To think BA seating assignments are a con!

[macystacy]

I am flying to LA with my 3 and 4 year old kids on Friday. Our seat assignments I viewed today have 2 seats together (window aisle and centre) then another seat the row ahead centre aisle. All the seats around are available except the window seat itself. However BA will charge me £25 to change any of the seats! They say I can wait till online check in opens to change for free but can't guarantee we will be sitting together.

I have flown many times with other airlines to Oz but never come across something so ridiculous in my life! I realise cabin crew may move us but what if no one will move?

I'm sure it will be sorted fine on the day just cannot believe what a racket it is with so many other rows of 3 available, the seats are surrounded by them. There is no reason why they have done this other than to make more money and to generally piss people off a big lot for a small sum of money in comparison to the flight cost.

Never again BA on principle!

Maybe I'm thinking this all wrong and should sit on my own and leave them to it:-) Would feel sorry for other passenger with my 3 and 4 year old boys next to them!

Could it be that when your seats were allocated there were no three seat rows available. I can't believe they would purposely sit you in seperate rows just to get an extra £25 out of you - that would be mad. I just can't see a company like BA doing that. hope I am not being naive

I'd phone and ask again.

It's not a racket.

Once upon a time you checked in at the airport. You had to be there early to get the best seats.

Then online checkin 24h ahead was made possible. Now you can choose your seats 24h ahead if you get online; otherwise, check in at the airport and see what's left.

Then airlines realised that some people would prefer the piece of mind of having their seats confirmed before check in and that they would be happy to pay for that. So that was added.

In the premium classes, or with frequent flyer status, seat selection is free. In the grand scheme of things, there's little to distinguish one class from another or one airline from another; why should this differentiation be given up by BA?

It's not just BA, I have been initially seated half the plane apart from DH by several airlines, for no reason whatsoever, pretty much all seats available to book - for a fee, of course. I just set a reminder and do the check-in the minute it opens.

As an aside, I have to say we never have an issue with the random allocation at easyjet, as they now charge for specific seats I would have expected to be split up from my husband if I didnt cough up but find that as long as you do the online check in early, there is never a problem. Good on you easyjet.

Dh travels with BA a lot, short haul in the UK. He always goes in when online check in opens, and changes his seat allocation with no problems at all - he has a specific seat that he likes (don't ask), and almost always gets his preferred seat.

I suspect if you go in as soon as online check in opens, you will have no difficulty getting better seats than the ones you've been allocated.

I regularly travel with BA with my dds now 8 and 5 . They have always allocated me 3 seats together. Often DH travels on a separate booking and generally they put him over the aisle from us. I have never repaid and altered the seats. I do also hit the online check in 24hrs before usually watch the countdown and check in - I have changed the seats so we are 2+2 .

I thought that seated together included directly in front/behind as well as next to?

I actually agree with the money making in this case - and I used to work in tourism so often very skeptical of people views on it being a con/ money making scheme!

If the adjacent and surrounding seats are empty why place you all separately? If they can move you for £50 they can place you together for free - as they have clearly already done seat allocation.

Pay up, its a small amount

I find the seat separation so bizarre. Why can't they see you're buying 3 tickets and just give you three seats together. DH and I traveled a lot preDS and since we booked two tickets at the same time we've always been sat together. Once we were separated by the aisle but that's it.
If they could do it that way for decades it does make it seem a money grubbing con that they can do it now.

In this case, it really does seem to be a con.

Why seat you seperately, if the surrounding seats and plenty of rows of 3 are empty, if it's not to get you to pay the extra money?

If the surrounding seats are empty and there are plenty of free rows of 3 then it's bizarre to seat 1 adult and 2 children seperately, it's difficult to see it as anything but a money making exercise

Although with so much seating free could you not book 2 next to each other at the back of the plane and a single seat at the front? Now that would be worth the money.

For decades they seated you together because you checked in together. If you check in together there is an excellent chance you will still be seated together. If you want to take away the small risk you won't, you can pay to do so.

I don't think across the aisle AND the row in front counts as together either. You could read the guidelines and email customer services quoting them which I believe say that a child should be sat in the same seat row as the accompanying adult. You could say something along the lines of that you understand these are only guidelines but you would expect BA to be aiming to achieve them were ever possible and could they explain why they weren't striving for this?

Of course they can and should fix this without charging although it sounds like it should be okay, but waiting till 24 hours before is stressful.

Being sat together doesn't necessarily mean in the same row.

It means either being in the same row, in front of/behind, OR in the row across the aisle. If you don't want to take that risk, then you need to make sure you pay the extra to get three seats in the same row.

They should allocate seating together for those who have booked together and prioritise families. Its a complete con and plays to the anxiety of parents travelling with small children (not saying you are anxious OP but we had similar with BA last year and I was travelling with DD who suffers from travel sickness so I thought it best to sit together - 80 for seats there and back).

Just change them the moment check-in opens. I've done this and had no problems.

TBH I'm sure if you can pay for the flights you can find the money to reserve (think drop in ocean).

Just set a diary reminder and get online the minute check in opens 24 hrs before the flight.

I fly with BA a lot and have always had plenty of choice of seats when doing this.

If you are going to stress about it, decide whether paying 75 quid is worth it for the peace of mind.

i have similar with Virgin, who have started the con charge from april. either pay 250 for 5 seats together (when i would bet they will do 3 in centre and 2 in window) or take a chance. and 250 is not a drop in the ocean, its 250 more than they would have charged last year! i have found out that virgin will seat under 12s with a parent so we are just going to wing it.

Greenfolder - unless Virgin's prices to LA have dropped significantly since I last checked £250 is a drop in the ocean, compared to the cost of 5 return flights.

And if they have dropped that much I am

I'd be annoyed to have a child sit next to me without a parent especially if I was travelling child free. I don't want to be responsible for the child. Who will deal with the child in the event of an emergency and everyone needs to be seat belted if the parent is not sitting next to them - that's the question I'd be asking the airline - will their staff take responsibility for your dc?