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Free champagne on British Airways this Christmas if you sit in 25D

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British Airways has fully embraced the Christmas spirit this year.  Not content with giving 2,000 Avios to everyone travelling between 22nd and 27th December, it is also now giving out free champagne.

Everyone sat in seat 25D (geddit?) on a short-haul flight between 22nd and 27th December will be offered a free glass of champagne.  The offer will be extended to everyone travelling with the person in 25D.

To guarantee your champagne, you want to be sitting in 25D on the outbound flight from Heathrow or Gatwick.  Staff have been given leeway not to offer it on the return flight if the Club Europe champagne supply – from where the champagne will come – is running low.

If you’re really lucky, you will get a ‘From me to you’ card as well, signed by the crew.

There is also an opportunity to get lounge access at Heathrow and Gatwick.  One customer per hour, plus travelling companions, seated in 25D will be offered free lounge access.  It isn’t clear how this will be arranged, especially if you are not checking in any luggage at a desk.  However, your odds of getting this if you are sitting in 25D are pretty good, especially at Gatwick which has fewer short-haul departures.

Is it worth moving down to 25D for a free glass of champagne?  Potentially yes.  However, pick your aircraft:

The A319-100 does not even have a 25D, only a 25ABC, as it is the last row.  If you are on one of these, forget about it.

On an A320-200 there are 28 rows, so you are close to the loos but not right at them.  The queue probably won’t snake back to your seat.  Probably OK. 

An A321-200 is your best bet, as with 35 rows you are nowhere near the back.

I don’t think the offer is running out of London City. Even if it was, the Embraer 170 fleet does not have a row 25.  The newer Embraer 190 fleet does, but it is the very last row and you are next to the loo.  Give it a miss.

You can check out all of BA’s short-haul seat maps on this page of ba.com.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (77)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Catalan says:
    20 Dec20 December 10:13

    Isn’t it strange. Rob posts something positive about BA and people still get on here to rubbish his post.
    Had he written the same thing about KLM or Lufthansa we’d be witnessing all the ‘great gesture’ and ‘caring airline’ responses.
    SMH.
    There’s nowt queer as folk!

    • Genghis says:
      20 Dec20 December 10:27

      🙂 I thought I loved a good whinge but…

    • Tim Larkin says:
      20 Dec20 December 10:36

      You’re 100% right Catalan BUT I think it’s just the fact that BA have a looooong way to go to regain the faith of some travellers. Good to see them starting to make an effort though and it should be applauded. 🙂

    • TripRep says:
      20 Dec20 December 12:29

      Agreed, I’m trying to be more level headed with BA, I thought if Virgin had done this we’d all think it was pretty cool.

    • Nick says:
      21 Dec21 December 06:57

      And isn’t it ‘strange’ how not so long ago it would have been the opposite……

      Let’s face it BA have really pissing off its customer base over the last couple of years.

  • Ciaran says:
    20 Dec20 December 10:47

    Thanks for that Rob ! Just changed seats to 25 for Mrs and I on LHR-MAN on 26 Dec, its her birthday! Maybe should move her to 26d ??lol
    Booked a 2 day BA holiday 24th MAN-LCY return as above.But either of us have received special promotion 2,000 avios in our account, just info on avios we will receive, is there another Sweep ?

  • Sam says:
    20 Dec20 December 10:51

    So BA are not actually spending money on this. It comes from the CE stock, so rather then pour away the rest of the bottle they give it to a random person (or HfP reader) in 25D.

    Nice idea in theory, but what will those around 25D think them they see someone else getting a glass but not them?

    Seems like a “random act of Managment” rather than a coherent stategy to get back to where BA was.

    • Bkev says:
      20 Dec20 December 11:52

      It is called ‘being smart’ Sam.
      Not spending an extra penny but still make a customer happy, is indeed a smart move from BA.

    • CV3V says:
      20 Dec20 December 12:03

      Isn’t CE champagne provided in those little ‘keep that for later’ bottles?

      • TripRep says:
        20 Dec20 December 12:31

        Yep, we had individual tiny bottles given to us by the great FSM on our domestic CE to LHR the other week.

    • Akira says:
      20 Dec20 December 12:07

      CE serves minis… so there’s no ‘rest of bottle’ to pour anyways.

      • Anna says:
        20 Dec20 December 14:16

        I thought they’d moved to full size bottles, or is that just the still wines?

        • Alf says:
          20 Dec20 December 17:03

          On band 1, it is full bottle. But difficult to gauge: how many bottles / how many passengers in CE / how thirsty? I’m no fan of BA at the moment, but genuinely don’t think this is a “we’re throwing too much plonk down the loo what shall we do with it” approach. As a data point: 8 segments in past fortnight: 3 in CE – 1 opened new bottle of champagne even though I was only going to have a second glass, another offered to give me half a bottle of wine at end of flight instead of throwing down loo. In 5 economy segments: I’ve been offered complimentary champagne three times, and a complimentary glass of wine twice. BA G, but no tier points for past 8 months and just burning through Avios. Maybe that’s why…

        • the real harry1 says:
          20 Dec20 December 18:50

          probably 25D won’t know the difference between Champagne, Prosecco, Cava or Asti in any case 🙂

  • Frenske says:
    20 Dec20 December 11:53

    Fingers crossed. Changed the seats on a 320 Airbus flight on 22/12.

    • Potato says:
      21 Dec21 December 02:08

      Lol. I’m not giving up my exit row seat for bad bubbly. Particularly if one can have some in the lounge before the flight. Peace out

  • danksy says:
    20 Dec20 December 12:34

    Nice little touch – good effort BA 😀

    • Worzel says:
      20 Dec20 December 14:11

      After sitting, three weeks ago, on an A321 in 25A and waiting for an hour from start of service, I reckon it’s better to sit much further up the front and pay for the stuff! 🙂 .

  • Jo says:
    20 Dec20 December 14:06

    OT: can an Amex gold refer friend for amex platinum? How much bonus do they each get

  • Mark says:
    20 Dec20 December 16:27

    >The offer will be extended to everyone travelling with the person in 25D

    That would be everybody on the flight! They are all travelling with the person in 25D as they are trapped in the aircraft with them for the length of the flight.

    A better promotion would have been to load Champaign (or sparkling wine to keep costs down) along with an alcohol free alternative and offer it to all passengers.

  • Alf says:
    20 Dec20 December 17:09

    As a sidenote: the Google ad on my computer is for a 3M Littmann stethoscope…. ‘Get your shine on. Reflect your personality in a Champagne finish’…

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