I lie, but they keep on sending them. Rarely are they actually trying to find out what you think, but just to produce data that will justify executive bonuses, or further cost-cutting measures.

Correct ExXB! One of the things that gives the game away is that they don't like anything other than 'tick boxes'. That is because tick boxes can be scored by a computer - if they allow you to put in plain text - that has to be read by a human and costs [gasp] money. There are all a waste of time, not just for airlines but any company that asks them.

I remember the internal staff surveys when I was there. They ignored the results of those too, didn't tell them what they wanted to hear.

I was prepared to give BA a cautious thumbs up after a reasonably OK trip to the UAE last week, apart from the fuss and bother that changing the day of the outward flight due to a last-minute problem, to say nothing of expense; it took a total of 2 hours in phone calls to do something that in the 1970's I would have done for a BA customer in 5 minutes, using my supervisor login to their system.

However, I withdraw any hint of praise; they still haven't learned anything.

We're off, in a day or two, for a week in Europe, on BA again. I paid for something they call, during the reservation process, Economy Plus, mainly to get the hold baggage allowance and the other minor benefits offered, including early check in. This turned into "Eurotraveller" at some point in the process, after they had the money.

The system would not allow me to check in 48 hours in advance, and 23 hours 56 minutes before departure there were only seats at the back of the cabin available. That's life, it's only a 2-hour flight, we'll live.

My real beef is that when I called to ask exactly what I had booked, and why the system would not let me check in 48 hours before, after navigating about 4 (5?) levels in their ridiculous menu tree I got a recording saying in effect "We're all frightfully busy, go away and try calling again later." Click.

This might be the way the Spanish/Irish do things, it might be quite acceptable in Spain and/or Ireland to tell your customers to p**s off because you are too busy to talk to them, come back mañana.

But for so long as this crap, foreign-owned airline has "British" in its title IT IS UNACCEPTABLE.

Economy Plus, as I understand it, is a standard Eurotraveller ticket, with 23kg luggage allowance, and online check in 24 hours in advance.. On certain routes BA sell economy tickets but with no hold luggage allowance. I have never heard of BA allowing check in 48 hours in advance, but I wait to be corrected.

Not a long wait....unless there's a subtle difference between "check-in" and "seat choice"; if there is I'm wrong, but I don't believe that you should need a law degree to interpret the (deliberate?) ambiguities of a website purchase process.
https://i.imgur.com/z8CPv0K.png

By the way, I would like to meet the management cretin who thinks that "availability of food and drink to buy", as opposed to "free refreshments will be offered during the flight", or "there will be no food and drink on board, free or for purchase", is a huge and sought-after benefit, even if it is M&S. (And even that shows a peculiar mind-set; what's so wonderful about M&S, as opposed to, say, Sainsbury's, or Fortnum & Mason's, or even Tesco's? M&S is good for underwear if you don't care what it looks like and are in a hurry, but no better than anyone else in other departments. Why would a non-Brit be encouraged to fly BA just because customers are given the opportunity to pay a lot for M&S food on board? Or a Brit, for that matter?)

Thanks for coming back so quickly to show my error!
I am now officially confused. Our next flight on BA is in Eurotraveller, with 23 kg hold luggage allowance, but I cannot check in until 24 hours in advance. Not sure why a 48 hour option is given in your case, unless possibly you are travelling with children? Any ideas would be welcome.
By the way, I totally agree that only a master of spin could think that advertising the purchase of food and drink is worth highlighting.

Is seat choice available on the seat map 48 hours in advance of departure even though you can't check in until T-24? It can be accessed through manage my booking.

Exec club status members can choose a seat at different times - gold and silver at any time from the point of booking and bronze from seven days before travel. I think this is a roll out of that to people paying standard economy fares rather than HBO.

I couldn't find a way to reserve seats without checking in. I'm not saying there isn't one, but even if there is, it's another case of some over-complicated promo notion, possibly dreamed up by a twenty-something who has no life experience, and therefore can't predict how things will play out in real life.

You can typically pay to reserve seats some time in advance of your departure date, or wait until 24 hours before departure and be allocated seats for free (usually with the option to change your allocated seat, but which may again involve a payment).

So how did oldnotbold get the opportunity to reserve his seat for free 48 hours in advance, as compared to the normal 24 hours?

The point is that the promise to allow free seat selection 48 hours in advance was not fulfilled; when I tried to check-in 48 hours before the flight the system would not allow that. So I couldn't reserve the seats.

Maybe I missed something, but if I did it was not clearly shown. I've had a workstation/desktop on my desk every day of my life since it was a BA workstation in 1973 (my then employer piggy-backed on their system, back in the '70s), and although I'm getting old and decrepit I'm not yet a dribbling idiot, as far as I can judge.

Someone will now show that it is completely obvious how to reserve seats 48 hours in advance if you buy Economy Plus, and when that happens I'll dribble a bit and shut up.

I wonder how the new "High Density" economy class seating will go down with passengers.
Narrow seats & narrow aisle does not make for a good experience!

Wow.

This kind of casual ethnic stereotyping is exactly why ye won't be missed when you Brexit.

Enjoy the passport queues when you get to Spain ;)

If it’s the way it used to work for ba bronze et al to make a seat selection before check in was open, it’s accessible only through manage my booking, not the check in link itself. Buried down the manage my booking page there should be a choose seat option- before your window for free seat selection opens this attracts a fee, but at the requisite time the exact same link will do it for free

Disclaimer- this is how it was in 2015 last time I had to do it- it may have changed since. After a horrific BA premium economy sin-Syd I promised I wouldn’t fly with them again!!

I think you are correct in that bronze members can select seats earlier, but BA do not make this immediately obvious.
It seems to me that BA are so confused as to their position in the flight market (loco with a premium cabin or full service airline with cheap seats at the back) that they have no idea what to do with their Executive Club members.

... other than piss them off, which they can be very good at.

(Disclaimer: I haven’t flown them on a revenue ticket since 2008. They could have improved, but I’m not anxious to find out.)

I was silver when I ceased flying with them- you would have thought they’d accidentally staffed the plane with work experience types the way they spoke to the customers on my last flight

They probably don’t notice $15-30k a year of lost revenue though!