seat Guarantee in the past, I have had to specifically call BA Reservations and have them confirm a seat. I do not see how else the "guarantee" can be invoked, otherwise to an extent (no matter how good BA's systems are ) you take pot luck.

travelmad478

It has always worked for me except when flying back and forth from South Africa. After sitting on the waitlist for two different flights for more than two months, calling BA and my travel agent multiple times to check up on the situation, last week I ended up flying on SA from JNB-LHR because that was the only J seat available.

I suppose I could have pulled rank and claimed my guaranteed Y seat on BA, but there are limits to my loyalty! (And the best part...due to some mix-up with my BA tickets endorsed to SA, I ended up with BA miles and tier points for the flights anyway! )

TheMajor

This is absoluetely pants!!

I used to try to use this on UK domestic and never, ever did I get a guaraneteed reservation. Waitlist was all they could do

The terms and conditions say:

"British Airways will do its utmost to ensure Reservation Assurance is delivered. However, we provide no guarantees due to circumstances beyond our control, which may mean we are unable to offer this service."

I think they include the plane being full as circumstances beyond their control. Actually what could they possibly mean by this???

ThatT1Feeling

I needed to book LHR-CDG last month in Y (full fare) and my TA was told that the flight was completely full. I reminded my TA that I was a Gold member (the TA still had me in their records as a blue) and within 30 minutes my reservation was confirmed through reservation assurance. I was told in the lounge that the flight had 10 on the waitlist (possibly one of which was the poor person I had bumped off!) The flight was, needless to say, packed. So in my experience it does work as long as you remind them of their own rules. Also have never failed to clear a waitlist and this is one of the key benefits for me.