[Warkman]

I am not so much of a frequent raveller as I used to be, and its now down to a couple of trips to europe per year and the main vacation to the USA once a year. As its coming out of my own pocket and my personal view that the holiday starts at the airport, i want a decent seat so we go business.
Up to now, I have always looked at Virgin, BA, and a few of the American carriers and judged both on price and facilities.
most of the time it has come down to Virgin or BA and funnily enough the price has always been within £1 of each other!
Now the inability of BA to allow me to seat select for me, my wife and my son until 24+ (and the quality of the Virgin Clubhouses vs the far superior food on BA) has swung me to Virgin.
I can only see this carrying on, as I don’t know why when spending my hard worked for money, i should be “allowed” to choose only at 24+ the dregs of whatever seating is left.
Sorry to say, I will only choose BA if they are £121 cheaper than Virgin per ticket from now on, plus it makes the American airlines more costs effective against BA.

Also, can anyone explain to me why on earth it should cost £60 per sector to choose a seat in one cabin on a flight and only £10 in another? is there some secret extra that you get for £60 over £10 seat booking?
Or is this just another tax on those who pay more anyway?

[woking1]

you are wrong Virgin does not charge for their uper-class seats

[ChrisGilmour]

While airline charges generally are very labyrinthine, this move by BA really does take the biscuit! Please will they explain where the actual COST comes into seat selection? In my opinion, not only will this have zero impact on cost reduction but it will alienate full fare paying customers at a time when BA can least afford it.

[Warkman]

I didn’t say that Virgin charge for their seats, my argument was that BA would have to be £120 less per person to make them viable against virgin prices

[ChrisGilmour]

I just worked it out–simplicity itself! BA is charging full fare paying Club passengers 60 pounds per sector in the hope that they will rather fly First and not have to pay the surcharge. Never mind that First on most airlines is increasingly anachronistic, BA wants to preserve this little piece of British heritage.
In all seriousness, if this ridiculous fee lasts more than three months I’d be very surprised. Rarely have I seen such a welter of negative sentiments surroundiung a business decision.

[Airpocket]

Now, that would be humiliating some volte-face…if BA were to drop the charges after a while.
Incidentally, does anyone know if the charge applies on the LCY-NY all Business Class service?

[Cwyfan]

Whilst I disagree with what BA have done, I would have nothing but respect for them if they announced a reversal of policy based upon consumer feedback (resistance), I believe it is only for the media rags to call it humiliating, we, the customers, should call it responsiveness, albeit they should never have done it in the first place

[Travellator]

Now almost 6and a half hours into PAID seat selection – wonder how much BA have raked in so far or not !

Played the mystery shopper and attempted to pay for already booked flight – not possible through manage my booking and NO obvious telephone number to contact.

[rthonwjb]

I thought I would see what was possible for a booking made months ago for travel in 17 days time. After trying to get through to BA reservations off and on for an hour I eventually spoke to a human.

The agent said there was little availability on the flights and at present could offer nothing together for my wife and me in CW.

So BA had no possibility of getting their £240 and we are looking forward to (sic) an uncomfortable trip to and from JFK.

Next time we book with Virgin! This service stinks

[JanBerlin]

To all this people who think BA offers an advantage to people:

Seat choice at time of booking was free for all passengers no matter where and how they booked until a few years ago. Then, BA changed its policy, so you could only choose your seat in advance online and only within 24 hours before departure. Now, they reinstate a policy that was valid until some years ago – only now, they want to see money and try to sell this as a service improvement (and some people apparently even buy it).

And that’s nothing to get furious about?

[StevenKayser]

I do think it is terrible for Club World passengers to have to pay for seat selection. For the prices they pay in the first place it makes me seriously second guess flying with them. I consider myself a loyal BA customer but this is really making me think twice. I can understand economy and premium economy charges, but not Club World.
I also think that is it really bad judgement on BA’s behalf for customers to have to purchase the ticket first then select their seats after. It should be similar to JetBlue where you find your flight, select your seat and then pay for it. During the seat selection phase it is clearly marked if you select a seat which has an additional charge.

[Airpocket]

According to a BT report, seat selection can only be made on the telephone, not online.Great, so now we have to dial a premium rate number and hope that someone at the other end answers quickly.As I said, the hits just keep on comin’.

[Cwyfan]

The only way that all of this might be worth it, is if the booking system was improved so that at the time of booking, but before actually booking, you were able to see what seats were available, as you can with American Airlines’ Otherwise, you might find that the seat you would be willing to pay extra for is no longer there, but might still be on an alternative flight

[skybird1]

I just booked two business class tickets with them. I asked abotu seat selection at time of booking and was told by reservation agent (Oscar) that he would take care of that as soon as he processed my credit card. Once done, I was then informed that it will cost me 90-USD per flight for this benefit. The small savings is no longer a savings. I can fly a number of other airlines for the same fare give or take and have no problem reserving seats at no additonal cost. Time to let BA hear about this from all of us.

[Airpocket]

It’s a shame you got conned Skybird. Just out of curiosity, how much are you paying for your tickets to the UK? Presumably, you’re commencing your trip in the US?
I’m trying to determine how much cheaper it might have been for you to fly on a US or European carrier so that our North American BT readers are aware of the savings.

[Author]

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