No joy for this OW Emerald (AA). :td:

Not yet for CE flights, first 3 or 4 rows on A/C side still blocked out.

Isn't BA pissing off a few people!

Here was I thinking that my CE seats were nice and safe (having A & C seats for all my upcoming flights in April) - well it was nice and safe last night, but this morning I find that A & C had all been changed to E & F seats :mad: :mad: :mad: .

Went to BA's MMB and find the whole cabin is empty except for our seats and the first two (on the 733) or three (on the 734) rows of A& C seem blocked out. I was able to move my E & F seats back to the back row in A & C but if the 734 is subbed by a 733, we'll be stuffed.

At least my 64J&K on the longhaul ex LHR are still OK, but I'm not confident (or happy).

Are BA still calling themselves the World's Favourite Airline"? Bring on the new AA Business seats!

Other than some teething issues, as an OW Emerald I like the new policy. More seats to choose from and less people pre-selecting seems like a win to me. If only they could have implemented it without causing problems to existing reservations

Dave

Teething issues?

Well as I can't access anything vaguely decent I have to say I am not happy with the new policy. Whether it is an operation issue or a technical issue, I don't care as long as BA fix it.

It might be working for you due to your long haul flights, but short haul it su^&s! Sorry to be blunt, but it is true.

Personally I have never had a problem selecting the seats I have wanted as long as they have been free so I don't see what the new seating policy has done for me. In fact I think it is going to cause more problems overall especially for people travelling on different PNRs as they can't TCP etc.

At the very least I want to see BA restore our benefits for seating selection and then I will be partially happy until I am travelling with friends on multiple PNRs.

I also can select from all seats in CE other than 1AC and 2AC , so a minor loss from before (though maybe this is a temporary issue and these seats will start being available). The policy seems to be generally beneficial for those with with Sapphire and Emerald status.

If travelling with a group of people I wouldnt expect to be able to enable them all to have the benefits of my status , though I think that not allowing 1 companion is a little mean

Dave

Well I cannot access 1AC, 2AC, 3AC & 1D. Before I had access to all these seats. I should add that in Y I cannot access anything in front of row 10 (i.e. Rows 5-9 are out on either side of the aircraft. Normally sitting in Y I would 90% of the time get row 5 or 6.

I therefore have access to exactly the same seats as a BA Blue so personally I do see this as a loss as before I had access to all these seats.

Dave, IMHO you seem quite happy for airlines to take away benefits and not complain. Personally I feel that this is yet another "death by 1000 cuts".

If BA seems unable to provide me with access to all seats, then I will where possible shift my business elsewhere.

I get that impression, just from reading the thread (no personal experience with the new system yet), that Dave and others are able to select seats that are not available to you. If they are not experiencing the same problems you have there seems to be little reason for them to complain. Now, why some elites are able to select seat X, and you are not, is something I don't know, but it looks to me like a temporary (I hope) glitch.

No it seems virtualtroy is having the same problem. Dave also seems to be unable to select 1AC & 2AC so whilst he might not be concerned, I still see it has a backward step.

The easiest way to test a booking and to tell whether you have access to more than base (i.e. Blue) member seats is to use a tool such as Expert Flyer or KVS which shows which seats are blocked etc. As the KVS tool has no status when it interrogates the GDS whereas the BA MMB tool applies the status to the seat map, one can compare the output between the two.

In my case, whilst BA MMB tool confirms it can see me as an Emerald as it shows me as having First Class lounge access, I cannot access any of the special BAEC Silver or Gold seats.

If using KVS use the WorldSpan text seat map as that actually works! ;)

Considering your OW status is not conferring benefits on short haul routes, if your travelling with non-status pax, there won't be a problem! ;)

There are some things I am concerned about, being able to select 1AC is not one of them. I now have no issues for seat selection on longhaul services ( e.g. can get 1A/1K on my 1st sectors if I want them ) plus this problem may only be temporary. 1AC is a bit nicer than 3AC, but 2AC is no different at all ( so losing that is minor ).

For a OW Sapphire member, this change is greatly positive since instead of about the 1st 6 rows of CE being blocked off, now only 1AC/2AC are restricted

As an OW Emerald, I see it as a minor loss but for a OW Sapphire, a great improvement and so I don't see that the sky is falling in


Dave

Not sure what flights you are looking at, but many flights (B737/A320) with CE only have 3-4 rows!

Anyhow, glad that your happy with the downgrade, although I suspect many of the rest of us are not.

In fact the BA board is such up in arms about the changes that the thread has quickly become one of the most ever read threads on the BA board in a matter of a week! Whilst they are obviously not complaining about the loss of OW Emerald benefits, their complaints will also affect us.

I do have to question why you seem happy that OW Emerald, OW Sapphires all seem to have the same access as BA Blue. Personally I think that if you bother to fly the alliance as much as some of us do, you should have better access to seating than a BA Blue, especially considering it is a defined benefit of the OW alliance.

Depends on the route, Dave. The forward bookings I've looked at show at least the first 3 rows on the A/C side blocked. Carte blanche on the D/E/F side, but then don't fancy sitting next to a stranger if I've paid for a premium seat.

And as for smaller CE configs, I'm sure the only reason why the first row of Y is set aside for elite status pax is so that they can kick the back of the last row of C :D

Here Here....

Well I have been booted out of all my CE flights and moved to the EF side form having AC reserved. I'm Sapphire and my partner Emerald... So I'm not too happy with the changes.

Haven't noticed anything good opening up in J long haul either.... don;t really care about F as I don't fly it that often.

All in all I'm not that happy with the changes.

The ones I have booked at the moment have about 10 rows. I was in 1A, when this all changed I was auto moved to 1F and I then just moved it to 3C.

Dave