You can now use Avios points to pay for British Airways seat reservations – is it a good deal?

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• Big Dave says:

  9 May9 May 08:16

  going to Orlando cattle class this summer and facing 30 odd pounds per seat (4 of us) each way… now although the redemption is poor paying in avios or partly paying in avios it is most welcome and having an extra 200-300 quid to pay on top to guarantee to sit together (the kids are no longer under 12) meant that we’d have to spend less elsewhere….

  • Big Dave says:

    10 May10 May 08:03

    basically the avios earned for the whole trip will be used to pay for the seats (or at least partly pay for them)

• Nick_C says:

  9 May9 May 08:24

  Does any other airline charge for seat selection if you are flying in business?

  • Rob says:

    9 May9 May 08:50

    Swiss charges for its ‘best’ seats but 80% are free.

• Stuart says:

  9 May9 May 08:31

  Slightly off topic but seat related, paid for my seats together on my honeymoon flight in CE to Venice as I kind of want to sit next to my new wife, logged into the BA app yesterday and they have moved us, same row but apart. Is there anything I can do? All other seats are now showing as blanked out and I obviously paid for something I’m not getting

  • Charlie T. says:

    9 May9 May 08:36

    Remember there’s no middle seat in CE so A is next to C and D is next to F.

    • Stuart says:

      9 May9 May 10:00

      Sadly we are now in A and F, we were originally in D and F which are obviously together. Rang the call centre and I can sit with her at the back of CE which is a 12 row CE on an A321 which is not what I wanted as that’s the reason I booked me seats together at the front of the plane. Told I could then have a refund but would be back to square one and picking from what’s left of the seats at check in time, 24 hours before as I hold no status as I’m like a few other on here that’s mentioned earlier in the thread, an avios collector through other means than flights.

      • Anna says:

        9 May9 May 10:07

        I’m sure one of the other 2 passengers in your row will be willing to swap unless they both have a fear of sitting in a window seat which is highly unlikely!

      • Leo says:

        9 May9 May 10:59

        So the option is – carry on paying for seats you are unhappy with, or get the money back and have seats you are unhappy with. I guess at least with option 1 you do get to sit together. I would probably get the money back and take my chances. You will both be in the same cabin and you won’t actually be sitting next to someone else. It’s not a long flight – but it is your honeymoon. Having said all of that I do have sympathy – were you in row 1? Maybe bounced for a Gold?

      • Genghis says:

        9 May9 May 11:11

        Agree with Leo. Get your money back and take your chances at t-24. After a few years of marriage you’ll not be that bothered about sitting apart anyway. We sit one behind the other in first and when flying back from NYC in a couple of weeks’ time, we have separate bookings and wife no status but no way am I giving up my prized 62A to sit with her (and she’s happy with that) 🙂

      • Chris L says:

        9 May9 May 11:35

        Think about what your new wife would want. Personally, my wife would rather us sit together if it meant just being a few rows further back.

      • lumma says:

        9 May9 May 11:46

        Doesn’t that seem to be a huge Club Europe cabin for a flight that you’d imagine wouldn’t have that much demand?

        I do think someone would swap one of the aisles for the window if you asked at boarding. This happened to me on my recent flight home from Bilbao, which only had 3 rows of business

      • Definitas says:

        9 May9 May 20:20

        BA make a continuous habit of charging for seats and then arbitrarily moving people. I can only imagine that they do it to accommodate “status” holders. They also make it far too difficult to get the money back to the point where I just don’t bother. Friends in Canada booked CW for cash and paid for seat reservations as it was a special anniversary. Despite the fact that they booked 350 days out not only did they not get their paid seats, one of them got downgraded to PE (next to the toilet). Welcome to BA customer service. Needless to say they have forsworn never to fly BA again.

  • Geoff says:

    9 May9 May 08:36

    Yes- you are entitled to a refund if BA move seats that you’ve paid for.

