Customers trying to pay for BA’s new advance seat selection option (which launched yesterday) will have to call the carrier’s reservation line, as the service is currently an “offline proposition” only.
Businesstraveller.com has been inundated with comments and forum posts since we broke the news that BA is to charge for advance seat selection (see online news September 24, or click here for the forum string). The service officially launched yesterday (October 7), but when we went through the process of making a booking online today, there was no option to pay for seat selection.
A spokesperson for BA has confirmed that the service is currently “an offline proposition”, so customers will need to call BA’s reservation centre to request for the service. From December onwards passengers will be able to pay online at the time of booking, or by visiting the “manage my booking” section after ticket purchase.
Note that advance seat selection is available for all travel from October 7, not just for bookings made after that date. BA has also confirmed that anyone paying for the service over the phone will not be charged a second time for the credit card transaction.
Businesstraveller.com recently ran a poll on our website asking business travellers if they will pay to select seats for their BA flight in advance. A total of 853 visitors responded, with just 19.6 per cent saying that they would pay for the new service.
For more information visit ba.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
