Look at what BA are up to....

[PAXboy]

Jarvy

Seats are allocated on booking so you are only ever changing them anyway.

I think this varies with carrier? I recall a discussion about seat allocation in here some months ago - pre-dating the current announcement, I think.

One BA member of staff stated that seats were allocated the day before and described the task. Now, this may well have been SH only but they spoke about the problems of it in some detail. It was stated that - up to that point, they are all seat requests, not reservations. I sit to be corrected.

[Jarvy]

I am just talking about BA as I know when I go onto the web site before flying I am only ever moving us not adding, so was assuming the seat are pre allocated.

[fincastle84]

T-T-B

I agree with you whole heartedly. I enjoy the easier check in, the privacy of the lounges & the luxury of being able to park my 6' 3" frame in comfort. The position of my seat, apart from being flat, is of little importance.

Hopefully I'll be testing it out this time on Thursday en route TPA. Please be nice to us all you wonderful BA CC employees.

[PAXboy]

That is true, Jarvy, that they are pre-allocated but, as I understand it, they are only allocated just before the online check-in opens and not when booked. I believe some carriers use an automated system to populate the seating plan, based on requests but BA seem to use a manual allocation based on requests. It must be a real jig saw with so many 'special pleadings', families, singles, window/aisle requests, Silver/Gold etc.

[SLF3b]

I have had a gold card (genrally 2500 tier points) for over ten years. This year, 40 tier points. Heres why, from a long haul family trip last week:

• Go to empty check in desk with seven (yes, seven) staff behind it. They stop their conversation long enough to tell me it is closed.
• Go to lounge: tea, stale cakes - nothing (and I mean nothing) else except compulsory television in arabic. Leave, sit in quiet, sunny terminal.
• Upgraded. Think, 'how nice, they have upgraded me because I have a Gold Card'. Read boarding card: 'Involuntary Upgrade due Overbooking'.
• Check in at Heathrow. Elderly person in front has 23.4 kg bag. Wait in line while he protests, then searches for his keys, drops them, finds them, struggles with the lock, spills his luggage over the floor, re-packs his bag, zips it up, searches for keys, locks bag - and transfers 0.4 kg to his (empty) carry-on. Bored staff find this highly amusing.
• Enjoy the T5 experience - more exercise than I have had in weeks, and I enjoy zoos.
• Get to Club lounge - Saturday afternoon, it is empty. Am travelling with wife and 14 year old son. Ask (politely, as a favour) if they will let him in the lounge. Get a lecture on how many people try to blag their way into empty lounges. All three retreat vowing (yet again) never to fly BA...

They have stopped trying, I have stopped buying.

[Final 3 Greens]

Go to lounge: tea, stale cakes - nothing (and I mean nothing) else except compulsory television in arabic. Leave, sit in quiet, sunny terminal.

Ah, the famous Terminal 2 lounge?

[Two-Tone-Blue]

All imminent travellers will be watching this page for their post-trip reports, I suspect. I have just 7 weeks to go before launching myself and Mrs TTB into the air with BA - be assured I shall provide a full report

[sea oxen]

Enjoy the T5 experience - more exercise than I have had in weeks, and I enjoy zoos

Aargh! Aargh! Aargh!

Mummy, when will these nightmares stop?

SO

[Two-Tone-Blue]

Personally I found the T5 experience quite 'agreeable'.

Lots of up and down, and over there ... in the distance.
Lots of good exercise before being confined for >8 hours.
Lots of almost invisible/inequate signage [I remember a documentary on TV where they were apparently addressing that - shame it didn't work out in reality!
Lots of lovely retail outlets that I don't need, but enjoying the 'people watching' of those who just have to buy that last item from Harrods!

BUT - still the best Terminal that LHR has to offer.

And the conjoined Sofitel is excellent. It's a shame it's at least half a mile from the hotel to the Club check-in. But the exercise can prevent DVT - perhaps the medics advised on that aspect?

[sea oxen]

TTB

Depends how you get there. I could have sharpened my pencil in my bottom when I learned that it was a 15-minute wait to take the amazingly slow shuttle.

