elaine

Hi
Some weeks ago I booked on line with BA for a bargain fare to London, leaving at the end of this month from JFK.
I wasn't able to choose seats on line, so that same day I called. They confirmed my preferred aisle seat for the January return flight, but couldn't confirm an assignment for the outbound in late Dec. I have called several times since, they politely insist that I will have to get that assignment on day of departure, though they entered my preference supposedly on my record. They say that most of the seating has not been "released" to the booking agents.

Has anyone else experienced this on a major airline on a regularly-scheduled flight?
Short of arriving at JFK airport 6 hours in advance, any other suggestions?

dlm531

I had this same experience with BA for a flight to London last June. I was assigned seats for the return flight, but had to wait until I checked in for seats on the outgoing flight.

I recently booked a flight with AA for a February trip and was able to get seat assignments both ways. Apparently, it's just something BA chooses to do - I was never able to get a believable explanation from them.

StCirq

This happens to me on United sometimes. In my experience, it means they've overbooked and are going to shuffle everyone's seats around at the last minute, after they get enough people to agree to be bumped.

Patrick

I think the worst was four of us were flying together on BA from London Heathrow to Amsterdam as an extension of an American Flight from Miami. Two of us were in business class. Although we booked nearly 10 months ahead, they could never give us our seat assingments. When we checked in at MIami, AA still said we'd have to get our assingments at the gate in Heathrow. We were the first to arrive at our gate in Heathrow about two hours before the flight. They were unable to seat any of us together. All four of us were scattered through the plane. Two in their "so-called" business class which was the same seats as tourist -- still three across on each side (they said they sometimes don't fill the center seats, but this flight was full). My question was if they can't give you a seat in advance, and we were the first at the gate, when did all those other people get their seats assigned together?

I despise BA, but this is only one minor reason.

Patrick

Oh, by the way, that's the same flight, that although we had nearly three hours for our connection at Heathrow, BA managed to "forget" (their words, not mine) any of our luggage -- all four of us. So we arrived at Amsterdam with no luggage!!

jody

I've never had that problem with BA...are you executive club members? That might be the reason I've not had a problem.

wojazz3

Had the same problem with BA in November except they couldn't give me seats in either direction. We got lucky on the return flight from Heathrow and we were place in World Traveler Plus, which turned out to be almost 1st class size seats, they just didn't recline to flat. Made for a more enjoyable ride back.

By the way, did anyone else experience the Hell that was Heathrow on the morning of Nov 30? They claimed that half there employees hadn't shown up that day. To Denver, we weren't even assigned a line to stand in until about an hour before the flight was to take off. The lines were a good 30+ minutes long. We tokk a chance and guessed at the line and were right, otherwise things would have been tight. Not many happy travelers that day.

Bill

dlm531

In answer to jody - yes, I'm an executive club member and have been for several years. After the last experience I wonder why I bother. In addition to the no seat assignment, they didn't give me full mileage - that was a first also!

BjorkChop

Basically, almost all commercial airlines hold to this practice. They hold back up to 40% of their seats and they release them upon check in and the reason behind it is last minute flyers purchasing expensive full fare tickets that don't wish to be seated in the last row of seats, families traveling together or frequent flyers. This is a very common occurence in the travel industry.

pop

I'm in the same situation. I leave in late December from BOS to LHR and BA won't give me a seat assignment(If I have to sit in a middle seat, I'm going to be really pissed!!). From now on, I will have a seat assignment before I pay or will look elsewhere.

wojazz3

When I booked my tickets in March for Nov on BA they told me that they only booked 30% of their seats in advance leaving 70% unbooked. Then again, if you go through travelocity fot the deals, you will have to pay $5.00 per ticket, but you will get to select your seats. At least I did for my May trip that I booked about a month ago.

Bill

Patrick

OK, BjorkChop. What you say makes some sense. But can you honestly suggest to me that 60% of the seats on our flight were sold more than 10 months ahead when we booked? And can you explain why although we were the first at the gate for check-in they still couldn't come up with any seats together? When were those seats reserved???

By the way, I have never, ever taken a flight with American that didn't pre-assign me a seat at time of booking -- and I've taken lots and lots of flights with American!!

Daisy54

Well I don't know what I did right, but just 2 days ago I called BA to ask about seat assignments for my flight to London next March 30, and they said sure no problem. Got the same seats assigned for the return flight. I wonder if it matters where you buy the ticket from - I bought ours directly from the BA website.

