The mystery of 63A ….

One of the coolest things about flying Club World on British Airways is the ability to sit “upstairs” if you are on a Boeing 747.

Frankly, the Boeing 777 layout in Club World resembles a dormitory or a TV shot of a sports centre using for local residents after their houses get flooded!  Eight across seating is not pretty, even with a flat bed.

Upstairs, though, you have just 20 seats, with five rows of 2 x 2.  It is as near to flying on a private jet as most people will get.

Club World flyers without status have therefore been keen to pay BA’s outrageous seat selection fee in order to grab an upstairs seat – even though it means paying £80 per person, per leg.

A couple of weeks ago, though, some people started getting emails from BA saying that they were being evicted from the Club World upper deck seats they had paid for!

An explanation of sorts has now appeared:

There have been 2 key changes made to upper deck paid seating on our 747 aircraft

1. Change of seats protected for paid seating

The seats available for paid upper deck seating have been changed from 63JK 64ABJK to 63ABJK 64AB, because of this some customers may have received an email to advise of a seating change. Please reassure customers that they will be given their seat choice as this will be corrected manually for them.

2. Removal of day of week restrictions

Following feedback we have removed the restriction where paid seating was only offered on routes on specific days, as such you should be able to book upper deck on any day as long as the seats are available.

What is doesn’t say, of course, is why they have stopped selling reservations for 64J and 64K.  Especially as 64K is seen as the one of the best seats upstairs, due to the additional leg room and storage space and the feeling of privacy it offers.

The answer appears to be that 64J and 64K have been added to the seats which are restricted to Gold and Silver Executive Club members.  Why, of course, BA could not have let people who ALREADY paid for these seats stay in them, or given that a straightforward answer as to why, is known only to them ….

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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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