BA - Pre booking seats

[karen1987]

Hi all,

Just wondering what other peoples experience has been with pre booking or not pre booking their seats on the BA Gatwick to MCO flight.

If we were to pre book it would cost £100 total and I can't justify that expense, but at the same time I am worried we might not be able to seat together if all other seats are pre booked. Plus my partner really wants a window seat! We can select our seats 24 hrs prior to departure when we do online check in, but I'm concerned seat availability will be poor.

What have others done in this situation?

It's only the two of us btw, so it's not like I'm trying to seat a family of 7!

 

[Dimplenose]

Have you looked on manage my booking to see how many seats are still available?

We are going to MIA but as we want a pair of seats at the back of the plane have decided to pay to get them.

 

[2Tiggies]

Manage My Booking is not really any indication of what is available. A small proportion of passengers pay to prebook. At 7 days out, some club members are eligible to pre-select and at 5-7 days out, BA assigns seats to families.

Last time we pre paid, they moved us due to an equipment change. On our recent flights, we were unable to do OLCI and could not select seats anyway. They are pretty good at not splitting up families and with a party of two, your chances of being separated are slim. A group of 8 would be a different story entirely, but unless you have specific seats you want / want to avoid, I don't think it is necessary.

 

[Dimplenose]

Manage My Booking is not really any indication of what is available. A small proportion of passengers pay to prebook. At 7 days out, some club members are eligible to pre-select and at 5-7 days out, BA assigns seats to families.

Last time we pre paid, they moved us due to an equipment change. On our recent flights, we were unable to do OLCI and could not select seats anyway. They are pretty good at not splitting up families and with a party of two, your chances of being separated are slim. A group of 8 would be a different story entirely, but unless you have specific seats you want / want to avoid, I don't think it is necessary.

I hadn't thought of that. We're having "fun" with a Stockholm flight at the moment. We paid for our seats because DD(20) is a nervous flyer. Then BA changed the plane and our seats didn't exist. So we reselected and now they have changed the plane again so our original choice now exists but is unavailable and DH has been allocated a seat number that doesn't exist. Oh the joys of air travel!

 

[godders]

I'd say your chances of getting two seats together and one of them being a window are pretty high as long as you check-in dead on the 24 hours mark.

I only pre-book my seats as I'm a tall person so I try to get the seats with extra leg room or at least an aisle seat so I have a bit more room.

Other than that I wouldn't bother to pay

 

[karen1987]

Thanks for the replies.

I think we'll take our chances and book the seats as soon as the online check in becomes available then.

 

[tinkerbells mum]

When we flew with BA last April I didn't pre book our seats it was only me and DD aged 12 and their website says they seat family members together. I went on line the day before to see which seats we had been assigned to fund we were at opposite ends of the plane. I phoned but they said there was nothing they could do but to get to the airport as early as possible and the ground crew would sort it out. They didn't and it was only because my DD was in floods of tears when the captain was boarding that it was sorted out as I was sitting next to a single traveler who agreed to swap seats, the ground crew originally told me that it was all family groups on board, they obviously didn't check until the captain asked them to. If it is important to you to sit together then I personally wouldn't risk not booking after my experience. I did pre book for the way back as soon as we got to the hotel because I couldn't go through all the trauma again. What ever you decide I hope you have a fantastic trip xx

 

[karen1987]

When we flew with BA last April I didn't pre book our seats it was only me and DD aged 12 and their website says they seat family members together. I went on line the day before to see which seats we had been assigned to fund we were at opposite ends of the plane. I phoned but they said there was nothing they could do but to get to the airport as early as possible and the ground crew would sort it out. They didn't and it was only because my DD was in floods of tears when the captain was boarding that it was sorted out as I was sitting next to a single traveler who agreed to swap seats, the ground crew originally told me that it was all family groups on board, they obviously didn't check until the captain asked them to. If it is important to you to sit together then I personally wouldn't risk not booking after my experience. I did pre book for the way back as soon as we got to the hotel because I couldn't go through all the trauma again. What ever you decide I hope you have a fantastic trip xx

Thank you for sharing that and sorry you had such an ordeal! Very surprising it couldn't be sorted out, especially as you had your young child with you.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

