Warning against British Airways!!!

[suzybear6]

Kate, I do understand where you are coming from and would feel exactly like you in the circumstances {{{HUGS}}}.

When I was looking to book my flights recently the £20pp charge to choose your seat was something I had to take into consideration when looking at flight prices. As a family of four BA's flight would have to be at least £160 cheaper than anyone else's for me to have even considered booking with them as I wouldn't have wanted to take the risk of not pre-booking our seats incase so many other people had and we were left not being able to sit together.

However, at least I knew before I booked our flights what the situation was, I'd be very annoyed if an airline changed the rules after I had booked as I would then have to fork out that extra money to reduce the stress of the worry about not getting seats together.

I do thnk that to be fair BA should have allowed all those people who had already booked their flights before they announced the rule changes to be able to pre-boook their seats for free, just like Virgin have alllowed people the higher lugage allowance if they had already booked before they changed their rules on that.

Luv Suzy

 

[casinocolin]

Sorry to hear this Kate, but we'd rather fly BA any day rather than Virgin, but that's another story entirely.

Either way, phone BA's special assistance and explain that you are a very nervous flyer and ask them to make a note on your reservation no. for you to sit with your partner. You never know, you may find a helpful person who will assign your seat for you.

Hope it all works out OK for you!

We flew with BA World Travellers Plus last year & my wife has a minor medical condition. So we phoned BA's special assistance before we flew, requesting specfic seats on the plane, which they immediately allocated to us for inbound & outbound flights. On our return journey the seats had to be given to other passenagers in greater need of them then us but BA upgraded us to Club World instead. Well done BA. They do care about their passenagers. So you may well be ok if you give them a ring & explain that you are a nervious flyer.

 

[igk]

BA's policy has always been to allow you to book 24 hours before, now they are offering a new service which allows you to book before that if you pay for it. This then guarantees you seats together.

With Virgin, yes you can choose your seats earlier and free but as we found out you are not guaranteed these seats, we arrived at the airport to be told our seats had been given to a family with younger children, we had to sit apart for 9 hours.

Some people prefer the way BA do it, some prefer having it free with Virgin. Sorry you don't like the new service.

Is the BA thing really guaranteed? If a similar family that forced Wayne to be moved got in the same situation with BA would they not shift people around anyway?
I know the Virgin thing isn't guaranteed, but most people do get the seats they have chosen

 

[highflyer747b]

- I very much doubt that everyone on the plane is going to pay £20 each for an advance seat allocation.
- BA keep a certain block of seats back for people checking in 24 hours before the flight.
- Regardless of having paid for seating in advance or just choosing your seat 24 hours before checkin, the airline (ANY airline) is entitled to change your seat for operational reasons; it's in the small print.
- I don't think there's any need to get quite so flustered about this change.

Phil

 

[wayneg]

Is the BA thing really guaranteed? If a similar family that forced Wayne to be moved got in the same situation with BA would they not shift people around anyway?
I know the Virgin thing isn't guaranteed, but most people do get the seats they have chosen

I doubt very much they pre-sell anywhere near enough seats to be in the situation of not having enough seats for young families being sat together. Same reason I believe the OP will have no problem getting 2 seats together at the 24 hr window.
I can see both sides of this problem, there is no change to the terms of the original ticket, OP can still allocate seats 24 hrs out, all they have done is offer an additional service but I can see why anyone that has booked would be upset, trouble is I think more will be happy or not care than are upset. I believe this is the 1st thread anyone has threatened to boycott them for the change.

 

[originalkk]

- I very much doubt that everyone on the plane is going to pay £20 each for an advance seat allocation.
- BA keep a certain block of seats back for people checking in 24 hours before the flight.
- Regardless of having paid for seating in advance or just choosing your seat 24 hours before checkin, the airline (ANY airline) is entitled to change your seat for operational reasons; it's in the small print.
- I don't think there's any need to get quite so flustered about this change.

Phil

Exactly. Even under the old system, you never got all the seats to choose from at the 24 hour point. I for one would never pay extra to guarantee certain seats in advance. I'll just check in exactly 24 hours ahead and choose then.

We have flown BA long haul with 2 children many times over the years, and have never had our seats changed at the airport (though years ago if you had small children you used to be able to reserve seats for free when booking by ringing BA or via the agent).

 

[kristieuk]

I can understand your gripe, but if it helps at all, we were in a similar position having booked Nov 08 for flights in Oct 09. When BA changed their policy, we took a view to pay for allocated seats on the outbound flight - there were 6 of us, and our concern was really for DD who is only 2. If we weren't together, she would no doubt have spent the day flight deciding to traipse us up and down the plane to see everyone.

On checking in online, you could view the available seats, and there were lots still together, and 2 seats together was absolutely no problem at all. Coming back was exactly the same - we had 6 seats together even at online check in. I'm sure you won't have any problem, but if it puts your mind at rest, maybe the £80 is worth it.

In my experience, BA very rarely alter pre-booked seats (I should imagine paid for pre-allocation would only be altered in even more extreme circumstances) whereas Virgin seem to do alter them more often.

 

[TraceyL]

Firstly VA do not guarantee to seat you in the seats you request - or even seat families together. They can and do split parties up even when seats have been "requested" many months in advance & are still showing as togther just before check in.

BA have always allowed certain categories of passenger to chose their seats earlier than the masses & gave priority to families. Not sure how many people will be forking out extra for this new policy - which incidentally does not guarantee you a specific seat. They will still move people around for "operational" reasons.

To this day we have never had an issue with BA seating (unlike VA)

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

its quite simple, when pricing up various flights with different airlines, add the seat booking cost to your price calculations.

BA have less problems with seat movements as they use the same layout on all their Orlando routes. Virgin have different layouts for different planes. This is why it is not a booking rather a request.

We have never had a problem with seat allocation with Virgin.