Moomba

There was an option put out there by our mods that would have solved this problem but most people voted against it.

If we implemented the thread 'prefix' mechanism like on the BD board then people could prefix a thread as rant and you could ignore it.

kered

I agree that the amount of “Stickies” should be kept to a minimum.

But from what I can see, the seating policy is being visited on a fairly regular basis, much to the annoyance of many on here. Quite often, it will be resurrected in a new thread, by a newcomer to the board, wanting to find out about BA’s somewhat unique policies on seating pre-assignments, particularly in CW it seems. While it does annoy many members on here, I for one do think that it should highlighted, as it is pretty much a policy that is the preserve of BA.

So to that end, one additional “Sticky” entitled something like, BA’s policy on seat pre-assignments” would in my opinion deflect many from opening another new thread on the subject. The “Ultimate Guide”, while it is brilliant & very well put together, is very in depth & complex by it’s nature. It does after all cover just about everything BA. So the seating policy while covered in there, is somewhat buried.

So for someone coming to this board, blinkered in their quest to find out about the seating policy & despite what many may think, quite stunned to be faced with the policy, are not really going to wade through the “Ultimate Guide” or even in some cases, see it as the source of the information they need.

The “Seating Sticky” need not be very long or in depth & indeed can be locked to prevent growth. But could just spell out in “Lay Man’s” terms what the seating policy is about & how it works. Links to the relevant page on ba.com & to the seating portion of the “Ultimate Guide” can be given to provide further details.

At the very least it could save a new member or visitor suffering the wrath brought upon them, of a regular on here, seeing “yet another seating thread” & would therefore make this board a more welcoming place. It is a subject that is going to come up, more & more in the future & this could help dilute the negative effects.

Seeing as I have ranted so much over this policy in the past & that I feel so strongly about the subject, I would happily put myself forward to write the content of the “Sticky” if so asked by the powers that be.

Edited to add…….

I think I might write it anyway, just to have it started. That way I can PM it to someone, or post up on the board for approval, if asked.

Would be a nice project for me. Therapy if you will

Prospero

Upon reading kered's post today in the "Why did BA stop seat selection", I think he raised a valid point about the potential benefit a new sticky relating to BA's seating policy might bring to the community. So perhaps time has arrived to revisit our current list of stickies and seek new feedback. I have copied the thoughts by other kindled by kered onto this thread. These [posts 27-32] appear immediately above this post.

The BA forum currently headlines three stickies:
- Club World Guide (September 2008 update)
- READ THIS FIRST >>> The Ultimate BA Guide!
- The BA Upgrade Guide - For All Your Upgrade Questions!

Have any served their time, are the titles still relevant and concise, is there room for new additions or are we happy with the status quo? As always, your views are greatly appreciated.

Swanhunter has very kindly offered to spearhead a new iteration of the Ultimate BA Guide, which in line with the previous and current versions will be created as a team effort. Also, it is our plan to include within the next release a downloadable illustrative brochure which can be copied onto your hard drive and printed so you can have a hardcopy at hand as you are travelling. Swanhunter has many thoughts on how this can be best achieved and I think I should allow his to share these with you in his own time and with his own words.

Prospero

If we were to return to first principles, one suggestion would be to structure the essential info into three separate threads as follows:

Ultimate Guide to the BA Executive Club
Enrollment and benefits
- Overview
- Tier Benefits
- Household accounts
- On Business (?)

Earning miles and tier points
- BA booking and ticketing
- Selling classes
- Shareholder discount
- RTW (?)
- ex EU
- oneworld, franchise and other airline partners
- finance services (Amex, Travelex plus other international cards)
- other partners (Tesco, BA Miles eStore, Marriott etc)

Spending miles
- Redemption bookings on BA
- redemption bookings on oneworld, franchise airlines and other partners
- Miles for upgrade bookings
- Cash and Miles bookings
- Ex EU bookings
- Round the world tickets



Ultimate Guide to BA's product and services (including seating)
- Overview: Products, seating policy, lounge access rules
- Long haul fleet (and best seats)
- Short haul fleet (and best seats)
- LHR Terminal 5
- LHR Terminal 3
- London Gatwick
- Using the Flight Connections Centre
- A to Z index of lounges
- Tips on maximising the BA First Experience
- Tips on maximising the BA Club World Experience
- Tips on maximising the BA World Traveller Plus Experience
- Suggestions for Travelling with Children



Ultimate Guide to BA Upgrades
per current sticky.



