[Anonymous]

[Agamemnon]

Does anyone here know how if there’s any way of reserving a seat on a BA group booking ahead of a flight? I’m a BAEC Silver card holder and taking two long-haul returns in the next month and for the LAX return can’t access any details online as it’s a group booking.

Emailing BA hasn’t been much good, but will calling the EC direct be much help? Any solutions would be helpful as I often run into this problem and would prefer to reserve a seat ahead if possible, especially for long haul.

[first_class_please]

Once you have the ticket issued BA should be able to do that for you. Until tickets are issued though the organizer of the group does no need to provide names, so BA would not be able locate the booking until then.

[travelgirl]

put a rocket up whoever is organising the group and ensure they understand your seating requirements. Unfortunately BA space control will block off a group allocation of seats so you may not get the row you like but Aisle or window shouldn’t be a problem. they dont nomally seat one passenger away from the others travelling in the same group so there is no escape.

[lloydah]

Have had to do this several times within Europe with up to 30 pax. All requests have so far been denied for “admin/you name it” reasons. However, we have always had blocks or seats reserved when it comes to the actual flight – no odd seats. This is with euro traveller, don’t know if CE or long haul would be different.

[Agamemnon]

Many thanks all. Have just called the BAEC number and as soon as I told them I had a silver card they were able to do it no problem.

Even managed to bag one of my favourite seats – 62A – on the way out too, which will help to make the flight pass a little easier. Good to know for future reference too.

[Capetonian]

Until tickets are issued though the organizer of the group does no need to provide names, so BA would not be able locate the booking until then.

Classic example of how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. How could you possibly have a booking, regardless of whether the tickets have been issued or not, which the airline ‘cannot locate’?

The booking is identfied in the system as a group booking, with a record locator in the same way as a normal booking. It has a group name element, for example 25SHOPPING TOUR, and the individual names are added as and when provided. So the name element, if you add 1 name, would then become 24SHOPPING TOUR and 1SMITH/JOHN MR, still totalling 25.

There is an option to block adjacent or individual seats for the group, however that is dependent on the fare level and other criteria.

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