BA Rip off

[k33gan]

I have booked on BA from London to Johannesburg in C class as part of a larger trip and noticed that they charge $145.00 to book your preferred seat, I am able to book my seat in all the other legs, but not with BA. I thought paying for a business class ticket would be enough, but it seems BA want to squeeze all they can out of their customers. Needless to say I will opt to talk nicely to the person at check in.

 

[kelvedon]

Its a business decision BA have made. I guess their trying to look after their regular Business class passengers who have status and book at the last minute. This gives them a wider choice of seats and not the "leftovers".
I'm sure BA are aware of the disquiet this causes to business class passengers who have no Oneworld status as I've seen this issue posted before.

 

[kelvedon]

Needless to say I will opt to talk nicely to the person at check in.

You can select a seat on line at 24hrs

 

[k33gan]

Thanks, that is good to know.

 

[harvyk]

I think the magic number is that it opens up for free at 7 days out.

(Edit: if you have OW status)

 

[Welsh-Kiwi]

Mrs Welsh-Kiwi and I are flying from New York to London in Club World in December this year. BA wants £83 each to select seats. £166!! This smacks of BA money grabbing it customers. You'd think the price of a Club World ticket would include seat selection, like on most other carrier

 

[Mal]

It's a rip off and shows how grubby BA are.

Choosing your seat | Seat selection | British Airways

 

[anat0l]

Been "caught out" by this before, and it does come as a surprise to many.

You need to have paid a flexible or semi-flexible business class fare, or otherwise have any sort of status to escape the fee.

Even Ruby status is enough, though it means you can only select up to seven days in advance of flight departure. Semi-flexible business class can only select up to 48 hours in advance, which is 24 hours earlier than the rest.

Depending on how important it is for you to select a particular kind of seat, you do have to weigh up your options and also if it is worth investing the fee (assuming we're not working on principle here). Sometimes, you might have the privilege to select a seat for free, or even pay a fee, but then you realise there are no good seats left.

There are some other tricks some others have employed (not easy, but have been done) if it is really important you get a particular seat.

 

[boomy]

Is there difference between paid and award bookings?
I usually book BA using miles and can select any seat (apart from row 1) for free. After adding my OWE number I can select row 1 as well.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Is there difference between paid and award bookings?
I usually book BA using miles and can select any seat (apart from row 1) for free. After adding my OWE number I can select row 1 as well.

No there isn't. It's the OWE that allows seat selection from time of booking.

 

[boomy]

No there isn't. It's the OWE that allows seat selection from time of booking.

OWE allows me to select row 1 but even my non-status AA number allows me to book free seats.

Possible solution is to manage booking on the QR site.

 

[anat0l]

Is there difference between paid and award bookings?
I usually book BA using miles and can select any seat (apart from row 1) for free. After adding my OWE number I can select row 1 as well.

If you are Emerald, you can select a seat at the time of booking for free, irrespective of your fare type. In fact, you can even select seats for people in your party who are on the same flight, even if those members are not on the same booking as you.

If you had no status, then my impression is that an award booking is treated much the same as the cheapest business class fare available, i.e. no rights to free seat selection until check-in. At least, this is my experience in having booked BA award seats using AA miles. That said, I haven't tried using the QR site or others to try and select seats. My experience relates to calling BA on the phone; maybe that's what I was doing wrong.

In any case, I was also using EF to check what seats I could pick, and often the better seats are already blocked out, so it's a case of just picking whatever might be palatable. In the case of my sister's booking, she also couldn't select seats for free due to no status (barring the QR trick), but since her flight was only Euro Club, I just told her to settle with whatever she got at check-in.