[Dai Siu Tse]

I have paid and issued tickets for First class (long haul) with my aged parents. Could not pre-select seats. Angry! Spoken to airline 2 weeks ago. Airline said it was technical issue, would check but issue could be resolved at airport. No news for now. Flying in 2 days. I highly suspect that they overbook. Appreciate all advice on how I can get my seats.

[capetonianm]

Airlines tend not to overbook in F but there are exceptions depending on the flight profile and prognosis.

If you post the flight number/date I may be able to check for you, depending on what airline it is. Please don’t post any details such as names or record locators.

If you are close to one of the airline’s offices I would suggest you go and insist that they show you the seat map for that flight on the computer, you will be able to see how many are allocated.

A travel agent may also be able to do this but won’t be able to amend your booking as it is ‘owned’ by the entity through which you made it.

[LuganoPirate]

Did you get your seats Dai?
I’m curious as to how it all ended.

[FDOS_UK]

BA overbooks F, by up to 1 pax IIRC, don’t know about other airlines.

[Dai Siu Tse]

Thank you all for your advice.

We finally managed to get our seats. Airline’s explanation was that seats were blocked by airport control, not sure if it was airport control of the airline or the authority. Its been stressful. Much relieved now.

[nevereconomy]

Last Summer I witnessed the trials of a couple, part of a group of 8 all travelling F on BA back to Tokyo, who had been downgraded to J. I imagine that is one tour operator who will be using JAL for his next group.

[Dai Siu Tse]

Airlines should really relook at their overbooking policy.

[Sanran]

As far as I was told by an attendant, Swiss always keeps one unsold seat on its A340 because there a kind of a “high risk” of problems (seat and TV miss-functioning basically) since the airplane is oldish, it happened to me twice to change seat because of that. They won’t do the same on the new 777, but I suspect they often do the same on the A330.

[LuganoPirate]

Glad it all worked out Dai.

[Airtravel104]

Which airline is it? I would make a trip to the airport now. Otherwise spending all the money and not getting 3 seats together would be a bummer. Don’t trust anything any airline might say. People work very badly these days. MM

[ASK1945]

I tried to lock in online our BA Club World seats (for my wife and I) from Hyderabad to London in March, for the daily 0720 flight, but the message repeatedly told me to check-in at the airport.

So, a very early alarm call and we arrived at the desk at 0430, to be greeted with the news that we had been downgraded to Economy (not Premium Economy) because of overbooking. Major row ensued and I demanded for them to place us on the following day’s flight, with EU compensation for the delay. They relented and gave us our CW seats. On walking away from the desk we heard them telling the next couple in line that they had been downgraded to Premium Economy. We didn’t wait to hear what happened.

The flight took off with 3 empty CW seats; I couldn’t see the other couple in the cabin.

[capetonianm]

India is notoriously difficult to estimate no-shows, for a number of reasons. When things go wrong, they go badly wrong. India and Nigeria were our two biggest headaches when I was involved in RM.

[Author]

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