GOOD DEAL: Get almost 2p per Avios using them for British Airways seat selection fees

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• JDB says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:38

  Rob, I notice you usually avoid using “sat” in this context as in “If you can be sat together, you will be”. It has unfortunately become quite commonplace but…

  • Sandra B says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:06

    +1.

  • WaynedP says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:09

    Acceptable for use in a British publication, I think, if Rob’s influence was Northern English regional dialect that uses past participle in constructs like this. (I believe that came from archaically correct use that became corrupted over time.)

    More jarring, I agree, if the influence is the lazy linguistic Americanism that misuses the past imperfect (as in “he will lay there”).

    Only Rob will know which influence prevented him from reaching for the grammatically pure “seated”, but the fact that the past imperfect conjugation and the past participle is identical for the verb to sit might possibly be clouding your instinctive discomfort, JDB.

    • RussellH says:

      29 Jul29 July 10:15

      Most dialect usages do not bother me much – I certainly have no problem with Rob’s English here.

      One that does annoy me is the americanism that you quote, but I now think that that is (a very annoying) dialect difference. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that in American English the verb “to lie” only has the one meaning, to tell a deliberate untruth.
      Americans are quite happy to lay in bed, get laid in bed, discuss the lay of the land as well as to see hens laying eggs or laying the table. So “to lay” in American can be transitive or intransitive, unlike UK versions of English.

• Jonathan says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:41

  I think you’d only pay these daylight robbery seat selection fees if you had to have a window seat, if you were paying a fee to reserves seat that’s one the centre of the plane, what’s the point ?

  • Andrew says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:02

    Perhaps some people prefer an aisle seat? I certainly do on overnight flights at the back of the plane.

    My favourite is the faux outrage from the cheapskates, who ask if you will move so they can sit together, and you agree if they’ll give you the cash you paid for the allocated seat.

• Rose says:

  29 Jul29 July 09:34

  Total waste of money reserving a seat imo.

• Doug M says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:07

  Seat selection fees have value to status passengers. So much depends on the cabin. In economy it’s nice to avoid middle seats, nicer still to get an exit row, and best of all to not be in economy. In business it gets much more complicated. With CW they’re are many better seats, on the now gone 747s 64A/K and 62A/K were great spaces, aisle access window seats, flying backwards, loads of storage space. Rob has commented on getting a block of 4 middle seats which gave a virtual private area when his children were younger. However with CS there remains some better seats, but everything is so much more equal, paying for a seat seems very odd.

• N says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:21

  Can we read more into this promo? Are BA trying to take some Avios liabilities off their books, etc? Or am I overthinking it?

• TM says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:52

  Hell will freeze over before I pay these fees. I have lost track of the number of times I have been able to choose the seats I wanted anyway by checking in exactly 24hrs before.

  • CarpalTravel says:

    29 Jul29 July 11:03

    I have been monitoring my booking since I made it in November last year – by February on the inbound flight, all but 2 of the acceptable (side pair) seats in CW have been showing as unavailable – presumably booked. If I knew 100% I would be flying I might have sucked up the cost by now to avoid the risk of climbing over people (or having them climb over me) as I think by the time the 24hrs comes round they will be gone.

• Pol says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:55

  I assume there is no need to take up this offer if flying in Club Europe, LHR-INV. Took part in the Olympics offer that ended on Sunday.

  Have never ever flown BA ever before but I have Bronze via codeshare long-haul flights taken previously.

  • Rob says:

    29 Jul29 July 12:07

    Not unless you are obsessed by window vs aisle.

    • Andrew says:

      29 Jul29 July 13:50

      “Passengers on the Port side of the plane will be able to see Blackpool Tower. (Some might say that this is the best view of Blackpool).”

      “Passenges on the Starboard side of the plane will be able to see Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument. (Freedom!)”

• LDTx says:

  29 Jul29 July 11:01

  Charging 100+ quid for seat selection, particularly in premium cabins, is nothing short of daylight robbery. Why anyone flying J to the US would choose BA over AA is beyond me. AA’s 1-2-1 J cabin on the 787 is heads and shoulders above BA’s cramped 2-4-2 config, and they let you pick your seat for free when you book your flight.

  • Nick says:

    29 Jul29 July 12:23

    ‘Daylight robbery’ or ‘smart business sense’?

    Unbundling seating helps keep ticket prices lower for everyone. And what a lot of people don’t (or refuse) to appreciate is that it’s actually a significant benefit for Gold customers. Many people travelling for business (or on corporate fares) book last minute, and would be left with only crap seats if cheapskate leisure sale customers were allowed to select the good ones in advance. The way BA does it, a lot of the best seats end up being left until later, for when Golds are booking. Don’t underestimate how much this is valued by BA’s top customers – lots book BA over other airlines for their expensive last-minute tickets as a result. If it also means a few early-bookers who are desperate to pre-select seats give them a bunch of cash for the privilege, even better.

    • KK says:

      29 Jul29 July 12:47

      I agree w Nick. I’ve been a top tier OW member for a few years now but when some times I have to fly last minute on CX which is pretty much my local airline, I sometimes are left with a useless seatmap to pick seats because the holiday makers or the holiday bloggers would book out all the decent seats 8-10 months out. Most of them don’t pay top bucks either. So what do you think a top buck spender will think when you have to sit next to the loo for 4 or 12 hours?

      • Sam says:

        30 Jul30 July 18:41

        @KK CX always block a number of seats in Business, Premium Economy and Economy for high tier members until OLCI opens which was around 48 hours before departure. Therefore I am not so sure how last minute you bought your CX tickets that made you miss out on these blocked seats which would have been available for you.

    • Sam says:

      29 Jul29 July 16:48

      @Nick That you find pay £100 for choosing your seat is not a robbery may be able justify it’s a ‘smart’ business idea but customers just don’t buy it. I don’t suppose there are so many employees travelling in a big corporate are allowed to reclaim seat selection fees as per the expense policies.

      If you compare BA fare in various routes with their competitors it’s not difficult to see that BA are asking for the same fare, if not more expansive, than other competitors which have free seat selection, and the argument for ‘unbundling seating helps keep ticket prices lower’ simply doesn’t quite stand.

      • Genghis says:

        29 Jul29 July 16:56

        Don’t most employees booking through a corporate travel agent get free seat selection anyway with BA, irrespective of status?

        • kitten says:

          29 Jul29 July 21:15

          Correct. Even in Economy. Available at time of booking. BA knows its corporate accounts are its bread and butter.

        • MW says:

          30 Jul30 July 19:23

          Can confirm. When I was statusless, my company booked J tickets and I always had seat selection from the time of booking. They did have a special deal with BA though.

    • Yorkieflyer says:

      30 Jul30 July 11:50

      Nick only partially true because of the rubbish CW cabin and most of the seats not being an attractive proposition

  • JAXBA says:

    29 Jul29 July 14:31

    The price is set high on purpose: to discourage people from paying it, but to make a nice amount of money from those who want to spend it anyway…

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