Lori

I've booked 11 months out with BA and always go immediate seat assignments. They do hold a percentage to assign at the airport tho so you can always change there if you are not thrilled or if you find out there are a lot of empty seats.

Patrick

Well, in my case the flight was booked as part of an American FF business class award. And for two friends it was also booked via American. They said they couldn't give the seat assignments on BA, but I could call them directly and do it. When I called BA they said, "there are no pre-seating assignments for flights between London and Amsterdam. You'll have to do it at check-in." Obviously they were lying. Some people DO get preseating. But it's not the first time I've been lied to directly by BA.

ncgrrl

The BA people know what seats are available and I don't understand why they just wouldn't go ahead and assign them instead of answering call after call.

My story: Mom and I were reticketed at RDU from our original flight onto the RDU-London Gatwick AA flight, then Gatwick-Amsterdam on BA. The gate agent at RDU assigned us seats while changing our tickets. The London-Amsterdam flight (I would say around 11 am) didn't have that many people on it, so maybe it wasn't a problem assigning seats. But the RDU gate agent's computer was able to check all flight options for time and seat availability and put us in an assigned seat. We were in economy.

BjorkChop

Where you purchase your ticket bears no difference on whether you can get your seat assigned ahead of time or not. It has everything to do what the airline will allow for seats. If seats are not being pre-assigned, even the airline reservation agent cannot bypass this either as it's not there to give. Normally, seats cannot be pre-assigned more than 90 days prior. When it's 90 days within and I look at the seat map, you would think that EVERY seat would be available, right? Wrong. There are seats already reserved from assigning. It doesn't mean that someone with a name has that seat, just that the airline has put it aside. Sometimes, when a seat assignment shows as "airport check in only" it can clear later on, it just takes tenacity in calling back every so often. Pre-assignment has nothing to do with when someone purchased a ticket. You could have purchased the ticket 11 months early or one month early and still get the same result. Plenty of my clients purchase their tickets way ahead of time, especially when they're planning cruises but no Patrick, I'm not suggesting 60% purchase tickets that far in advance. Also, being first in line at the check in counter cannot always help you. Since NW is Detroit's hub, I always suggest to my clients checking in within 36 hours prior at the NW website. That'll beat anyone standing first in line at the ticket counter at check in for those exit row seats or for families wanting to sit together. I would say I'm able to pre-assign my clients seats 80-85% of the time. This includes a small percentage that, although I can pre-assign seats, I cannot sit them together.

JonJon

EVERY airline holds back a certain number of seats which are dedicated to the check-in counters, not just BA, and it is done for a number of reasons. Gives the agents more leeway in case they have to ask for voluntary "give-ups" , there is a sudden equipment change with a resultant different seating configuration, and so forth. In my experience, this usually kicks in after a certain date for most airlines.
As to the pick-your-seat option being only 90 days out mentioned above...my experience has been that I can, and do, pick my seat up to 330 days out.

But again, your experience is not unique as, hopefully, your upcoming Prague one will be

Daisy54

An additional note to my experience with our seat assignements on BA - according to their webiste you will be able to request seats via the website starting around Easter 2004 (but since we are leaving March 30 that won't help us this time) and when I asked the BA agent on the phone how far in advance seats could be requested, she said at any time (assuming you've bought a ticket of course).

Christina

I don't know about this, it's confusing to me some of these experiences. I have never had any airline refuse to assign me a seat on a major or international flight EXCEPT BA. So my experience is not that all airlines do this, only BA. I have ALWAYS had BA do it to me and they never gave me any reasonable explanation or said I could get one one month ahead or whatever. They simply refused to give me a seat assignment and, as I recall, insisted almost all seats are unassigned. This was definitely for a flight US to London. I think they wouldn't assign me a return seat, either, but I can't recall for sure. I remember distinctly the flight going over (from BWI-London) because I bought my ticket quite far in advance, it certainly was not that all seats were almost assigned. They claimed no one could get a seat assigned. Then, when I did get there fairly early to get a good seat, about 3 hrs ahead, they claimed there were hardly any left. At that point, hardly anyone was at the counter yet. I asked them how this was possible if they would not pre-assign, and they couldn't answer. The counter clerk simply said she "didn't really understand the system herself".