British Airways restricting 1st row of Club Europe to Gold only?

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• twoclicks says:

  16 Sep16 September 07:40

  I am BAEC gold and fly the LGW BCN route alone (often much cheaper than the LHR route in club), c. 6 times a year and always prefer row one… and incidentally basically hate families in any travel situation I have to sit behind them or hear their children crying, but partially agree with Rob’s logic as I do hate it even more if they are behind and tugging on the seat (about 15 years ago had this all the way to MRU in economy…).

  This was a great benefit and it is annoying that I won’t be able to book my (BAEC silver) partner into row one now?! I did this just a couple of weeks ago. And what about the long haul aircraft used on short routes where gold card holders could book into the first class cabin…

  And @Rob, anecdotally I would say the answer to your question is that in fact, loads of gold card holders do the LGW BCN route, and other leisure routes, alone — some of my reasoning is below.

  Thinking specifically of BCN, and and grossly over-relying on stereotypes and the anecdotal evidence of my friends and acquaintances as a reference, I’d say a lot of single gay men (more time / disposable income to spend on travel and so more likely to be gold?) who prefer the cheap CE fares out of LGW (just my experience or is this a “thing”?) are going solo to BCN as a popular gay destination / gateway to Sitges…

  Also specifically on BCN, isn’t it likely to have a fair amount of business travel, as the engine of the Catalonian economy?

  Anyway, looking at the forums, I sometimes get the impression that most gold card holders are single people with travel (and spreadsheet) obsessions and who like to travel solo, or if not, with partners who don’t mind their crazy travel / *sometimes* get dragged (perhaps only half-grudgingly) along.

  Thinking of your situation, Rob, I think it less likely that there are a lot of working parents who are gold card holders, just because of the extra demands on their time and money.

  Although on the one hand I’d imagine a good few gold card holders would be traveling with friends / partners when they fly these routes, thinking back, my constant weekend trips in CE row one on routes I think would be leisure (TXL, BCN, LIS) are always dominated by people flying alone. I am always nosing a quick glance of the flight attendants’ iPads when possible, and there seem to be a fair few gold card holders.

  In summary I just think gold card holders are more likely to be traveling alone generally, leisure route or not, regardless of whether they are single etc.

  Just wondering what others think. Is my view skewed by constant Friday evening post-work dash-to-the-airport trips to see friends abroad?

  • Ben says:

    16 Sep16 September 08:31

    Of course GCHs usually fly alone – most will be making dozens of business travel flights a year, and perhaps a small handful of leasure trips with family or friends. I hardly ever see families in the CE cabin.

    I value the fact that my BA status makes my few family flights a little more pleasant. And looking at it as a solo traveller, this sort of thing is rare enough that I imagine it might deny me the front row on no more than one flight per year.

    The most common reason for not getting the first row is that other solo GCHs have got there first.

• Michael C says:

  16 Sep16 September 07:42

  I was asked (v politely by a passenger) to move from 1D from CDG the other day, as the parents were split from the kids – I was wondering how that had happened!

  • the real harry1 says:

    16 Sep16 September 07:49

    BA are pretty good at seating parents with kids together – but whilst they guarantee that 11 & unders will always be seated with one adult, that guarantee ceases once the kid turns 12

    having said that, I travel 8-10 flights a year with my 3 kids and in the last 10 years BA have not once failed to put us all together

    I often move myself & them up the plane and end up separated from them as I like exit seats but that’s obviously choice

• Alex W says:

  16 Sep16 September 07:47

  Save you money/Avios and sit in an emergency exit row in Euro Traveller instead!

  • the real harry1 says:

    16 Sep16 September 07:50

    even better, get it for free even if you have no status 🙂

    • luke says:

      16 Sep16 September 08:10

      not quite right real harry, i travel a lot on BA avios short haul redemptions, always ask for exit row at check in desk (i am 6’3 tall), but success is only 20%…quite often, i can see CE/CW passangers (mostly connecting from USA) been seated at exit row….

      • the real harry1 says:

        16 Sep16 September 08:27

        check in online but don’t do anything else such as printing your BP or saving as PDF

        at airport get there early (some people go the day before as this works T-24hrs) and check in again using the self check in machines – you can choose any available seat incl exit seats free of charge (though obviously ET can’t choose CE seats)

        • AndyR says:

          16 Sep16 September 08:49

          harry the point is that on many routes there won’t be any exit row seats available, not the process of selecting them. Maybe to your place in the sun you have success but even as a gold card holder sometimes all exit row seats are gone weeks in advance.

