kered

I agreed with you that someone has to be last, but they had no chance at all under the current system, to assign their seats when they booked months in advance. Instead they had to wait until OLCI opened to assign their seats.

Under the new system, they will have the opportunity to choose their seats & not have to wait until OLCI opens.

If that far out, SCHs, GCHs, Prems, Full Fare Pax had assigned seats & every other pax opted to pay the seating fee, well then yes, they would have been last & then the "last come / last served” effect comes into play.

Only time will tell, if sufficient numbers are going to pay the fee, on a busy flight for that to happen.

Anyway, we could argue the toss here for ever & never get to a resolution. As someone called it up thread a “circular argument”.

All I can say is that I wholeheartedly welcome the new policy as it offers those who want seat assignments at the time of booking, the opportunity to do so. When they can’t do so by merit of status or fare paid. If they decide to do so or not, well that’s up to them. But that’s a choice not available on BA for a number of years & in my book, more choice = a good thing ^

Tupelo

Count me among the SCH who is of the opinion that, when the dust settles and everyone sees how all this actually plays out, this just isn't going to happen. I don't see "thousands" of SCH pitching a fit and giving up lounge access, tier point and mileage bonuses, premium check-in, and free advance seat selection all on their preferred airline, over the theoretical inability to reserve exit row seats in WT and WT+ when they book. I say theoretical because no one yet knows what the uptake on this new policy will actually be. The charges to preselect seats are ridiculously high, and I truly don't believe many non-status customers will actually do it.

Even now, a SCH might get beaten to that exit row seat by another status customer. Since there are reportedly many, many thousands of status customers with BA, all apparently coveting the good seats, if it isn't a big problem now, I have doubts it will be much of a problem after Oct. 7. Just my opinion.

hammythehammer

Under the 'old system' it seems that someone must have moved to let your relatives sit across the aisle from each other . Is that person likely to do that, if
they have paid for that seat reservation?
If they have the attitude of "should of booked earlier / paid the seat fee" ...I can't see them swapping, can you?

kered

Ah yes, but under the new policy, they wouldn't have had to ask someone to move, as they would have had their seats assigned months in advance.

Just like they could have done, if they were on any other airline.

But BA didn't offer them that choice, whereas now (or at least from the 7th) they do !!


(I have to leave it there for now, excellent debate ^ No doubt I’ll be back )

hammythehammer

However we're back to assuming they aren't the last two to book again and all the seats have gone.

PEK Duck

^ +1

Lobengula

It was a strange feeling writing a letter, print it and then using an envelope with stamps. Seems so 90thies

But it was a non-PUTI letter where I have now explained my worries about this new policy. The SCH (and GCH) devaluation in combination with "Joe Public" thinks it will cost £60/person for his family to be seated together.

It's amazing that you with one policy change can pi$$ off both elites and casual travelers.

But I feel most sorry for the hard working BA staff that will be confronting this management failure

JenE

It's amazing that you with one policy change can pi$$ off both elites and casual travelers.

Indeed!

Nobody questions BA's need to generate revenue.

I am surprised that there has not been any sort of PR response to the outrage created by this change - not even any effort to correct miss-reporting?!?

Can you imagine the amazing goodwill the following announcement would create....

With apologies to our valued customers we have to admit we got this one wrong. We have listened to your concerns and here is what we are going to do.

Allow everyone to select a seat at time of booking through ba.com.
We will reserve 'prime' seating for our elite members until T-24 because we want our elite members to know that we value their business.
At T-24 all unassigned seats will be open to all passengers. Changes may be made at ba.com
Of course there is a fee associated with this plan, but we will include that fee in the cost of your ticket - this increase will be minimal since everyone will be paying.
Of course those passengers who are looking for the lowest possible base priced ticket will probably choose not to fly with BA - those passengers will fly with one of the LCC. BA will service those customers looking for a full service carrier... customers who want to look at the price of a ticket and know that that is the price - no extras.

This would mean that I, as a blue, can select two seats together in CW at time of booking. My guess would be that they would be lower deck, but at least if I book early I can rest assured that my husband and I will sit together. At T-24 I can check ba.com and possibly move to the UD.

kered

Well then, under the "last come / last served rule", it’s “tough titty toenails” to them !






Edited to add.......

JenE ^

hammythehammer

So why wasn't BA crew managing to get them seats across the aisle from one another good enough?
I just hope the stress isn't too great in the future when you are trying to secure your mfu'd seats at T-355 days.

PEK Duck

So essentially "anyone who doesn't need to be certain of sitting together should s*d off to Luton". Sounds like a great business plan when BA is competing with LCC on many SH routes. The SH air travel marketplace has changed. A lot of people look at headline price these days, and BA has to adapt to compete.

kered

Because, under the new policy, they wouldn’t have had to rent a laptop, along with paying hotel internet charges to OLCI. As they would have had their seat assigned in advance, which they were not given the chance to do, under the current policy.

However, in the very unlikely case that seven or eight months out they had no choice of seats, well then yes the “last come / last served” does come into play & they wouldn’t have sat together. But at least they would have known that in advance & not have had to alter their dinner plans the last night of their honeymoon, in order to OLCI.

Oh it won't be, as if there are no seats I like on a flight I'm looking at, I'll simply change my dates/flights accordingly I've done it before & I'll do it again ^

Even on one occasion changing airlines / paying a bit more due to no window seats being available in WTP at the time of booking.

Edited to add.....

Look !

I think the new policy is a great thing & is a most welcome & positive development in my book & I’m not going to give on that stance.

You’re not going to give in on your viewpoint either, so we’re at an en-passé here & could spend the night ping ponging our views here until the cows come home, still with no resolution in sight.

But if everyone felt it the same about everything, it would be a boring world & differing opinions are good.

There’s nothing we can do about it, the policy comes into effect on the 7th, so let us all just see how it pans out when it becomes live, so to speak.

In the meantime, I think it’s best that we just agree to differ ^

Cap'n Benj

agree

LTN Phobia

And there are those annoying people like me, those nasty non-BA OWEs who pinch the exit row seat too.

Still, I do feel bad for the BA Silvers who may find their chance of a good seat reduced due to the new BA policy.

cosmos57

May I add another dimension to this debate?

I have seen several references to once -a -year travellers or infrequent fliers not being savvy enough to avail themselves of 'seat guru' et al.

Not so!

What about the legions of spouses, civil partners or significant others of partners who regularly traverse the globe on business class travel? There are numerous opportunities to redeem hard earned air miles for business class class travel for birthdays, anniversaries or recovery from major illness or a myriad other reasons. These special occasions are earned on the back of 'keeping the home fires burning' and on the backs of our partners loyalty to a particular airline. To assume there is an underbelly of passengers in this category who are not going to avail themselves of the perks available to the traditional business class partner is disingenuous.

Take the analogy further- where are we silver travellers going to take our hard earned business class travel in the future with accrued pensions and shrewd investments? Not with airlines that have shown us contempt by trying to add further expense to air miles seats that were earned by our partners showing loyalty in the first place. We will exercise prudent choices on the rewards that we have been shown for loyalty.

Come on BA - rethink this myopic policy again before you score another own goal?