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

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• John says:

  9 May9 May 10:43

  I think using avios at 0.55p can make sense in the scenario where 1) you acquired at least that many avios at (say) 0.4p or less, and 2) you have enough that you won’t be short of avios for any other possible redemptions you want / you’re acquiring more at a faster rate anyway.

  Then you’re just selling something for more than you bought it.

  As I acquire my avios at 0.6p, I certainly wouldn’t sell them at 0.55p, not that I would pay for seat selection in the first place even if I didn’t get it for free.

• Georges says:

  9 May9 May 11:13

  Once we get hit with the biggest devaluation ever later this year, 35,000 Avios for return CW seat selection will seem a fair price. Cruz will kill one of the best FF programs in the world as he is doing with the BA brand.

  • mark2 says:

    9 May9 May 11:32

    When you next met Alex could you please ask him how much later. I want to book for Oct 19; will I be too late? Thanks.

  • John says:

    9 May9 May 12:52

    I don’t get Cruz, everyone loves to hate him until they meet him, after which they love him

  • Definitas says:

    9 May9 May 20:28

    What devaluation?

• Leo says:

  9 May9 May 11:15

  I’ve still got status for now – I’m only really bothered about economy when in short haul and then my only massive concern is avoiding the middle seat. CW seats are not created equal but I can live with most of them. When my OW status goes I’ll stop bothering with BA long haul and just pay for the cheapest J flights I can find. Short haul I’ll pay for extra legroom on EZ. Problem solved. I would actively resent paying to choose my seat (in cash or avios) in PE or J again although I’ve done it in the past for upstairs on a 747.

• M says:

  9 May9 May 12:13

  Slightly OT – I have a non-refundable BA economy return ticket to Asia. Frustratingly, avios business availability has just come up for part of the route, it wasn’t available before. Any suggestions on what I can do/is it worth booking another seat, or should I slum it in economy?

  • lev441 says:

    9 May9 May 14:56

    Depends if you’re happy to loose the cash you have originally paid! Remember on top of the avios you’d need to pay the taxes & surcharges of £500ish

    • Stu N says:

      9 May9 May 17:41

      Not sure how your trip is set up but if you miss a leg of a multiple flight itinerary on a single ticket the rest is almost always cancelled automatically.

  • Memesweeper says:

    9 May9 May 22:52

    Have you tried to ‘upgrade using Avios’? Should be in Manage My Booking.

    • Polly says:

      10 May10 May 10:24

      They could only upgrade to PE anyway. Only one level ug allowed unlike VS who do allow a double ug. However the OPs ticket is probably unchangeable inflexible etc etc.

• Flying Misfit says:

  9 May9 May 12:19

  OT as no bits: Amex Plat Supplementary Card
  Does anyone have any experience of getting a supplementary Amex (free as 1st supplementary), registering for all hotel statuses etc, then cancelling the supplementary, then applying for the supplementary again but for another person.
  Would the second time I get a supplementary be free (given it will only be the additional one to account)?

  • Dave says:

    9 May9 May 13:40

    You can do this or I did this about 18 months ago and it worked.

    • VK says:

      9 May9 May 15:14

      Good to know!

  • Alan says:

    9 May9 May 15:49

    How do you apply the hotel statuses on a supplementary card? I only had the option to do it on my own card – not my wife’s.

    • Rob says:

      9 May9 May 16:00

      Your wife needs to create an Amex account and register the supp.

      • Alan says:

        9 May9 May 18:31

        D’oh! Of course.

        • Rob says:

          9 May9 May 21:16

          Not really ‘d’oh’ because this wasn’t necessary until around 6 months ago.

• DaveB says:

  9 May9 May 12:21

  I still can’t get my head around how BA can justify charging £70+ to those pax who don’t have status but have shelled out several £k on purchasing CW / First seats just to ensure that everyone in their party can sit together. It really is horrendous.

  • Darren says:

    9 May9 May 12:46

    I agree, a nonsense.

    I saw a discussion that argued that this was a benefit for BAEC Gold members who receive free seat selection at time of booking and the rest of the plebs should be glad to be allowed to fly BA (not using those words but with that sentiment).