Thoughts? The separation of the Ultimate Guide is feasible but as it contains multiple embedded links it will be a nasty job for someone to do. I would be happy to work on that though.

matthewuk

I'm not a fan of stickies and agree that 3 is probably as many as you want.

I would personally prefer:

Ultimate Guide to the BA Executive Club as per Prospero

The BA Seating Policy - like it or loathe it here are the details

Ultimate Guide to BA's product and services

bin the upgrade sticky or add it to the product and services sticky

HIDDY

Regarding the seating policy. There is no mention of it in the Ultimate Guide "quick links" section. It is hidden in the "Fleet Overview and Seat Map Links" which may not be obvious to all. I'm sure there are a few more often asked questions not included or hidden away underneath other titles.

If the information is too hard to find a lot of people won't bother to look for it.

trueblu

Agree with this. The is it NNGCW thread does not need to be a sticky: only regular BA flyers would be interested, and they can search for it readily enough. If/ when many more 777s get the seat, and lots more new threads are seen, the decision can be re-visited.

Although I personally don't strongly about whether the Seating Policy should be made into a sticky: it would be a worthwhile experiment: if we see a drop of shocked/ amazed threads of people flying BA the first time and wondering why they can't select seats on an I-class booking, would be worth keeping.

tb

kered

That's a pretty good idea ^

Put it as a “Sticky on Test” & if after a period of time, it is deemed to have reduced the occurrence of new seating threads, let it stay & then perhaps then take a look at restructuring the current Stickies.

As an aside, I too have often thought that the "Upgrade Sticky" could get consolidated into the "Ultimate Guide" & have also wondered why the NGCW Sticky is still required.

I’m working on a draft of the “Seating Sticky” purely as an exercise & a little therapy for myself. So I could post it up, or PM it to a Mod for consideration and/or approval.

Although I guess it may not be my place to create a Sticky & perhaps that is the preserve of the Mods & other powers that be. But seeing as I am so passionate about the policy & if there was sufficient interest in my efforts, I would be only too happy to put forward my draft.

phreegreens

That is a v.good idea, keeping the formatting to minimum, so it is mobile phone friendly, it would be great to have that readily available.

As maybe an add on to this idea. Maybe a "When sh*t happens" thread with an accompanying download'able. Including all the key phone numbers (GCH, GGL, Your First, etc..), what are the call centre opening hours in which time zone, url for baggage tracker, for the many on here that use BA Amex what you are entitled to if your bag goes walkies. I have got some of this info already on my phone, for just those situations.

ian001

Yes. I suggest it should be called "Have Your Say" and there could be daily hot topics where posters could speak their brains about the issues of the day and it would be brimming with pertinent and incisive comments, just like its BBC equivalent.

"What's the point in posting a comment???!!!! The Pee Cee Brigrade HYS mods wont print my comment's!!! Only in McBroons Britten! Its rediculess!!!"
axebbctvlicencetax, Berkhamstead

This is a good idea. It must obviously be fully compliant with BA branding guidelines!

Think this is a great idea. I would also add somewhere a guide to asking for further help, ie don't start a thread with "Help needed" as the title and no information about route, status, travelling class etc etc.

Euan

I personally like those 3 as stickies and I don't think we want more than 3... begins to get too crowded.

A litl more information about what is contained within the stickies (as I've added above) may help visitors find the information they are looking for or at least encourage them to look there first if they think they might get the info they want.

I would also ditch the sticky for upgrades.

bcmatt

This was going to be my suggestion - rather than create a new sticky for the seating policy, make it more explicit in the Ultimate Guide, maybe with its own heading.

kryten22uk

There has been very few newbie posts about upgrades on BA, and hence this might suggest that the current sticky is incredibly useful as is. You could trial it by tucking it away in the Ultimate guide, but if we see a noticeable increase in upgrade-type queries then it might need bringing back.

Disco Volante

I wouldn't bother with a seating sticky. If posters can't understand READ THIS FIRST, I don't think they will bother to read a thread on seating.

matthewuk

Possibly - but the seating issue is a quite specific thing and fairly unique to BA.

Most of the posts are of the 'surely it can't be true' type so the last place someone with that at the front of their mind is going to go to is the official 'READ THIS FIRST' thread. If we phrase a 'seating' sticky title well then we should catch the majority of these folk.

I personally don't have a problem with endless new threads on the subject but for this who find it annoying a specific sticky is maybe the solution. I think it's worth at least a trial.