British Air is having money troubles. Their service, which used to be excellent, has declined significantly.

Earlier this year we flew from Seattle to Italy and back on British Air, using miles plus one free companion airfare for Club World/Business class seats. I like to book the long legs ahead of time and will grudgingly pay for this privilege. But I was not allowed to do this on the return flight. Bad sign; they won't take your money.

It turned out BA had overbooked the Club World cabin and we were downgraded. I guess having spent relatively actual cash, we were expendable. They gave us a Debit card for £400 and hustled us on the flight. At home the BA debit card didn't work. I called the phone number on the back of the card. After more than an hour on the phone, we connected with an agent who saw we were re-imbursed. But the phone call cost over $400. I asked for compensation and was refused.

I'm researching other airlines.

Dukey: <What will you do if you do wait and none of the seats upstairs ARE available or the ones which still are do not happen to be ones you'd prefer?>

Um... be disappointed and save almost $200. ;-)
The only thing I would really hate is being stuck in a middle seat for more than 11 hours. And I'm trusting that being able to check in 5-1/2 hours before anyone who is originating in London will eliminate that. (It's a 2-1/2 hour flight from Prague -- and there is a 3-hour layover in London.)

Crellston: <90% of the time we have managed to get our preferred seats, which in economy are the upstairs cabin 2-4-4 configuration which are great, small cabin and just the two seats etc. , next best are centre section aisle and adjacent seat. If you are happy with the latter, I wouldn’t pay>

I would be fine with a center aisle and adjacent seat. So I might take my chances.

Jamikins: <I believe they will put you together - we have never bought 2 tickets together and been split up.> But it's good to hear that so many of you have not gotten stuck with horrid seats by checking in 24h in advance. In fact, NO ONE has said that.

But as I said, we did NOT buy the tickets together. I might send an email and ask them if it would be possible for us to be seated together.

Mimar: Wow. Sorry you had such a horrible experience!

Thank you all for your input. I'll let you know what we finally decide. Now ... time to pick hotels!

If you did not buy the seats together, there is probably little chance that you will be seated together. I wouldn't even bother to either email or call requesting to be seated together. From my experience, you will be wasting your time. In fact, I believe those that respond to phone calls and emails really don't have the authority to appropriate seats. Your best bet if you don't buy your seats would be to arrive early and ask to be seated together at check- in.

>The one time I have prepaid for seat selection I got to the airport and they had reassigned me because a person with a baby needed the bulkhead. No refund for the seat selection fee. They can also do this if they change the planes.<

@ Jamikins: you could have applied online to have the seat selection fee refunded if they changed you from the seat you paid to reserve. I've claimed it 6 months after the fact (procrastinator that I am) and they had no issue with it.

I had the same dilemma for a flight from DC to Paris via London. I didn’t want to pay the money for a seat assignment, but also worried about getting a poor seat. I kept checking the online seating chart and when I saw seats becoming full I bit the bullet and purchased for the DC to LHR leg. Glad I did because the flight was fully booked and who knows what I would have gotten if I waited. Maybe it would have been fine, but for the overnight portion I didn’t want us split up or stuck in middle seats. Unfortunately, the airline counts on people like me so they can make extra cash!

Yes, it's a two-fer for BA: they earn extra cash and they reward silver and gold status passengers with free seat selection.

I no longer fly BA transatlantic. They charge a fortune for business class tickets, have uncomfortable business class seating/beds, have poor customer service in person and via the telephone, and they separate travellers who are traveling together to pressure them into paying to be seated together. I feel sorry for the employees who have to put up with so many complaining and angry passengers. Not the fault of BA, but since London itself is rarely my final destination when flying, having to deal with Heathrow + BA in the same trip is something I everything I can to avoid.

I fly BA several times a year, albeit within Europe, but I'm only a Blue executive club member so get no privileges. I check-in as close to the 24 hours as possible. When viewing the seat allocation, I almost always change it, to an aisle seat as far forward as possible (avoiding the first row behind business/premium economy so I don't get the curtain in my face!).

One year I'd booked 5 of us on the same flight, some paid for, some using miles, but in 3 separate transactions. I opened 3 different BA tabs, so I could check us all in more or less simultaneously and got us all seats together in the same row.

Keep checking the seat charts, see how it's going.

If I know I have an overnight flight, I do tend to reserve my seat in advance so I can be sure of an aisle seat not too close to the bulkhead where there are baby cribs, and not too close to the toilets or galleys.

I'm a Blue Executive Club member as well, and hate those extra seat charges. I've just booked a flight with BA from LHR to Cape Town, and am paying more than my brother, who will be flying from Minneapolis to Cape Town via Amsterdam with Delta/KLM. How can that be?

When the 24 hour window opens, a game of musical chairs takes place. Pre-assigned seats are revealed and some passengers upgrade either by payment or status or whatever, leaving their former assignments open for the next passengers to move up to, if desired, and so on. You never know what will show up.

Heimdall: "just booked a flight with BA from LHR to Cape Town, ... How can that be?

Strangely, it's because South African Airways decided to fly all flights via JHB, leaving BA the only airline flying direct from London to Cape Town - a situation that they take full advantage of.

I've just come back from CPT and flew via Istanbul, because the 16 hour flight via Turkey cost me about half of BA fare.

BA have had a long history of monopolising the "old colonial" routes.

The two routes they abuse are to UK to the Caribbean and to South Africa. Their prices on some particular routes like Cape Town, Nassau and Barbados are comical in terms of price. Some passengers are simply prepared to pay ridiculous economy prices for around 2 hours of convenience.

The prices we are quoted to Nassau average £1300. I've never paid more than £600 to fly through Atlanta with Delta.

I'd agree with Willit about Cape Town. There are always good deals to fly through Dubai or Istanbul. Emirates have huge A380s to fill on their hub route to Dubai.

BA have always reminded me of a Natioanlised company, stroppy staff and crap service levels with poor prices. They need to send their staff on secondment to Singapore Airlines.

OK, so an airline company has a route nobody else has and yet you don't expect them to take advantage of that fact? DUH

@Dukey1- Not Duh, merely answering Heimdall as to why that particular route is so expensive.

The ignore button really can't soon enough to apply to some of our intellectually changed posters.

Challenged posters.

Bloody autocorrect.

Willit, I took a direct flight with BA to Cape Town last October, and sat next to someone who prefers the KLM flights from Amsterdam. In April I will be saving a little money by going via JHB on the way down, but the BA flight is still expensive. Strangely the fare was a little lower going direct from CPT to LHR on the way back.