WOW paying for an assigned seat!
 

Paying for assigned seats....This is the first time we have run into this situation on an International Flight. Our previous flights have always been purchased with miles including our international ones via United or one of the Star Alliance partners (business class) but this time we are paying cash for flight from JFk on BA. We were floored when it cost us another $900 to guarantee our seats were together. If we waited until 24 hours prior to flight there are no guarantees and this was in BUSINESS CLASS! So after paying a small fortune for our flight we had to come up with $900 for 2 seats on each air plane as we change planes in London both ways..I have paid for exit rows in economy or premier seating in economy but never have we paid anything extra in Business Class. How long has this been going on? What a rip off! We didn't want to take the chance of long flight not being together so we did it. TIme for a revolution fellow travelers!!!

Love knows no bound and it is nice to see you prefer paying 900 euros than being separated for 10 hours

Lovely story.

That's absurd! I've heard that some airlines inlcuding BA charge for seat assignments, but that was in economy class.

>>How long has this been going on? What a rip off! << Couple of years, maybe longer? It's not just BA either. Why didn't you wait until 24 hours beforehand, if you had booked together on one booking you would have been allocated seating together. Assuming that you are flying JFK to LHR, the flight is quite short, 5-6 hours, it must have been terribly important to sit together, to the tune of $900. In those business class seats, you are fairly private anyway, so I wouldn't have a clue who is next to me and I would not care if I was separated.

I thought the point of flying business class was to get some sleep...

I wouldn't have paid. Agree ... in business class you have enough privacy that it doesn't really matter who is next to you.

Well, I want to sit next to my husband not a stranger on ALL these flights since we are traveling together JFK to London then London to South Africa and reverse These are sleeper beds and I don't want to sleep next to someone that is not my husband! I was told by BA that waiting 24 hours prior to flight time, they CANNOT guarantee that we will have sleeper beds together. It is about 7 hour flight from JFK and then about 11-12 hours to South Africa which is long enough for me to want to be together......I was just surprised that after paying BIG bucks for Business class that there was an additional charge....

>>Well, I want to sit next to my husband not a stranger<<

>>These are sleeper beds and I don't want to sleep next to someone that is not my husband!<<

You won't see anyone - including your husband really - unless you specifically want to and lower the panels. The spaces are VERY private and the seats are quite far apart. And no, they don't 'guarantee' since that is how they convince people to pay extra. But they would have put you next to each other.

I sure wouldn't have paid $900.

Have you looked those flights up on seatguru? If they're on BA metal the seats are facing opposite directions. If the JFK-LHR leg is on AA metal, they aren't lie flat seats.

The airlines are charging for anything they think they can get away with these days. Paying $900 just encourages them. If no one pays for seat assignment, they'll stop charging for it.

I have been traveling on BA Club World ( business class ) for years. I have never paid for seat assignment and have always, always been satisfied with whatever seat they assign. You do have the opportunity to change seats when going online at the 24 hour designated period. As said, never changed seats. Even when flying with Mr. History they always assign seats together if booked on same ticket and, as janisj said, you have a great deal of privacy. I seldom speak to Mr. History after the meal is served ;) . ..about as private as it gets. Word of advice for first timers...never, ever pay for seat.

I might have taken the chance that someone would switch seats with me on the plane. I think it's more likely in business class. Of course, that's not a guarantee, and no one is obligated to switch, but it never hurts to ask.

I can understand your frustration, but no way would I have given them the extra $900!!

It's just a different way of pricing for an airline, I don't understand outrage at all. No one forced you to book that airline. If they didn't do that, the fare or some other fee would probably be higher. And you don't really have to sit next to a particular person, you just want to. Life won't come to a halt if you don't sit next to your husband for a few hours on a flight. Guess what, some of us do it all the time and are still here.

janisj....I did look at the actual airplane seats on the flights we are taking ....all four planes and the 2 seats we chose are together and face the same direction and are NOT far apart as are the ones that are next to the windows and over the wings. LIke I said, we are spending our children's inheritance. I am going to see what is available 24 hours prior to flight just for my own curiosity and to perhaps slap my own face! still think that it is wrong when you pay for Business Class that you should have to pay extra to assigned seats.

As I stated in my post, I have flown Business Class on BA for a number of years and have flown more than a few times with Mr. History. We have always gotten seats together by doing the 24 hour check-in. Once we had the two seats in the middle row, but all the other times he has an aisle seat, and I have the window one next to it. If two people are on the same ticket, I can't imagine that they wouldn't seat you together. And, as I also stated, you can change the seats assigned to you when you check-in 24 hours prior to departure. They will show available seats; you reselect.

>>I can't imagine that they wouldn't seat you together.<<

Precisely . . . Even coach passengers on the same booking almost always are seated next to each other. I have never seen Business passengers split up.

<i> LIke I said, we are spending our children's inheritance. </i>

And rightly so. The little blighters should pay for their own seats after you're gone.

Most of us would probably agree that paying so much for adjacent seats is neither necessary or wise. But still, the fee is exorbitant and I wonder how the airline has the nerve to charge on top of an already hefty business class fare.

For future reference, I have never been unable to get two seats together on an international flight as long as I checked in at the earliest possible time. Some airlines allow 24 hours before, some 48, but even on very busy and full flights it's never been a problem.

Paying that fee isn't something I'd really consider.

While I would never pay that fee for assuring seats together, I have had the experience of an airline changing our seats (in business class) so we were no longer together. My suspicion was that they did it to accommodate paying passengers when we were using mileage tickets booked 11 months in advance.