BA seat assignments

This item appears on page 36 of the January 2008 issue.

Directly from British Airways on their website, www.ba.com, I purchased a ticket for my sister, Ursula, to fly in economy class from Berlin, Germany, to Los Angeles via London on June 19.

A day ahead, she signed onto the website and got a seat assignment for the Berlin-to-London leg but could not get a seat assignment for the much more important leg from London to Los Angeles.

For the return flight on July 11, we could go online to get a boarding pass and seat assignment for the leg from Los Angeles to London but not on the connecting flight to Berlin. It seems that British Air’s reservation system allows passengers to get seats for the first leg only.

Besides that problem, we believe it is unreasonable to allow seat reservations to be made only within a 24-hour time period before departure. Travelers do not always have access to the Internet in this time frame. British Air should allow at least a 48-hour or, better, a 72-hour window.

We certainly will avoid flying B.A. whenever possible.

WOLFGANG KUTTER

Laguna Woods, CA

ITN sent a copy of the above letter to British Airways (75-20 Astoria Blvd., Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1190) and received the following reply.

We have a seating policy that is in a stage of evolution. Here are the priorities in terms of advance seat assignment.

Prebooking of seats will be limited to certain groups of travelers:

  1. Families with young children (2-11)
  2. Passengers with infants (under 2)
  3. Premier, Gold and Silver card holders
  4. Corporate dealt customers
  5. FIRST customers
  6. Customers holding fully flexible tickets (J, W or Y class)
  7. Large specialized groups, e.g., school trips

As difficult as it might seem that individuals want advanced seating, we are prioritizing assignments for the more important and more frequent loyal customers.

However, the policy is under constant evaluation.

JOHN LAMPL, V.P. Public relations, British Airways

ITN also called British Air’s reservation number and asked, “Can a ticketed passenger go to the website (within 24 hours of departure) and select seats on all legs of a flight at once?”

The rep answered, “You can check in and select your seat online only for the first leg of a flight. For each subsequent leg, you choose your seat and get your boarding pass at the departure airport. For example, if you’re flying from New York’s JFK Airport to London to Berlin, you can choose your JFK-London seat online, but you have to wait until you’re checking in for the London-Berlin leg in London to choose that seat.”