The short-haul BA flights are 2-3. The 2 side has what is about half of a seat between the two seats. On the 3 side, the seats are ratcheted apart a little to give you an extra inch or two of width. Seat pitch is a bit better than coach. I have definitely seen the middle seat occupied on multiple occassions.

Aside from the (underwhelming difference in seating) you do get 1) better catering on board and 2) lounge access. The lounges are generally quite nice, so this is the biggest plus to me. Otherwise, the only reason to do it would be to help chase status on BA.

The funny thing is, as big of a joke as this sounds, it is better than what most of the other European carriers have for intra-European J. KLM is the biggest joke of all, along with someone like Spanair. Most of the others, like SAS and Air France just block off the middle seat, but it is otherwise just an economy seat.

Thanks for the responses. We are business class flying Tampa to Gatwick in July. I thought that I had to wait until 24 hours out!

Also, we are on separate records and my efforts to have BA linked them failed. Delta does all the time.

landlcochran: Unless you have elite status with BA or another OneWorld carrier (like AA), you may have to wait until 24 hours out.

Short of elite status, you must be flying on a fully refundable fare or have a corporate agreement. Being in business class is not enough - if it is a restricted ticket, you would have to wait until 24 hours out.

Does Gold on AA (or ruby on the alliance) work??

I don't think so. I think AA Plat or EXP only.

Here is the page from BA:

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...y/public/en_dk

<i>Does Gold on AA (or ruby on the alliance) work??</i>

Unfortunately BA doesn't recogniz(s)e OW Ruby.

Well, been gone all day, but just now decided to try again to change our seats online.

It worked - or as AA posted, maybe not. Anyway, it worked on the screen. 3 of us &amp; I switched from the D,E,F 3 seated side to A,C,&amp; C. PER THE SCREEN only, it &quot;took&quot;. Now as AA said, maybe not really.

We are not 1st class - we are Club Europe, but there is not any 1st class on this plane, so.... Who knows!

Also, our ticket is not refundable, not elite status, not anything but regular paying passengers. Maybe sometime I will try calling BA again just to see what seats they show for us. If so, I'll let you know.

Correction to my previous posting. D-E-Fs are full sized seats. It's the little space between As and Cs(that could have been Bs) that's blocked.

Looks like you've already straightened things out, but it looks like SeatExpert.com has the BA A319 - Club Europe seat map: http://seatexpert.com/seatmap/415/Br..._Club_Europe_/

Oops, I didn't realize this thread was a year old. Sorry for unnecessarily bumping.