Seat problem for BA flight SIN-SYD in Clubworld
 

Last night we booked our seats on this BA flight via QF.

However there is no guarantee my wife and I will be seated together?!!
QF agent said they have no control over the BA bookings other than actually buying the tickets on our behalf.

We cannot do the online checkin exactly 24 hours before the flight as we leave LHR on a SQ flight 25 hours prior to the BA flight so will be in the air!

Here is the current seatguru plan of the flight via expedia 2 weeks from departure.
http://i42.tinypic.com/sywfig.gif

Seat choice available at check in

For the best choice of seat(s) we recommend that you check in early.

You can do this by using check in on ba.com.
This is available from 24 hours before departure.
You will be able to choose your seats and print your boarding pass (where available).

To find out more about check in on ba.com, please go to online check in.

If you cannot check in on ba.com then we recommend that you check in at the airport as early as possible. You can find out in Manage My Booking when check in opens at the airport.

It's correct to say there is no guarantee you and your wife will be seated together. But you probably will be, and it's not really worth worying about (if only on the basis that there's not much you can do about it!).

In terms of how things play out the jackpot would be SQ being able to give you your BPs for the SIN-SYD leg when you check in at LHR. The probability of this depends on how you are ticketed and how the stars are aligned, i.e. don't count on it. Second prize would probably be the SQ flight being delayed and hour or so and you being able to OLCI before leaving LHR.

Most likely it's going to be a case of checking in when you get to SIN. On alighting the plane go straight to the transfer desk and they will sort it out for you. This applies even if your bags have only been tagged to SIN - being an efficient sort of place SIN has a system in place such that bags not collected from the belts are put into a store and, when you then check-in at a transfer desk, are pulled and put onto your next flight.

Why not give a trusted friend your PNR and ask them to OLCI at the appropriate point?

As G-BOAC's link shows, this is BA's seating policy, so there's not really any way of getting round it. Search on "seating" in the BA board and you'll find it's a long and well debated topic - but not one for which there's an easy or quick workaround in circumstances like yours unfortunately.

One long shot - do you have any status with Qantas?

We booked the LHR-SIN ourselves from the SQ website and the SIN-SYD-AKL in U via QF.
Then another separately booked connection from AKL to CHC.
So between LHR and CHC there is 3 indivual bookings.

Hopefully there are no major delays or our connections will be gonski:(

not a bad idea, do you know whats required? i.e what info I would need to leave them.

I did read the official BA website before posting here and in summary it was telling me unless you are a valuable asset to us or paying a foolish full whack fare then sorry you cannot reserve them.


Bronze Diamond;)

As his profile notes - QF NB. NB (Nothing Bronze) being FT slang for the QF equivilent of BA Blue.

Ahhhhh - not au fait with the QF levels! There goes that idea then!

Whilst I have never tried it, there's also Check Me In who will do it for you based on your instructions and a small fee.

Only really the PNR (and your surnames - but assuming they're a trusted friend, they should know that already ;) ). From a cursory check, no API requirement for Australia or New Zealand, so that should suffice. If you want to ensure they can handle any unexpected requests, then leave your passport details etc and where you're staying.

That pretty much summarises the policy in a nutshell ;) :D

Would you be able to leave your booking reference with a relative or friend and ask them to do you seats for you at -24...?

Then pick up your boarding passes at somewhere along the route?

Edited: Doh... should have read more carefully! :rolleyes:

The OP is a Qantas Pub member - I seem to remember reading somewhere on the BA board that BA equates this as OW Ruby (which, I know, BA doesn't have, but the rest of oneworld does).

Since OWR *is* actually a OW elite level (albeit without much in the way of benefits) would this be enough for the system to allow pre-allocation via MMB?

Dave

No.

And just to add, thedocta, it's 'No' because O/W Ruby is not included as a O/W status for pre-selection of seats.

I agree with phillipas - you will probably be seated together, perhaps not in your favourite seats, but all will be ok. If you are split up, you still have a chance asking your seatmate to switch seats or asking an FA for help.

Correct. BA's management successfully driving away new J business. Completely batty.