    • Lady London says:

      9 May9 May 14:58

      Personally I’d cancel the entire booking with British Airways and fly with someone else if I could!

      • Darren says:

        9 May9 May 19:03

        +1

• Alan says:

  9 May9 May 08:32

  I think that this will appeal to people at either end of the Avios collecting spectrum, but not those in the middle.
  If you have some Avios but don’t actively collect them then you may feel that you won’t get reward seats so may as well “use them up” on something.
  If you have way more Avios than you can use then you may as well use them on this.
  If you are in the middle and actively collect Avios for redemption flights (and don’t have loads left over) then I would not think that this would appeal to you.

  • Peter K says:

    9 May9 May 08:49

    This is exactly what I think. Those with very large amounts might not care about poor value of it gets them what they want.

    At the other end, it’s giving value to those that have a few avois, don’t want to spend it on BOB and would struggle to get the amount required for a RFS. They are again getting something they want, are used to paying for seat selection with Ryanair, Easyjet etc so the pence per point is irrelevant to them.

• meta says:

  9 May9 May 08:45

  I agree it’s shocking the amount of miles they’re  asking! On my next year’s flight to SEZ using Lloyds voucher they are asking 32k for CW one way when I paid 79k for 2 tickets! I am wondering since you can also part pay with Avios for seat selection whether it would be better to guarantee a better seat. I seem to be getting worse and worse seats T-7 as a Bronze member. Everything seems to be greyed out.

  • Nick_C says:

    9 May9 May 08:50

    Some of those greyed out seats may have been pre-allocated to you!

    When I checked in at T-24 last time, there was suddenly a lot more availability and we had been pre allocated seats together (which I then changed)

    Check Expert Flyer to see which seats are occupied and which are simply blocked

    • meta says:

      9 May9 May 09:08

      Oh great tip. Thanks. I actually thought that blocked on Expert Flyer meant already booked.

• mark2 says:

  9 May9 May 08:57

  Where have I gone wrong?
  In Mike’s example above two people with 241 to JFK is 120,000 plus 70,000 to book seats i.e. 190,000. But Two seats in F (if available) would be 160,000 including seat selection.

  • Alex W says:

    9 May9 May 09:07

    Ha good point! If there’s availability, mind you.

    • Polly says:

      10 May10 May 10:13

      Often is availability in F to NYC when usknv a 241. Makes no avios sense using so many avios to reserve J seats..unless you are very avios rich.. but at least the option is there. Helps BA get rid of millions of avios anyway.

  • Mike says:

    9 May9 May 13:03

    Mark2 – great point but as Alex said it only works if there is availability. But I like your approach – if in doubt “Fly First”

    • mark2 says:

      9 May9 May 13:31

      I said ‘if available’ but in parentheses.

• Peter K says:

  9 May9 May 09:07

  A lot of people put no value on something they haven’t worked for…and an excess of value on something they have.
  That’s why people will spend hours looking for the cheapest flights and then spend avios on seat selection. The avios might have come from a previous flight or credit card spend but to a lot of people they are “free” so any saving of money is great.
  BA are cleverly making lots of people feel good about saving money and at the same time reducing their avios liability.
  It’s only more clued up ones, like those who read this blog, that feel it’s a waste because we know the value that can be gained from them.

  • Doug M says:

    9 May9 May 10:22

    I agree. And companies exploit this to confuse those that mistake cheap for inexpensive.
    Look how airlines have broken out components of a flight to they say give customers choice, but the reality is it’s to appear on low fare finders. Even worse is hotel resort fees, unlike the flight things there is no choice with these.

• Nick_C says:

  9 May9 May 10:16

  OT – just saw this on the Iberia website.

  “Iberia Plus gives you double Avios to get you to your destination twice as fast.

  Book by 15 May to fly wherever, whenever, and in whichever class you want”

  Can’t find any further details, but it may be useful for people booking a BA codeshare who don’t need qualifying flights for tier points?

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