British Airways is making it tougher to pick your seat in advance, if you’re not a loyal or high-paying customer. The airline already has a longstanding reputation for limiting the number of seats that can be reserved at the time of booking. That reputation is about to get worse:
To make more seats available at the time of check-in we are reducing the number of seats that can be pre-assigned. This option will be limited to specific groups of travelers. These include families with young children; First class fliers; Premier, Gold, and Silver Executive Club members; and those holding fully flexible tickets across all cabins. [...] Corporate customers holding a contract with British Airways will also be able to select seats at the time of booking.
The airline is portraying the change as a customer-friendly change, as they are increasing the availability of seat selection at the time of online check-in. The plan is supposedly “designed to simplify the process of choosing a seat and give all customers more transparency and control of the seating options available on their flight.”
Reducing choices is certainly “simplification,” but not in a good way.
I suppose the new scheme, by allowing more online check-in, is better than waiting to receive a seat assignment at the airport. But in reality, this means that you’re still at the mercy of the seating supply in the 24 hours before your flight. Thumbs down.
Thanks, Matt!
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November 30th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
In the last dozen trips through LHR on BA I have been unable to reserve my business class seat in advance.
This is one of the few flaws in BA’ business class service, IMHO.
-TF
November 30th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
That’s ridiculous. BA claims to be offering a premium product, and part of that means offering the clientele the choice of seat.
TierFlyer: Your comment makes it even seem crazier. I guess you’re not buying the top-dollar tickets, but if you’re in business you should get a seat, period. Maybe they don’t want people reserving all the forward facing seats?
December 1st, 2006 at 8:16 am
I’m buying $7K r/t tickets to Bangalore in business – hard to imagine that anyone is paying more than that.
The on-ground people are always very nice and they ladies at the Upper Tier club are wonderful about trying to get me next to my co-workers, but not being able to arrange adjacent seats with a co-worker for a 10 hour flight just seems, well, stupid.
-TF
December 1st, 2006 at 5:39 pm
A $7000 business class seat SHOULD warrant a seat reservation. Period. End of story.
BA’s rules, quoted above, bizarrely discriminate against business class… first class gets a seat (seemingly in any class) while business and coach depend on the booking class or status. Specifically “fully flexible” tickets get a seat reservation. And that means…
“Fully flexible tickets are those booked in F (First); J, C (Club World); W (World Traveller Plus); and Y (World Traveller).”
December 1st, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Vigorous debate on this on the BA Board on FlyerTalk, but this will put BA at an even bigger disadvantage to AA’s FF programme.
I think AA has seat assignement nailed. Anyone can assign seats priot to ticketing, but only elite Frequent Flyers get the pick of the best seats at the time of ticketing. Simply, easy, and effectively meets customer expectations.
I was beginning to use BA more and more (I like the WT+ seats), but the difficulty in getting and maintaining frequent flyer status (compared to AA) and now this seat assignement nonsense…. hallo again AA !
February 8th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
[...] British Airways is seemingly doing everything it can to tarnish its own image in the eyes of consumers. They won’t let you make seating reservations unless you’re on a full-fare ticket — even discounted business class travelers can’t get a seat assignment. They jerked their customers around during the recently threatened strike — flights are on! cancelled! back on! — throwing thousands of travel plans into disarray. And now this. At this rate, upright “seating” may soon be a reality after all. [...]
March 4th, 2007 at 5:52 am
BA has dropped to the bottom of my list. I just spent hours (well 90+ minutes) on hold with them to try to get seats for my young daughter and elderly parents–yes I waited until 24 hours like they told me to. but now they tell me that seats will only be available at the airport. This is the last time I willingly fly BA.
March 8th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
We booked our business class travel reservations with BA 9 months in advance to make sure we could go on what for us is the trip of a lifetime, yet we won’t know until 24 hours ahead of time whether or not we have a seat. This is incredibly enfuriating. We are at the mercy of a lottery and have to hope that “more important” travelers don’t fill up the cabin before we can even try for a seat.
