BA price to sit together

[marypoppins81]

Hi again! We booked through wdw holidays and have been allocated flights with BA. I have been advised we need to pay to guarantee we sit together which would be fine. However BA want £240 for this to cover both legs of the trip!! Surely they won't sit a 3 and 6 year old away from me if I refuse to pay?

 

[flortlebap]

That's absolutely crazy!

I haven't flown BA in years so I can't help specifically, but no, that doesn't sound right to me.

I know with VA you can log in with your booking reference for free and choose seats online - do BA not offer that service?

Otherwise you might need to ensure you check in at the earliest possible opportunity and request seats together...

 

[disney13]

BA will allocate seats 7 days before departure for anyone travelling with children. That applies to both the outbound and inbound flights (inbound will still be 7 days before departure).

 

[marypoppins81]

So sounds like they just want the extra cash. Thanks for the replies

 

[magicgirl]

I have done 4 flights with BA this year, 2 long haul and 2 short trips. On each occasion we have been adults flying together and when checking in had seats allocated next to each other. We are travelling as a group of 6 with 2 children to Florida in September and have been told we will be allocated seats together although we are unable to choose them unless we pay.

 

[pascalstongue]

We flew with BA to Orlando in May. we were a group of five adults and two kids. We did not pay to choose our seats and were all seated next to each other. I wouldn't pay for it, it's a rip off!

 

[edinburghlass]

You can log in 24 hours in advance and change your seat for free but its unlikely you would be able to change a family group for better seats than they have already allocated you.

 

[MrRomance]

The issue here is the "official line" is different to how it works in reality! The only way to GUARANTEE seats together (whether you have kids or not) is to pre-book your seats at £35 each way per person. The reality is, they don't seat kids away from their parents, but it is possible that could happen. It happened to us on Virgin. Even though we had contacted their special assistance department 8 months before we left and again 3 months before we left (because our DD who was 8 at the time is autistic) on our return leg from MCO to LGW, they sat her in a different row next to a stranger adult and wouldn't let one of us switch with her until after take off!

So to answer your question, it is very unlikely that they will sit your children away from you, but it can happen and the only way to absolutely guarantee that doesn't happen is to pay to pre-book.

 

[wayneg]

So to answer your question, it is very unlikely that they will sit your children away from you, but it can happen and the only way to absolutely guarantee that doesn't happen is to pay to pre-book.

I have seen it happen on more than one occasion. Worst that happened to us was 2 + 2 about 10 rows apart so not too bad. One time our plane was delayed almost 1 hour with a family argueing they would not fly until they were sat together. We were flying business class and the people around us were fuming.

I have even seen threads where people have paid to sit together then at check in been given different seats apart, had to get refund on return.

Airlines will do what they want, I would never pay for seats together.

 

[Ware Bears]

There's no way I'd pay for seats to Europe, the flights aren't long so if we aren't all sat together then it's no big deal (so far they've sat us together).

However for our trip next month (Heathrow to Vancouver then LA to Heathrow so both long flights) we wanted the last row of 3 at the back with the first row of 2 behind it and knowing how hard those twin seats are to get we decided it was worth it to us to ensure them. Even after paying for the seats we've spent less overall than if we'd flown the same route with Virgin (and get a much better hand luggage allowance) and if we don't end up with the seats we'll get a refund. So in this instance I didn't begrudge paying.