Once in there, the lifts were swamped. As I'm still reasonably fit and strong, I took the escalators. This was a new world of horror. Sure, I was alone, but there was no one else so psychotically inclined.

Still, mustn't grumble. SYD is still awaiting new adjectives to describe its awfulness, and as for the new BKK...

The downstairs BA lounge at FRA has gone, but the JAL lounge replacing it is top hole. They finally disposed of that absurd checkpoint where even the Nigels were given the thrice-over.

SO

[fincastle84]

Back to the original subject

After booking a longhaul flight I went to choose our seats. They are charging £20 per person per sector to CHOOSE WHERE TO SIT!! So thats £80 for two people on a return flight to....CHOOSE WHERE TO SIT!!

I've just checked in 2 x J pax for LGW-TPA tomorrow, 4 March. 90% of seats available so plenty of choice. There are only 6 seats unsold.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

Originally Posted by fincastle84

I've just checked in 2 x J pax for LGW-TPA tomorrow, 4 March. 90% of seats available so plenty of choice. There are only 6 seats unsold.

Confused there .. 90% available, only 6 unsold? That means the cabin holds ... 7? Were you really a Nav? Doing sums?

Have a great trip.

[fincastle84]

T-T-B

You are a regular a*** hole! 90 % of the seats were available for me to choose where I wanted to place our bottoms. BA had managed to sell all but 6 seats. QED they have sold 30 out of 36 seats.

WW gave a very good chat today. I think BA are going to have a very successful future without being dragged down by the 'you know which union members'!

Have a good trip mate.

[Two-Tone-Blue]

Fincastle84

Ahhh ... there were some spare seats. Understood now!

Good trip to you too, mate.
Is it the hurricane season?

Have a great one.

[fincastle84]

No it's not the hurricane season, that's why it's so bloody cold over there. It's 20 F below normal, all due to the El Nino which has dragged the jet stream about 1,500 miles south .................yawn

[wowzz]

Fincastle 84

Just returned from 4 weeks staying 50 miles or so North of Tampa, and you're right - much colder than normal and when the sun did shine the wind was cold. Hope the weather improves for your trip.
One piece of advice, although I would imagine you don't need it: although the BA flight was the only international flight arriving, there were only 3 immigration desks open and some pax must have spent at least 30/45 minutes waiting to be processed. Therefore the nearer the front of the plane you can sit [and therefore the quicker you can get to the immigration queue] the less time you will need to wait.
Have a good trip.

[apaddyinuk]

Im still LOST as to all the people who complain about the walking in T5!

I have just flown for the first time in ages out of t3....the walk from the checkin to I think it was gate 36 or something WAS PHENOMINAL! Longer then ANYTHING in T5 and it wasnt even the longest walk according to the gate information screens!

And several times a week I flight out of T1 using the Rep Of Ireland gates 77-90! The walk from Security to the gates is one of the most convoluted journeys you could ever make at an airport!

T5 is a breeze!

[JayPee28bpr]

Paddy

And several times a week I flight out of T1 using the Rep Of Ireland gates 77-90! The walk from Security to the gates is one of the most convoluted journeys you could ever make at an airport!

Closely followed by the trek to/from the gates at Pier D in Dublin airport!

[Final 3 Greens]

Im still LOST as to all the people who complain about the walking in T5!

Look through the eyes of a pax who has paid several thousand for a Club World ticket.

You clear security, but cannot turn right and go through the white door to the Concorde room unless you have a gold card.

You therefore turn left and walk to an escalator, which takes you down a floor.

You then have top walk back under where you cam from, through loads of shops and take an escalator back up.

You then have to wal back down in the direction of security to find another escalator that takes you up to where you enter the lounge.

Which is physically not too far from the exit from security.

This is extremely irritating and not a good use of time, which is often tight.

One of the main reasons business travellers pay a premium is for convenience, another is to save time (fast track, reduced check in times etc.)

I agree that T3 has some long walks, but it does not poke a stick in the eye of the business customer.

BA should never had agreed to this ludicrous situation.

[Skipness One Echo]

white door to the Concorde room unless you have a gold card.

Dear God I assumed you were a Gold card holder. Dear me.