Some where I understood that you could pay extra to make a seat choice prior to the normal 24 hour period. (ecomomy) I went into their site, filled out all of the information, page to page right up to the point of actual payment. I never saw a place to indicate where I could pay for making a seat reservation up front. Any answers as to what I may be doing wrong Oh, if it makes a difference, the flight is between San Francisco and Heathrow and return.

You could always try "manage your booking" once you book.

Just found this & it looks like you have to buy the ticket first and then you can select your seats. To me, this looks like most of the economy seats are going to be free to select, however, if you want a premium seat, bulkhead, or something else, that may be when you have to pay. This is from their website here http://www.britishairways.com/travel...g/public/en_gb.

How to book your seat in advance

Check our guide to see if you can book seats for free or if there’s a charge.

View our seating guide
Once you have booked your flight, you can choose or purchase your seat on ba.com.

Book seats in Manage My Booking

Please note, some customers are not eligible to choose seats in advance:

* Children travelling alone (Skyflyers Solo)
*
All unticketed passengers, e.g. those travelling on a cruise or packaged holiday who have not yet received confirmation of their ticket numbers from their Agent
*
Customers travelling as part of an allocation or specialised group
*
Customers travelling on flights operated by BA CityFlyer, or those operated by any British Airways franchisee or alliance airline, or any flight operated by a codeshare partner

For long haul flights British Airways only allows free seat selection 24 hours before flight time for discounted tickets, including discounted business class, unless you're a high level member of the executive club. I think once you've bought a ticket you can pay for seat selection using Manage My Booking, though I have never paid to do so.

It's under "Manage my booking." I have a reservation on BA so I checked, and you actually cannot select seats before you check-in unless you pay. If you don't want to pay, you wait until online check-in opens and then you can pick from what is available then.