British Air and Seat Assignments
 

I will be traveling from San Francisco to London and from there, on to Italy on British Air. My travel agent made the flight arrangements.

When I received my travel itinerary from the travel agent, there was no seat assignment. The document I received said "seats cannont be assigned until 24 hours before departure"

Last night I loged on BA's web site and located my reservation data and noted that seats had been assigned -and they were not particularly desirable. Fortunately, I was able to change the seat assignment to ones that were more desirable.

Just curious about the situation. Any thoughts or speculation as to the reason(s) why this happens?

Your travel agent should have made seat assignments when she bought your ticket.

In most fare categories for most passengers, BA doesn't allow seat selection until shortly before travel.

What kind of ticket did you buy? Are you a member of their Executive Club?

When you check in via online 24 hours before BA would display the seats and it is up to you to accept them or change.

Same thing when you book flights on other airlines and go to the seat selection part - they display the seats and it's up to you to accept them or change.

Unless you are elite or flying on a full fare ticket, you are not able to pre-assign seats on BA. This includes the economy+ and business class cabins, as well as cheapo economy.