    Astonishing.

    • Louie says:

      9 May9 May 13:06

      Not really astonishing. Say you are a business traveller (so yes, probably gold or GGL) buying extortionately expensive last minute tickets. Would you be happy to have only the cr*ppy, sorry less desirable, seats left to choose from? If you fly with a quality airline, whose seats are all much of a muchness, it wouldn’t matter. But if you are daft enough to choose or have no choice but to fly with BA, where most people only consider one in four club seats acceptable (the windows), those seats will have been gone ages ago unless you (BA) dissuade people from booking them by charging ridiculous amount of money for them. And if people are happy to pay, then you (BA) can live with annoying your business customers because now you have sold the seats for silly money.

      • Darren says:

        9 May9 May 13:57

        Astonishing was my thoughts on the attitude rather than the business practice.

        • Rob says:

          9 May9 May 14:10

          Having booked a few short notice flights (short haul) as a Gold recently, seat selection options are surprisingly good due to the number seats held back. The new FLY passenger management system also tries to seat block Gold members in Economy until the flight gets close to full.

      • shd says:

        9 May9 May 14:17

        Why would this be about Gold and FLY?

        As Silver on s/h I usually find the seat map *wide* open at T-36h, I doubt this FLY seeing my amazing silvery powers 🙂 more likely to be a reflection of the high % of non-status pax travelling and them not paying for seat selection.

      • Lady London says:

        9 May9 May 14:48

        Just to upset most of you. British Airways will still be giving free seat selection in Economy, to any booking made by corporate travel agent for a business traveller under deals they offer to corporate customers. Unless that’s changed relatively recently. I never worked for a corporate where British Airways preferred fstcat customers weren’t shielded in this kind of way.

  • Mike says:

    9 May9 May 12:54

    Yup I agree – I have booked AF Prem ecom (via Paris) over BA because I could book seats for free

    • Callum says:

      10 May10 May 02:01

      That makes no sense though… If prebooking a seat is crucial to you (given the wide open availability I see on most flights when I check in, I genuinely believe most people don’t really care) then just mentally include the cost in the ticket price.

      It’s absurd to pay £100 extra elsewhere because you don’t want to pay a £70 seat fee – though I assume you actually had a different reason for opting to go with Air France?

  • Matt says:

    9 May9 May 12:57

    DaveB seat selection is free at the time booking on first class. I don’t disagree with your point about CW though especially as my Silver is about to expire at the end of May!

• Zild says:

  9 May9 May 12:47

  OT: Is it just me, or is booking JAL return redemptions via BA’s website impossible?

  I have been trying this for a few days. Every time I try, if I book a single JAL leg and a single BA leg it works fine, but if I try to book both legs as JAL the summary does not show pricing information and insists that i select a return leg (I already have); if I try to continue to the next screen it boots me out to the starting page.

  Any thoughts?

  This is probably a moot point as I doubt I have enough Avios for JAL both ways. I might do if I can find off peak JAL dates – does anyone know of a calendar for JAL redemptions?

  • John says:

    9 May9 May 12:49

    Peak and off-peak only exist for BA (and IB but different calendar??) flights. Do you think that the total taxes and charges would be higher when booking JL as two one-ways, if not, what’s the problem?

  • meta says:

    9 May9 May 12:52

    All partner airlines flights, including JAL, are classed as peak. Try booking as two singles then.

    • Zild says:

      9 May9 May 12:56

      Thank you both – separate legs hadn’t even occurred to me!

• VK says:

  9 May9 May 15:13

  I’m just waiting to use my 241 but am worried that things will get expensive after June. As I have no fixed plans that I can trust as yet, I’m going to mostly get screwed. Anyway, after thisl, it will be the end of BA for me. I just can’t be bothered. As long as I can churn the BA amex one more time after my 6 months are up, I should have enough no matter what silly deval they throw at us.

  • Alan says:

    9 May9 May 15:53

    What devaluation is planned for June?

    • VK says:

      10 May10 May 11:21

      from what I understand they are planning on moving to a delta/ AF style model with revenue based earning and variable avios for redemptions.

      • Rob says:

        10 May10 May 13:48

        Not happening.

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