Booking seats BA to New York?

[flyingquestion1]

We are flying London - New York this weekend, 4 passengers including 13 year old DD, all booked on same booking.

We haven't prebooked seats but now I'm regretting it and not sure whether to just take the plunge and book them! The current seat map is mostly empty but I know that doesn't really mean anything.

AIBU to think it will be fine and we'll likely be allocated seats together in the middle 4 seat row? Anyone have any recent experiences of BA seat allocation?

You should be fine. I'm in a Florida forum and the consensus is it's not worth booking with BA they don't randomly split groups up like since airlines do.

We’ve never booked seats and always been fine. Just check in together and early

Check in online as soon as it opens - always done this with BA and never had a problem.

Thanks all you have made me feel less stressed! We'll check in as soon as it opens

Apologies OP, but I'm afraid I had the oposite experience last year. I hope it works in your favour this time. At the very least keep an eye on that seating map. Enjoy New York. x

I flew with them on that flight in April and a few folk were split up and inexplicably we couldn’t check in online. Luckily we had booked our seats anyway.

I fly transatlantic with BA a lot. Usually I have been able to choose my seats at the time of booking due to Gold or Silver status but since Covid I have flown less and now can’t choose my seats until check-in. It’s still always fine and even 4+ people would be able to sit together, as long as you check-in online as soon as it opens.

I think a PP’s experience to the contrary must have been leaving check-in until the airport because I’ve never known (as far as I can remember) there to be low seat choice availability when check-in opens online, especially the further back in the plane you go.

We also had a bad experience with BA. Booked seats months before travelling, and they changed one seat allocation between us checking in online, and us arriving at the gate. The person who had been moved is partially sighted, so shouldn’t have been moved.

I've flown long haul with BA and Virgin for the past 20 years to America, mostly New York and Miami and have never been split from family. Have a lovely time OP x

The chances are it will be fine, if you check in as soon as check-in opens.

However, there's always a small possibility they might split you for whatever reason, so I guess it depends how bad you think it would be if they did! If the youngest member of your party is 13, it doesn't sound like it would be the end of the world if you were seated apart - just not ideal. And if they did split you, I suspect they'd probably still seat in you in two pairs rather in four individual seats, so I doubt she'd be on her own.

In answer to further comments from others when I said that it didn't work for me. Yes, I did check in on line and early, but there had been delays and cancellations before.

It could happen again, but I accept the possibilty is minimal.

Flight will be rammed this time of year to NYC. I would 100% book them as I have been on way too many flights with entitled parents trying to get people to move.