BA booked ticket - can only select seat at check in?
 

Hi - I have booked 4 business class tickets (I class) with BA flying Qatar. I have phoned the QR contact centre 3 times and each time I have been told that as it is a BA issued ticket I will only be able to select seats at checkin! Does this sound correct?

You might try MH, AT, RJ websites which might work for seat selection.

Thanks for your response. I have tried the other sites with no luck. Also contacted the QR Twitter support team who directed me to BA who are unable to help.

Are these flights marketed under the BA code?

Yes they are under BA flight code and ticket number starts 125. I made a similar purchase last year and on that occasion I just phoned Qatar and they allocated seats.

I believe when booking QR flights on a BA codeshare (at least as was the case a few years ago), there is a seperate booking reference for QR which is not the same as the BA one - despite them using the same back end reservation system. I believe your key to being able to choose seats is getting that 2nd QR specific booking reference.

Out of curiosity, what happens when you try to select your seat via BA.com? Does it have this "hand off" screen which redirects you to QR.com such as below?

When I booked previously on BA.com for flights operated by QR with the BA codeshare, BA.com (where the green box is below) showed the BA booking reference on top and the QR specific reference below. The references are both the same in this example, but this is an Avios booking so a different matter.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...b5845ae617.png

Thanks for the information. BA.com doesn’t give me a seat selection option. I can see a seat map using RJ etc but do not have the option to select any seats. Will call BA contact centre to see if they can provide the QR booking reference.

Try the "Check My Trip" app as well. It might show the QR reference if you go into the "More details" section below the flight.

If RJ does not help you with the seat, did you try MH? I have had some issues getting seats assigned for AA award flights using RJ but MH has worked for me 100% in the past.

If you do not have the QR record locator, try putting your BA locator in the the QF MMB page. At least for AA award flights it will take the AA locator number and show you the QR locator number (many thanks to ISTFlyer for this trick).

I have tried AY, RJ and QF with no luck. No sign of a QR locator and unable to view or select seats.

Have you tried searching by the BA ticket number on the QR site?

yes - still can’t access seat selection. Will call BA and and try and get the QR PNR

When all else has failed in the past I've put my CX FFP number on the BA booking and waited for it to pop up in the bookings section of the CX website, which showed both PNR numbers. A pain but it worked.

All sorted. Still not able to access the seat map but QR have now allocated us with qsuite quads. This was my main concern as we are travelling as a family of 4. Thanks everybody for your responses.

Out of curiosity did you get the other reference or did QR just do it over the phone?