Look at what BA are up to....
 

....Has anyone booked a BA flight lately? I did today and am absolutely disgusted at what I saw.......

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 kid you not!

How long has this been going on for?! Its simply daylight robbery. I'd expect this on a loco and almost understand it. But the UK flag carrier-BA, charging to choose seats, thats just plain awful.

Why is this any different to the dirty/cheap tactics that Easy or Ryanair use? Why is it that Easy and especially Ryanair are slagged off so much about ruining the airline industry, when this is just as bad if not worse...as the last time I looked-BA was not a locost carrier.

So next time anyone wants to start bitching about the usual suspects ruining our profession and industry, please include BA in your rants.

Before you get too excited D7 this is just because you are trying to book your seats more than 24 hrs before departure!!!

If you wait until 24 hrs to go you can pick your seat for free!

Don't Panic!!!

There was a lengthy thread about this, roughly September last year I think. Most people felt the the same about the matter as you do, myself included, but then I've boycotted BA for years anyway because of their high-handed and arrogant attitude of which this is just one more indication.

D 7

You do realise that it is free to choose your seat?

When online check in opens 24hrs before departure you can select your seat at no cost. If you want to reserve a seat before that there is a charge.....just like other operators.

.... by which time all the decent ones have been taken. And this is not just an opinion, I can prove it.

Actually, Ryanair do not do this. Specific seats can not be booked in any way, shape or form. Even 'Priority Boarding' doesn't book a seat, it simply allows earlier boarding, thus a greater choice of seats on the day.

As the majority of pax don't want to pay an extra charge to reserve a seat you will have plenty of choice if you check in for free 24 hours before take off.

I also agree that this thread should be moved.

This is old news - the new seating policy was introduced last October.

The full policy is here - British Airways - Seating guide

As previously mentioned, it's still free to choose a seat. Simply do it at check in. If you want greater choice and flexibility with regard to where you sit, then there is now a small charge for the privilege.

To be honest, whilst it may seem like a total outrage, it's not. Particularly in comparison to, say, the restrictive baggage allowances to USA now. And BA need to get some pennies in the bank at the moment. Which would you prefer - a small charge to choose exactly where you sit, or that convenient flight you want to book not available because it's been taken off the schedule?

If you don't like it, then don't pay and wait till check in!

Not a RYR fan at all, but just for the record they don't charge for the loo (yet)!

Sorry to be harsh D7, especially as you've only just learnt this old news but - you can always choose not to book BA again.

what a prima donna
 

all this upset about being charged to book your seats online etc.

Until several years ago you just turned up at the airport and those at the front of checkin got a better choice, so it's not like something has been taken away, just gone back a few steps!

And whereas it is annoying to see all these little charges, being a rose tinted person I do think the base fare hopefully came down without all the little charges, and hopefully enough fools pay for all the extras so that people like me don't have to bother and the bean counters are happy and keep base fares down etc..

G

The company is seriously broke and seems incapable/unwilling to cut costs so what else can it do except try to increase revenue? I'd be annoyed if I was a silver/gold card holder as it's going to devalue their alleged benefits. Far cheaper to spend £20 to choose your seat >24hrs out than spend the money to be silver and choose your seat >24 hrs out.

It’s called unbundling and almost all airlines are doing it, to a greater or lesser extent. Or you could call it flying a la carte, the airline provides you with a basic service at a basic price and you choose the add-ons.

Clearly, the ability to reserve a seat has a certain value for you (or you wouldn’t be bitching about it). It costs the airline *something* to supply this service. Should the passenger who couldn’t care less where he sits be expected to cross-subsidise the one who does care?

The trick is choosing which products to unbundled, and what to charge for them. While not advocating the Ryanair approach, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong about charging to go to the loo. It costs the airline money to install toilets, both actually and in terms of foregone revenue; some passengers use them for free while others don’t but still pay a share of the cost of providing them.

