Gatwickba

It was, of course, meant as a joke....

Londonflyer

OK, I'm afraid I haven't read all the way through this post, so I maybe repeating something already stated.

What's all the moaning about? Up until a number (dunno, maybe 10?) years ago there wa sno such idea or pre-reserved seats. BA it seems were facing a situation where tech savy people were choosing seat here there an everywhere and when familys and people (like my Mum & Dad) turn up, then there are no suitbale groups of seat together.

So, some people here say they will choose fly another carrier if they can;t pre-reserve seats togehter? Sounds to me like you are exactly the sort od whinging, moaning types who expect too much for a cheap ticket. I would wager that BA will happily see you go elsewhere.

FInally, surely there is a dynamic IT solution to the fact that numbers of groups of seats must be kept together for the expected/ticket passengers?

Swanhunter

Very true on both acounts.

pbarnette

Not a popular sentiment on this board, but I agree. I would take it further and argue that even the cheapo travelers are important for an airline's success. I know everyone on FT likes to prattle on about how loyal flyers and premium fares are what turns a profit, but I don't completely swallow it. Both Ryanair and Southwest have completely changed the game for air travel in their respective geographies, and turned a profit while doing it. BA is running scared, just like everyone else. But why should this be the case, if it is premium fares that guarantee success? The cliche sounds good, and sure makes us all feel important, but it really doesn't match that well with reality.

kered

CHEAP TICKET

What’s cheap about spending over Two grand per seat, for a couple to fly to the U.S. in Club World ????

BAAZ

Well, the fact that you've probably paid less than anyone else in the cabin (apart from redemptions, who have status and who presumably spent a lot more in order to get their miles).

That's the problem - you need to put people in some order of priority somehow.

Teece

Apart from the corporates, at least, and a fair few of them on many routes.

harryhv

Every other airline allows premium pax to assign seats, for a proportion of the cabin. The remainder is held back for a) status pax and b) airport-control, so people checking-in together can be seated together. BA allows prealloocation only for status-pax (and babies and the occcasional nutter who pays the full rack rate).

kered

You beat me to it there harryhv ^

quitecontrary

Leisure travellers expect the ability to choose seats together - a family of 4 or 5 travelling to Oz in CW must be important to BA -they are spending say £14,000 of their own hard earned cash and just because they don't happen to work in job where their employer pays for them to travel in premium classes they are stuck with what they can nab at OLCI. In any case someone travelling on business may well be travelling on their own as already been pointed out and although they may want a good seat it's not as traumatic to them as to a family who have been looking forward to the trip for months. As the Summer holidays approach I think there will be a lot of very disgruntled families at LHR and LGW. Flying in CW is part of the holiday and if they end up separated they will probably look elsewhere for their next trip.
I got around it this year as we are flying a BA codeshare on QF. Mr qc is silver but we are on different PNRs. he was able to choose his seat and I just phoned Qantas who without any arguement moved me beside him -now that's what I call service ^ .

CT-UK

This is VERY true.
I friend of mine booked for his wife and himself to go to Dubai in CW. After booking and paying for the flight he tried to book seats and was told he couldn't. At this point he got very pissed of with the CSR he was on the phone with and asked to cancel. They wouldn't as it was non refundable. At this point he walked away and booked with Ethiad. (He has plenty enough money not to worry about this.) He flew Ethiad, loved it and will never use BA again.
He just couldn't get his head around that we spent £3k and wasn't able to make sure he sat next to his wife. He proabably takes 3-4 long haul J trips a year out of his own deep pockets and will give every penny to other airlines because of this new policy.

jhm

Presumably not every one of those 3-4 long haul J trips was BA given that they would otherwise result in at least 720 TP and non-Eurocheat silver status!

kered

Hence the argument for blocking out the best seats for Golds & Silvers & releasing the remainder for assignment by everyone else.

Don’t forget that every regular traveller flying with BA today started out with their first flight. So take for instance a passenger who seeing the adverts for & reading about the New Club World decides to come over from the likes of VS & try out the product. They have no status, are on a discounted fare & end up in a crap seat, being told in no uncertain terms by the ground staff at check-in & in the lounge that there’s nothing that can be done for them.

How many of those are going to come back to fly with BA another day & become the Golds & Silvers of tomorrow ???

Or the Honeymoon Couple, who haved saved up to treat themselves to a dream flight in Club World, who know nothing about status or OLCI but are so looking forward to their once in a lifetime flight. Only turn up at the airport & find themselves assigned seats in different parts of the cabin. When every other airline would have offered them pre-assigned seats.

It's just not good enough

CT-UK

You assume he even bothers to collect miles..... He doesn't see the point for some odd reason. You are correct he disn't alwasy use BA. I think he used NZ when he went to LAX earlier this year.

jhm

Whilst I can sort of see the viewpoint of those who obviously can't bear to be without their beloved for a CW to Aus (or perhaps even a short 1 hour CE flight), aren't we now getting a bit OTT ? IMO (paying for all my flights out of my "hard earned" cash - another emotive phrase which has been bandied around here), I'm fortunate to be in CW and any seat is a good seat. I think that sometimes we, as FT'ers, get obsessed about which seats are good when in reality, most people don't really care. Now, let me go and check MMB to make sure I haven't been seat shifted from 62K...

More heart tugging examples with references to "Honeymoon Couples"! Another one could be the Hard Nosed Business Person who has no loyalty to BA or any other airline whatsoever, books CW with his company's cash (not his Hard Earned Cash) and can't allocate his seat. Not so much sympathy here for that example.