Choosing longhaul seats with BA - necessary to pay?

[pinotnow]

I am always happy to pay to sit together so it's not about that but previously not had the option not to anyway.

We fly in just under 2 weeks and can pay to book seats now for around £200. Or wait until check in 24 hours before we go and then it's free to select seats. At the moment the moment the vast majority of seats are available so presumably not many people have paid to select yet.

Does anyone have experience of this wilth BA and were seats you wanted available when it came to check in 24 hours before the flight? Don't want to waste £200 bit do want to sit together, preferably with one of the dc by a window, so not in the middle row.

Short haul, never pay.

Long haul, I only ever pay when it looks like seats are limited and I want to avoid the middle seat, etc, we want to sit together, etc. So I usually check the seat plan regularly and if it looks like my preferences are running out, then I pay. Otherwise, I check in as soon as it opens and usually get seats I want.

Last long haul I did was Japan in Feb. Flights booked through BA but JAL operated the flight out. I was able to select the return flight seats on BA when booking but unable to select the outward seats at that time. The process was wait until online check in and then change allocation if it didn't suit. It looked ok, so I went with it. The upshot was that JAL was a gazillion better on every level bar the in flight entertainment. The BA return flight was awful - lights out for way too many hours, dire food, lack of coffee before landing, no restraints on passengers with absurd amounts of hand luggage, grumpy staff (I blame airline not them).

In my experience, BA at least does not deliberately seat families apart, unlike the likes of Tui and EasyJet. We are a family of three and never pay for seats and have always been seated together when checking in on the dot of 24 hours beforehand. BUT I would never complain or ask anyone else to move if we weren’t. You pays money (or rather don’t) and take your choice.

EasyJet doesn’t deliberately seat families apart. I fly often with easyJet with my small children and have never paid for seats as we are always seated together.

That’s what I do. I think I only once or twice ended up paying.

(Obviously I select free seats the second it opens..)

I have no intention of asking anyone to move -that definitely won't be happening. Turns out the plane has an upper deck and the teens are keen to sit there if possible as not done that before. However, ds1 is more veering to not paying and taking our chances. Ds2 does want us to sit together, preferably upstairs but obviously he won't be throwing a tantrum over it. I'm going to monitor it and probably end up paying to sit upstairs even though I'm sure it's a total non-event!

I just flew longhaul with BA, I had been checking and hardly anything was booked then around a week before maybe under loads filled up - I suspect maybe one of the exec club tiers allows free seat choosing a week before or something. So I did end up booking.

I also booked seats on air Asia and it was £3/£5 a seat! A nice change.

Absolutely this. Gold members can make the selection at time of booking, bronze open a week before the flight. I assume silver is somewhere in the middle. The last time I flew BA I was with a gold member so I didn’t realise seat selection wasn’t free at point of booking.

Upstairs is a disappointment, you don't even get to go up steps in the plane. I wouldn't pay for the privilege. Slightly nicer if you're a pair and can get window and aisle as it's 2,4,2 configuration

The window seats on those planes on the lower deck (assuming a380) however have a big space next to them with a little locker which are great.

I also think that they don't release all seats available to book prior to 24 hours. So there will be seats available then that weren't shown previously. I've never had a problem with getting a choice of seats at check in with BA (except from the time we flew premium economy) but we're only a couple and wouldn't be the end of the world if we we're sat apart so happy to take the risk and bank the money.

Depressing how people's reading comprehension is through the floor. Isn't it.

I am pleased to hear it, absolutely as they should but in my experience of 2 adults and one child, they always seem to seat the second adult as far away as possible to “encourage” you to pay next time.

On our last flight with Tui, my husband was seated in the middle of a family group of 8 and one of the 8 was seated with me and my child. That has to have been deliberate, we sorted it between ourselves as on that occasion everyone was happy to move.

To the OP the difference with BA is that you can select from what is available at check in for free but with some other airlines you can only ever pay to make a selection otherwise you get what you’re given.

That’s surprising. We fly easyJet a lot, as they’re the most convenient for visiting family. Whether I’m travelling with my husband or without, we are always seated together. To be fair we check in as soon as check in opens so have never had the issue of limited seat availability.

The one and only time that didn’t happen was when we changed our flights to a different one in the day, and I was seated next to my child with my husband in the row in front of us, but that was a flight change made the day before.

Op - go on expert flyer (sign up for the free one) and if you put in your flight details, class of travel etc you can see what seats are open still. It's fiddly to use at first but handy to see if the cabin is getting booked up. Seat map disappears at T-24.

We recently flew with Air Canada, and had a total of four flights (International to Canada/return to the UK and internal flights to/from our final destination), for 3 adults.

If I’d paid for all our seats it would have added something like an extra £500 to the cost of our holiday, which was just too much.

We made the decision that we would be happy with seats we were allocated, so took the risk and didn’t pay. When it came to the online check-in, on all flights we had been given three seats together, but there was also capacity to be able to choose alternative seats, that we felt were better.

However there weren’t any children, so it really didn't matter if we were together or not. And I’m guessing that the popularity of the route, as well as time of year, would have a big influence on availability.