When we flew with BA last April I didn't pre book our seats it was only me and DD aged 12 and their website says they seat family members together. I went on line the day before to see which seats we had been assigned to fund we were at opposite ends of the plane. I phoned but they said there was nothing they could do but to get to the airport as early as possible and the ground crew would sort it out. They didn't and it was only because my DD was in floods of tears when the captain was boarding that it was sorted out as I was sitting next to a single traveler who agreed to swap seats, the ground crew originally told me that it was all family groups on board, they obviously didn't check until the captain asked them to. If it is important to you to sit together then I personally wouldn't risk not booking after my experience. I did pre book for the way back as soon as we got to the hotel because I couldn't go through all the trauma again. What ever you decide I hope you have a fantastic trip xx

That is incredibly insensitive of BA, puts me off flying with them.

 

[MrRomance]

We flew BA last year, didn't pre-book and were seated together. Previous year, we flew with Virgin, contacted them 6 months before the flight to ask that they ensure we sit together as our daughter is autistic. They seated my wife and I together and our then 7 year old autistic child rows behind on her own. They refused to do anything about it, wouldn't even let one of us switch with her until after take off and the belt signs came off. We are flying BA again this year and will not be pre-booking. I think it depends on how full the flight is, but we haven't had a problem and we've flown transatlantic with BA many times.

 

[karen1987]

We flew BA last year, didn't pre-book and were seated together. Previous year, we flew with Virgin, contacted them 6 months before the flight to ask that they ensure we sit together as our daughter is autistic. They seated my wife and I together and our then 7 year old autistic child rows behind on her own. They refused to do anything about it, wouldn't even let one of us switch with her until after take off and the belt signs came off. We are flying BA again this year and will not be pre-booking. I think it depends on how full the flight is, but we haven't had a problem and we've flown transatlantic with BA many times.

Again its terrible that the airline says one thing and does another! Not great customer service at all really.

I think we will still hold out and book once the online booking opens, fingers crossed we will be ok!

 

[pampat]

We are three adults and we don't really communicate on a flight so it doesn't matter to us if we are seated together! However, on that BA flight, GTW to MCO, we don't prebook and for the last 5 years have always been seated together. We do olci but I wouldn't say that we are sitting on the PC waiting until dead on 24 hours before. We do check in when we think about it. Never a problem with us.

Pam

 

[Ware Bears]

We flew with BA last year to Vancouver and paid to pre-book as we wanted one of the first twins at the back and the three in front. Our flight was full and there were lots of people complaining that they'd been split up. We'd also pre-booked the same seats coming home from LA - worth the cost to us as it meant we got the seats we wanted but it wouldn't have been necessary just to be sat together as the flight wasn't full.

Guess it all depends on route and time of year.

 

[karen1987]

Decided to take a look on the BA - My account and see if I could see seating availability, and I'm glad I did because on the outbound flight availability was quite poor, with perhaps ~ 30 seats available for selection, and none of them window seats The majority of the remaining seats were in the middle section, with lone seats dotted around on the aisles, and a few two seaters in the aisle and middle seat on the port and starboard side of the plane.

Anyway, we've booked the seats for the outbound and incoming flight now (window seat coming back!) just to save stress and worrying that we might have been separated. Although, I'm £120 lighter, which I'm not impressed with!

 

[GlennUK]

FWIW

I fly quite a lot for business and have an exec club card and always check in online asap which does make life easier.

We (my family and i) are going to WDW March/April 2015 and we are flying into Tampa, i wouldn't want to be sitting up the other end of the plane from my wife & kids (DD9/DS7), for us the holiday starts when we leave home to go to the airport.

Whilst i know airline staff can be a pain, if you dont give yourself the chance to sit together then IMHO you have to take your chances, if you can pick your seats as soon as possible it is best to to do so.

JMHO

Glenn

 

[kevin_cambs_uk]

I might have missed something here, so please bear with me. When I last flew they did not do any of this! Blimey its been too long!!

But what if you pre book the seats to ensure you sit next to who you want and the flight is not full? and there are empty seats all over? Is that the gamble you take?

 

[karen1987]

I suppose that's the gamble you would take. There might be seats available for free 24 hrs prior to departure, but then again your party might end up separated.

The worry of being separated forced me into paying for pre booked seats. I don't think it's fair at all considering the cost of the flight, but that's how things seem to be going nowadays.