3 or 4 times a year I fly LHR - PHL/JFK. I always fly with BA.

I'm at the low end of the market for these guys, always fly in the back. I have always go with them because of the value for money I feel I am getting. No hassle online check in's, free meals, free drink, IFE, great crew staff. Even with a £20 extra charge to get my seat I will still go with them.

But you have to question where this will end? If/when will meals be buy on board? Once you start to remove the little free extras, BA will have nothing over others at the low end of the market. Everyone knows they make their money at the front of the plane, but empty seats in the back for the sake of winding possible new customers up with a £10 seat choice isnt going to help. And in this climate every £ matters!

To keep a business sucessfull, you need to bring in new customers all the time. BA in my view have been great at doing this in the past with the great product for a very competitive price (myself as an example), who will start moving up the cabins as (hopefully) my means allow me. Ripping out the perks will remove the attraction factor of flying with the countrys flag carrier and go elsewhere.

And from others point of view.......If i paid out that much for a club world seat and then got charged extra for choosing a seat in advance, I would be more than unamused!

Only 1hr 30min delay in JFK? You're lucky!
 

If you think 1hr 30min delay is something to write about, try 3hours to taxi out, and 2:45 to get to the gate.
JFK in winter + RWY 22R for departure = 4.5T minimum for taxi allowance.
Oh, and before the "experts" query the extra taxi fuel, our SOP is once engines (all of them) are started for taxi, we cannot shut them down, except for QRH procedure (something to do with tail pipe fire during start-up and no one noticing).

Sorry for thread creep.

Charging for seat reservation and booking online fee - wait until BA gets the notion of charging for the first piece of checked baggage. Oh, and while they are at it, why not charge double for the second piece. (a la US carriers) :\

my point relating to the "this will not apply to gold/premier card holders" was more that, it will by stealth since I wont be able to choose at time of booking if i book late (which by nature of my business I normally do).

At the moment they appear to hold back a number of seats prior to 24 hours before the flight, and then release them, meaning I have a sporting chance of the coveted 62K.

As I said before, I am already using another carrier for my Oz trip, I am still evaluating the next US trip off the back of the one I am on next week.

Over the last 10 years I have been a very loyal BA customer, to the point that during a number of customer contract negotiations it is actually stipulated in the contract with them that all flights will be British Airways business class.

I have to confess with this tweeking of things, in addition to regular downward tweeks of the exec club I am losing the faith. Is it too much to ask for some love from the airline for the premium passengers?

At what point does the range of extra charges levied match those levied by the locos? If and when they do BA will be history, as their unique selling points will be no more. Not far off, and definitely not clever, methinks!

going to florida in Nov with the wife and two kids, the nice people say that its their policy that at least one adult will get to sit next to one kid!

nice to know my youngest will not be sat on his own for 10 hours, Worlds favourite airline my arse!

Just out of interest which airlines allow all classes of passenger to choose and exit row or extra legroom seat at time of purchase for free?

I hate that BA is going down this route of charging for everything and reducing service such as food and drinks but it seems they are not alone.

p.s. Man friday, you can still choose 4 seats together when you check in online 24 hours before the flight just as before no cost. The difference now is that you cannot request this immediately as you book your ticket.,

Fargoo,

not according to BA customer services. If the seats are available,we can sit together, if not they will ensure that at least child will be sat with each adult.

having forked out £1500 i would at least like to think i could guarantee we could all sit as a family, i dont want an exit seat, extra legroom seat, upgraded seat, i just want to sit with my family , after all it is a family holiday!!

On the BA website it says parents travelling with children aged 2-11 will be allocated seats 3 days prior to departure, which you can change at check in. I'd have thought that means that they try and give you seats together?

As others have said, BA will try their utmost to ensure that you are all seated together, and as almost everyone on that flight will have booked their tickets long before the option to select seats at time of purchase was introduced it is almost certain that there will be plenty of seats available. You're getting worked up about nothing.

BA seat charges
 

A nasty, grubby development.

BA used to imply a modicum of quality and customer service, but no longer.

Fortunately, given their total lack of interest in the regions, I rarely have the opportunity to decide not to fly with them.