July 15th, 2007 at 12:42 am
I also had this experience: waited until 24 hrs before the flight, then was unable to pick a seat (website wouldn’t let me). I’ll never again fly BA if I can help it.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:55 am
My wife travels Vigin Atlantic Business Class and selects her seat at time of booking. I have to wait until 24 hrs before departure for my BA business class seat selection
My wife is a Silver Card holder on Virgin Atlantic after flying 35,000 miles, I am still a Blue card holder on BA after flying 50,000 miles
Something wrong somewhere
July 31st, 2007 at 11:41 am
[...] Setting aside the culture clash: None of this would have happened if British Airways would actually allow advance seat assignments for passengers on fares lower than the most expensive tickets. (Given their seating concerns, I [...]
November 11th, 2007 at 10:23 am
I would love to applaud BA for a wonderful job they have done in stopping on-line seat reservation. This is splendid because people book seats on-line and later cancel. To the disadvantage of poeple like myself this has helped us alot. To you who are moaning, please wake up. it is fair to us all to be allocated seats at the airport when we are all vissible to the BA checkpoints. stop this nonsense of trying to be smart by uttering bullshit on-line about BA. I use BA for bussiness abroad and find this very comforting.therefore, if you guys feel you dont want to use BA. good-luck to you because BA will still be full in all its flights without you people.Bye
November 12th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Honestly, Lebza, your argument doesn’t make any sense.
You say the problem is “people book seats on-line and later cancel” — but most of the people who tried to get a seat reservation were on non-refundable fares. The only seats that CAN book seats on British Airways nowadays are the fully-refundable and readily-cancellable fares at the top tier of each booking class.
In other words, the people who are most likely to cancel their flights are the only ones who get to choose their seats. How does this help anyone?
Glad BA works out for you, though.
November 25th, 2007 at 1:42 am
An interesting discussion which has proved quite useful for me. I do not enjoy flying, and I was just researching various flight options for Vancouver to Paris. I was looking at converting Avion points to BA points so I could then use the BA points to upgrade my seats to World Traveller plus. Without advance seat seletion, all these other research options are useless. I have no intention of spending $2400 and then using 50000 points for an upgrade to get WT+, without knowing what seats I am going to end up with next April, or whether I get to sit with my wife. I will go with Lufthansa or Air Canada or somebody else that allows me to select a seat. Thanks to this post, and idiotic management at British Airways, they have just cost themselves a sale.
January 3rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I booked business class award travel through AA on BA for me and my wife. For some reasons the agent put our tickets on different records. Since I have Platinum status on AA they would let me reserve my seat, but not for my wife because she is on a separate records. Calling BA did not do any good. If I had any options at this point I would definitely cancel this reservation. It will be long time before I travel on BA next time.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The real problem with their seat assignment policy is that the policy is “hidden”. You can’t find out the policy exists until after purchasing the ticket. Just purchased business class RT SFO LHR and I have to say I went balistic when I tried to reserve seats. I would NOT have purchased the ticket had I known the BA policy. Fair to have any policy you want provided it is known before you take my money. Next time it’s Virgin Atlantic.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am
Good day,
I am Ogundele Silvanus Gbenga a student of university of Lagos Nigeria in the department of computer and management, i am presently doing a research on the project topic ONLINE SEAT RESERVATION: A STUDY CASE OF BRITISH AIRWAYS. Please i need more fact about british airways and their online seat reservation so that i will be able to carry out this research properly and for the project to be well done. i will be expecting your reply very soon.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I had the same problem as Phil. I just bought a ticket assuming I’d be able to reserve a seat and only found I couldn’t AFTER I had paid. This is ridiculous and unfair. Utterly useless.
January 18th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Me, too! I booked 3 seats on BA, economy class, 6 months in advance (induced by their 2 free hotel nights offer) and went to select seats only to find I couldn’t! But 6 weeks earlier I had booked a r/t economy to London on BA and selected seats on the spot. Only difference was the first ticket was through a travel agent, the other 3 were directly through BA on BA.COM. About their offer of 2 free nights in London, only after I booked the tickets, induced by this offer that cannot be changed, only canceled forfeiting the benefit of the free nights that made the tickets reasonable, did I learn that this hotel – suggested by the ticketing agent – is a flea bag. Needless to say, I’m not staying there. I will never fly BA again, if I have another good option. Never, or at least not unless they change their attitude and policies.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
I am looking to book premium class rt from LHR to LAX. Holiday in a life time for the wife and I. Having researched the benefits of individual seating with http://www.seatguru.com I dont intend to leave it to chance that I may end up with a cramped, noisy location. In my day it was first come is first served. Why should’t I get the seats that I want and pay for if I book far in advance?
