tcreath

I purchased four Basic Economy tickets through AA/BA traveling CLT to VCE. I fully understood the rules of Basic Economy when I booked my tickets. A few days after I booked I checked our reservation and we have assigned seats on all four legs of our round trip journey. I did not pay for these, and it's very clear on the Basic Economy rules that you have to pay to reserve a specific seat in advance. I'm trying to figure out if these will be our actual reserved seats or if they can change? We are a family of four, traveling with our twin 9 year old daughters. Before I call I wanted to see if anyone else experienced this?

Thanks!
Tracy

TDudette

No specific help here, but if you are close to the travel dates, no doubt seats will get assigned by the airlines? You would pay (again if you'd paid for certain seats to begin with?) to change them at this point. Please report back if you talk to the airlines.

Macross

We did basic economy with them to Paris last year and we were able to change seats 24 hours out. The plane had a lot of empty seats. Do you like the seats they assigned you? I didn't. I want an aisle and my husband does also if the plane configuration isn't 2-4-2. If 3-4-3 then I will pick the end aisle seat for him and for me. They always try to give one of us the middle seat. We did that coming back on Air Canada this year and no one sat in the two middle seats. We lucked out for sure on that flight as we paid less than 300 rt to Paris from Orlando.

janisj

>>I'm trying to figure out if these will be our actual reserved seats or if they can change? <<

Nothing guarantees the seats will stay the same as those already assigned to you. Even when you DO pay for assigned seats, they can be changed due to change of equipment or other operational issues . . . or just BA being BA.

If you got seats you like I'd stick with them and not pay. But if they are scattered all over the economy section then yes, pay. Too bad your daughters aren't just a few years younger -- they really don't like to split up young children from their parents. But no matter what seats you get, arrive at the airport early so IF you are split up, you can ask to the gate staff to seat you all together. They ca probably accommodate you.

tcreath

Thanks everyone!

The seats are ok for the most part. Towards the back of the plane, but to be honest I'm fine with that other than the flight home from VCE. We have less than a two hour connection in PHL which will be tight. We plan on traveling with carry-ons only but being in the back of the plane (literally, the second to the last aisle) isn't going to help matters. But I'm also not into paying an extra $400+ just to get closer seats. If we miss our connection AA should, hopefully, get us on the next available flight so I'm not going to stress about it.

We are all seated together and that's what I'm most worried about. I don't necessarily care if we all four sit together as a family, but I obviously want my 9 year olds to sit next to either me or DH. I'm thinking that they may have assigned us seats because we are traveling with children? On the way over all four of us are in the middle row which I think I prefer. We purchased our tickets last October and depart April 30th and our seat assignments haven't changed thus far.

mlgb

I think basic economy on international AA flights includes a seat assignment at the time of booking. It looks like somehow you randomly got seats assigned when you booked.

You might be able to move up a few rows by going in online under your reservation number and seeing if you can book any of the available no extra charge seats.

Also you can probably do it when you checkin online, although you may not find that many seats together in the same row, except toward the back of the plane.

Good luck in Philadelphia..LOL.

janisj

>> basic economy on international AA flights includes a seat assignment at the time of booking<<

It wasn't clear to me whether the booking is through AA or BA. AA, yes -- but BA, does not include seat selection.

tcreath

I actually booked through expedia.com because it was much cheaper. Typically I book directly through the airline but in this case the prices were significantly lower so I went with expedia. I have record locator numbers for both airlines, but it looks as though AA will be on three of the four legs. We are flying BA from LHR to VCE. I cannot move our seats without paying a fee...I've already tried.

It clearly states, on the AA website with regards to my Basic Economy tickets, that I would have to pay to choose seats:

Important information about your Basic Economy fare
Basic Economy restrictions
Pay to check bags
Pay to choose seats (or we'll assign seats at no charge during check-in) 1, 2
Not eligible for upgrades 1
50% EQMs & EQSs 1
1 Rules apply to all passengers including AAdvantage elites.

As for PHL, sigh, we originally had a three hour layover when we booked but our flights were changed. Again, since it's on our way home I'm not too worried about whether we end up on a later flight or not. We are flying in and out of the same terminal (terminal A) with only carry ons so I hope we have a fighting chance.

Odin

You'll be able to change the seats 24 hours before departure, subject to availability of whats left. The seats you have have been automatically allocated but will be changeable without fee once you are able to do online check in and you'll get the chance to choose something else. This is how it works on BA, not sure about changing pre-allocated seats on AA though.