By the time another generation has come in, they will be amazed to learn of 'full service'. It will be ancient history, just like a boat taking six week to reach Australia and the crew falling sick due to poor food preservation. No, it's not nice to see things change from how they have been - but that's how humans have come to dominate the planet.

Don't fret too much about BA, it's into the 'home straight' now ... (and to repeat, I say that with no joy, as it will be horrible for a lot of people when it crosses the line.)

Hang on.... Unless you were on a more expensive booking code or silver / gold card holder, you couldn't always pick your seats in advance anyway. I flew to BKK just before this new thing was introduced and couldn't pick seats until check in. For me, the introduction of this paying to pick your seats is really just something added for those who did want to pick their exact seats. If you wanna pay for it then do, if you don't then don't, it's nos as bad as everyone keeps making out.

In the past, I've had to make two mercy flights from FRA-SYD. When I checked in, I asked for somewhere quiet. BA gave me a whole row to myself. By doing that, they bought my custom for many years. Those days are gone.

If I can bung them £50 for an exit seat on a 744, I'll happily hand it over. If they want £750 for an upgrade from PE to J at check-in, that's great - even better if they'll haggle.

As other posters have said, hark back to the days when you checked in as soon as you could in order to secure your seat. How much is an hour of your life worth?

The OP might reflect for a moment on the 'green' taxes he's paying when he flies. The seat selection stuff, as The SSK points out, is compartmentalisation of costs. It's transparent and it opens things up to the market.

SO

IIRC, BA Gold members can check in on-line and pick their seats 3 days before departure. The rest of BA Club members, and indeed the Rest of the World, have to wait until the magical 24-hour moment, when they fight for what's left.

Do BA Gold pax deserve better treatment? I believe they do, because they shovel money into BA big-time. The rest of us, the "Less Frequent Shovellers", or "LFS" [anag] ;) inevitably take second place.

HOWEVER, if Seat 62K is something that means a lot to you, feel free to spend the extra ££ and bounce a Gold member.

Does that seat make that much difference? Probably not.
Will the concept make money for BA? Probably not.
But it might upset some of those Gold members who keep BA afloat - which IMO makes it a rather strange PR/marketing exercise.

TTB
 

62 K won't be made available for pre purchase on most routes. In my experience the Upper Deck is reserved for full fare payers & Gold card carriers.

I tried before well before our Christmas flight to CPT & although there were empty seats upstairs they wouldn't allocate one. When the strike was called & I brought our flight forward by a couple of days in order to avoid the IA I was suddenly allowed access to a couple of Upper Deck seats, even thought J was full.

Basically it's a very complex situation.

Gold members can choose a seat when booking exept the seats with the fold down baby thing. These are held back for passengers with babies.
As someone said earlier you haven't been able to choose a seat till check in as a normal punter.
Seats are allocated on booking so you are only ever changing them anyway. So if you book together then you sould be allocated seats together.

@ fincastle84 ... complex is absolutely right.

The last time we paid full fare in J on a 744, we got 63A/B which is as good as you get for a couple.

On a BA Club Miles upgrade from PE on a 744, we get 'given' 20 E/F ... which is fine. Not as 'cute' as being upstairs, but WTF. The seats are reasonable, and so is the food and service and IFE.

Frankly, the whole thing is 7-8 hours out of my life. As long as I'm comfortable, I can cope. I spent far too much of my life commuting 3 hours a DAY to MoD on the Underground to get over-excited ... although The Queen did pay my train fare. Spending a few £k to get to the USA ... I guess it would be nice if it was perfect, but I get what I pay for [some of the time].

JarvyI 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.

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.

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:ok:, 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:O.

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.

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.

Ah, the famous Terminal 2 lounge?

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 ;)

Aargh! Aargh! Aargh!

Mummy, when will these nightmares stop?

SO

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?

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...:yuk:

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

Back to the original subject
 

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. :ok:

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.:ok:

Fincastle84
 

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

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

Have a great one.

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:cool:

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.

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!

Paddy
 

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

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.

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