I think I’d be better off with airnewzealand!
April 24th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
This is ridiculous. The departure days for my wife and two children are different than mine. They would not let ME select my seats until 24hr before flight…and no one knows whether you are allowed to at that point. Earlier, I got a web site message that said I had to go to the airport for my seats.
I don’t understand why the heads that design the systems, screw up on such simple things.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
wow, this is scary. I’m going to LHR and plan on checking in in 5 hours online. Will they let me pick my seat? I really hope they will because that’s what they had promised after I purchased my ticket a few months ago!!
May 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
BA is really dishonest when it comes to seat assignment policy. I had the same problem. For the first time, I just purchased 2 club world business class tickets for myself and a travel companion, and not until I paid for the ticket did I find out that “seat assignment is available 24 hours before departure.” I have never heard of any legitimate international airlines doing so.
June 4th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I purchased a ticket online this week through British Airways and was shocked to find out that I couldn’t select a seat assignment. If I had known this beforehand I would not have booked with them. The same thing happened to me on a USA to Italy trip with Delta a couple of years ago. They overbooked and it was total chaos at Venice airport. It took two hours to check in and by the time I got to the desk they said they didn’t have any seats left. They finally worked out that they did and I sat for 7 hours next to someone who felt he should also share half my seat. Awful, awful trip. I hope BA does a better job either 24 hours before hand or when I get to the airport. Seems England continues to have a class system and only the upper class are important. . . . I won’t book with them again.
July 21st, 2009 at 7:12 am
after reading all the comments, I changed my mind on flying BA, no wonder they are loosing business !!!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:17 am
I wish I had found this website prior to booking my business class seats on BA for my honeymoon. We are on the same record locator, so I hope that permits us to sit together on the flight from Toronto to LHR. Could you imagine just getting married, booking the most expensive trip you’ve ever taken and find out after purchasing the airfare that it might be possible that she is assigned a seat in the upper deck and I in the lower?
When I called BA customer service to inquire about the policy, the service agent advised was very matter of fact about the policy and said nothing could be done. There was no empathy on his part, just a tough titty attitude. He told me that he gets many calls everyday regarding the seating policy and was clearly irritated that he continually has to deal with frustrated passengers. This ticked me off further, but I knew there was nothing I could do. At least it is a little therapeutic to spend a few minutes writing about the experience here.
Not much I can do about it now except deal with it and allow this experience to shape my future flying decisions.
July 31st, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Ryan, The same has happened to us. Booked 2 club world returns to Maritius from London for our honeymoon and even booked the hotel through BA. Guess what….. we cant book our seats until 24 hours before the flight. We are busy that day (getting married) so will stop the day and find a pc to log on and book!!! If they dont seat us together, god help the people in our cabin!
August 27th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I had no idea that the seat assignment would be so difficult. I would like to ask if I should just go to the airport 5 hours early to get two seats together, or wait until i get their to take my chances? Your thoughts please!
PS I have never flown on BA, where should I try and get seats that have leg room, my husband is very tall? Where are the bathrooms on the 744 located? I do not want to be next to them if possible. Appreciate any information.
Thank you !
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:51 am
I am trying to get airfare from JFK to London for next summer. I am horrified at the seating policy on BA! Because my kids are over 11, I have to take the chance that we won’t be sitting together on the plane– my daughter is only 12, for Pete’s sake!
I see a lot of comments about the system, but can anyone tell me what happened when they actually tried to get the seats? Do people usually end up seated together, or do traveling parties end up all over the plane?
There seem to be so few options, and I really don’t want to give BA my business with this idiotic policy. It looks to me like VA sucks, and you don’t get to pick your seat on their site until after you’ve paid. I’d almost rather take Air France and transfer in Paris. At least I know my seats!!
September 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I picked BA for being non-stop and allowing seat selection. I am a DV, and confined to my seat. I thought getting a seat close to the latrine would save my aid some embarrasment when walking down the rows with a bucket of urine Oh well, cie la vi