I know this has been discussed before but the search engine on this site is pretty poor. I have reservations (economy class) for next summer London to Nairobi on BA. It appears that I am not able to pre-book the seats for me and my family. That seems very bizarre and unlike any other airlines. Is this so? Why?

Unless you have BA Gold/Silver or OneWorld = of Sapphire/Emerald status then it's true. You can't select seats until 24 hours before the flight on line or at the airport during check in.

And everybody's best guess on why is that they want to reserve the good seats for those who pay more for their tickets owing to coming along later, or having status, etc.

Sadly it's not that uncommon among European and Asian airlines these days.

If you check in online 24hours before, you will see the seats that have been pre-asigned to your group. If they are not suitable, you can change them if there are any seats left for pre-assignment.

Even on airlines where you can prebook in advance, sometimes they change the seats, due to various reasons eg change of aircraft. They are never guaranteed.

BA also gives advance selection to full fare passengers.

we have been given our seat selections for all 4 legs of our upcoming trip in January. We are travelling world traveller plus, full fare.

If you are travelling with young children, you can probably plead your case over the phone with their reps. They can give you seat selection up to 3days before flight. But not earlier.

I am taking a tour in May using an upscale travel company, and the tour company regularly uses British Air. However, the tour company said BA has become very rigid about its seating, and the tour company couldn't (or wouldn't) intercede on my behalf to get advance seat assignments. I was told to ask my large Internet travel company to see if it could do anything, because that was who booked my flights for this tour. I'm not optimistic.

Ah, but for those with status, it truly is fantastic! I always get a great seat. But, if you do not have status, there is no reason one should choose BA. The FF program is awful for coach passengers. The seating policy is stupid. And the baggage handling is beyond pitiful.

I have been flying BA to Europe recently because I can fly non-stop from LAX to LHR and then have more options if I or my luggage miss the connection. I know people who have flown through Newark or JFK who missed their connection and were stuck for 24 hours.
Also, but less importantly, I like the slightly extra leg room, and the movies choices, and my girlfriend likes the free booze and eyeshades.

Well, BA is not the only game in town for LAX-LHR. Virgin has 2 flights a day; AirNZ, AA and UA each have one. And Air France will start that route too, supposedly, late March.

VS also fly to NBO from LHR.

mscarls: I'm not sure we are talking about the same BA... In regular coach, they do not have extra legroom - except for the exit rows, which are almost always booked by elites. You get 31" which is as stingy as Continental and KLM. Most of the other options will be 32" and New Zealand is 34". United is 31" in regular economy, but a year of E+, with more legroom can be purchased for around $300.

Perhaps mscarls was referring to World Traveller Plus, BA's premium economy section. BA WT- is about as scrunched as they get.

BA is a joke, all right.

Last trip to LGW I was just 3 hours late doing the online check in (we were out for dinner and missed the 24 hour mark) and was NOT able to select 3 seats together for myself and family. We ended up sitting apart in various parts of the Econ class.

I had to go to a neighbour over there to borrow their internet connection at the 24 hour mark to check in and select 3 seats together on the return leg.

Thanks for telling me about all of the non-stops from LAX to LHR on other airlines. They haven't been showing up when I search for connecting flights through to Rome, for example. The change of planes is always at Atlanta or the NYC area.
Regarding leg room, maybe it was just my and my girlfriend's imagination, but it seemed like there was more legroom in regular World Traveller than in coach on Delta, which we had been flying.