Rgds

45378

The real issue here is that BA are going down a loco charging structure, while still wanting to charge legacy fares. They need to decide once and for all what they want to be - a full service carrier, offering all services, with an appropriate fare structure, or a loco carrier [eg Air Asia] where you know that the initial fare is only the 'tip of the iceberg' and that every extra will be chraged for.
To go down the 'middle route' is a recipe for disaster, as anyone with a modicum of marketing knowledge will know. Who is in charge of marketing ? Oops - silly me - it's WW of course.

Qatar Airways and Emirates. I fly frequently between Europe and the Far East and find that both consistently beat BA hands down on price, service and extras.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm sure I read somewhere that BA hope to save £17million a year by scrapping food service on their short haul flights. When you consider that they are losing close to £450million a year it hardly seems worth it. The one big advantage that BA (and other legacy carriers) have over the locos is customer loyalty. Once this is eroded it is impossible to replace and the only justification for charging (and paying) for premium service has gone. I sincerely hope that BA wake up to this and that they don't sacrifice their long term future for short term profits (Aer Lingus springs to mind...).:ugh::ugh::ugh:

B.A "How to loose business, part 1" I'll stick with Emirates as a pax.

Anansis :D:D

£120 return to book a seat? Its a disgrace!!! It's far too low!!! I'd willingly sell my home and all it's contents to fly British Airways!!!

On a serious note its the unions that are killing this airline and the legacy of the years when it was state run, a couple of examples spring to mind.

Recently on a flight to asia, one of the lights in the crew rest area at the back of the jumbo was faulty, as it could not be repaired mid flight, the crew got out the union manuals and all claimed, and recieved, £360 each for having their "rest" time disturbed during the flight.

Another example, last winter about 6 747's were diverted to Prestwick due to weather at Heathrow. The pilots were eager to get the planes back to LHR however the CC again got the manuals out and found that due to a divertion they were allowed "3 days accomodation" in a 5 star hotel. This they did, about 70 of them, while the airline had to fly extra crew up to ferry the pax and aircraft back to London. After 3 days lapping it up on the Ayrshire coast they were set to get the shuttle back to LHR and private taxis to Glasgow, however WW got the last laugh and demanded they not be allowed on board any GLA-LHR services and sent a fleet of mini-busses to ferry them back to London in ultimate discomfort.

Some of these idiots are getting paid £60k a year and you see them turn up at GLA in their Mercedes sports cars, compare them to FR CC who are regularly seen walking through Prestwick on their way to the airport to save their bus fares.

I would love to know which numbskull signed off on this.

BA spends considerable sums in telling us why we should fly with them. They've now sodomised any advertising they've done in the past by grabbing these headlines. You can imagine Sir Richard's chuckles.

Those who buy the cheapest tickets will still end up on the flights and not care a fig where they sit; they are happy to be travelling, and I envy them. More jaded people who have shown brand loyalty and actually choose BA over other carriers will, as another poster has mentioned, start fondling their Miles and More cards again and wonder what we've done to deserve this.

There is nothing wrong with offering exit rows for a premium if the passengers are physically fit. In Economy, I'd pay for it. However, making a song and dance about it, and in such a slipshod fashion, has eroded BA's reputation. That is a Problem.

Moreover, if I am committing to spending £400 on exit rows (two of us, two sectors out and two in again), I consider it rather demeaning to have to spend this money a mere four days beforehand at the earliest. If they won't take it when I'm booking, they can take the equivalent in 50p coins and put it where it will do some good.

The sheer effrontery in fleecing business class seats does not require mention.

SO

Penny wise, pound foolish!!

Well my daughter is 12 and is not very agreable to be sat next to strangers (we have a plan - she'll pretend to be wanting to be sick if it happens...)

+ if people are allowed to pay to book particular seats it is going to make it difficult for checking staff to move them around to accomodate those audacious enough to want to sit close to their families without paying this levy.

And I can predict similar issues on board if someone was to ask another pasenger to swap if said pax has paid for seat X.

I can further predict that I'll be happier to switch to Virgin to Orlando on future trips to FL.

Happy I got travel insurance with SAFI 'cause the way their going I might need it...

Might have to pick again, they've been charging for these seats for some time now!