        • the real harry1 says:

          16 Sep16 September 09:03

          could just be my route but as a Bluey I have an 80+% success rate in getting exit seats – nearly 100+ outward with the self check in machines but lower on return as the out station has no machines yet (they are already installing them for other airlines so I live in hope)

        • John says:

          16 Sep16 September 12:37

          I guess it depends on the route – I usually book my RFS flights a week to a month in advance, and ~99% of the time I can still select an exit row seat; what’s more when it comes to the flight, the middle seat is mostly unoccupied and maybe 80% of the time there is still an aisle or window exit seat unoccupied which means a Blue on HBO could have chosen it if they knew about the airport machine trick – but nobody didt.

• barnaby100 says:

  16 Sep16 September 08:01

  You have to put bags up in row 1 and often there isn’t room in the overheads. I avoid row 1.

  • twoclicks says:

    16 Sep16 September 08:10

    If you have a gold card you can avoid this by boarding first… bags up is best IMHO because you don’t want them under your feet restricting space, and you can still put something small under the centre-seat table

    • Rob says:

      16 Sep16 September 09:59

      In my experience some women refuse to put their expensive handbags in overhead lockers for fear of them being crushed and so do not want to be in Row 1 or exit rows.

      • twoclicks says:

        16 Sep16 September 12:14

        In fairness, I was once on a LATAM economy only flight front row (emerald only in advance) and a lucky couple got put at the front last-minute. The wife / girlfriend refused point blank to put her brand new yerba mate set (a sort of wooden stand with a large flask as well as the traditional goblet and metal straw…) in the overhead locker. The FAs tried to tell her about safety, offered to clear out a meal trolley to store it in… but no… it might get scratched. The husband encouraged her… The FAs put it in the meal trolley, padded it with packs if napkins to demonstrate how secure it was… but no, she demanded it back. So yeah, some people may just not prefer the front row…

      • Ben says:

        16 Sep16 September 13:38

        On busy flights, I often don’t put my laptop bag in. Far too often I see people slamming oversize wheelie cases in with little regards for the smaller bags already in there.

      • Anna says:

        16 Sep16 September 17:03

        As long as it’s a smallish handbag you can slide it under your own seat and hope nobody stows anything too large from the other side (i.e. behind you)!

• Simon says:

  16 Sep16 September 08:21

  Wife and I are blue, so get what we’re given at check in. Last month on CE from LHR to MAN, connecting from long haul F, the cabin was “full” whenever I looked before check in, and then at check in we were given 1A and 1C, with the rest of the cabin still full. Not complaining but still no idea how the algorithm spat that out.

  • the real harry1 says:

    16 Sep16 September 08:28

    make your own luck by using the self check in machines (see above)

• AndyR says:

  16 Sep16 September 08:26

  Rob are you suggesting they should have different policies for ‘business’ and ‘leisure’? Not very feasible really, will just lead to confusion.

  BA obviously want a single policy and have decided to look after their travellers on business rather than the families with 1 gold card holder off on holiday.

  Makes sense to me.

  • Paul says:

    16 Sep16 September 08:43

    Indeed it’s a typical BA single, simple repeatable process. It needs to be as thecstaff are disempowered to make decisions on the ground and in the air. The lack of individuality and shift to cattle heardjng is why people loath BA and why they need to cling to their monopoly at LHR and oppose expansion or new airports.
    It’s not a great way to treat your frequent flyers but then flying with almost anyone else demonstrates just how far off the mark they have become.

• Matt says:

  16 Sep16 September 08:38

  Is this a change where if you’re all on one booking only one person can select row 1 and the other(s) will have to select seats further back, or is it that if you are on separate bookings the Gold person can no longer link (TCP) people on other bookings into row 1?
  If it’s just the latter (as I saw suggested on FT) then that’s going to be infrequently irritating. If it’s the former as well then that’s a definite perk removed from leisure based golds.

  • AndyR says:

    16 Sep16 September 08:53

    As I understand its the former that has been enhanced.

  • Rob says:

    16 Sep16 September 09:54

    The former.

• Ruth says:

  16 Sep16 September 09:16

  I wish I was fortunate enough to have these kind of “problems”. If I could wake up one morning and only be concerned about sitting in the first row of an aircraft then life would be fantastic.

  • James says:

    17 Sep17 September 01:02

    Surely you mean only being concerned about sitting in 1C or 1D? If that were the case, and I didn’t have to lump it in 1A or 1F, my life truly would be fantastic. 🙂

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