Do you know the cost of reserving a British Airways Club World business class seat?

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One thing that often surprises people who are travelling in British Airways Club World for the first time is that seat reservations are not free at the time of booking.

British Airways is one of the few airlines that charges its business class passengers an additional fee to reserve a seat – Virgin Atlantic, for example, does not charge. It also charges for Economy and Premium Economy, of course. Only First Class is free.

The only exceptions are if you (or someone in your party) hold Executive Club Silver or Gold status or oneworld equivalent – see details here – or if you have a fully flexible ticket. Bronze cardholders and oneworld equivalents can select seats for free seven days before departure. Some people also get the fee waived as part of a corporate deal with their employer.

cost of reserving a British Airways Club World business class seat

For everyone else, all seats are made available at no additional charge 24 hours before departure but by this time many of the best seats have already been snapped up. In Club World, you may be stuck sharing a ‘double bed’ middle pair with a stranger.

Over the last few years, seat selection fees have gone through the roof. On a typical A380 flight to Dubai, there are EIGHT different prices available, running from £44 to £76. This is per person, each way, meaning that a couple is facing a £304 cost to reserve the best seats next to each other for a return flight.

I should point out that these are Dubai prices, for a 6-7 hour flight. You will pay more on longer routes.

What does it cost to reserve a Club World seat?

Let’s use an Airbus A380 as an example. Here is the pricing for the upper and lower decks (click to enlarge) for a Dubai flight in early February 2025.

Here is the upper deck cabin:

How much to reserve British Airways business class seat?

As you might expect, the window pairs are more expensive than those in the middle.

Here is the cheaper downstairs cabin. Again, the window seats are pricier than the middle block unless you want the two pairs at the back.

The price differential from cheapest to priciest seat is £32.

Interestingly, prices have come down

When we last looked at this topic 18 months ago, the prices (for exactly the same flight) ranged from £59 to £91. Today, the range is £44 to £76.

I don’t know if this is part of a general trend or just a one-off, given that the ‘top to bottom’ range is unchanged at £32.

Flying Club Suite could save you money

There is some good news.

Seat reservations in business class are becoming less relevant now that the new Club Suite is operating on more and more routes.

When we last looked at this in February 2024, British Airways had 66 long haul aircraft with the new Club Suite cabin:

18 new A350s
7 new 787-10s
28 refitted 777-200ERs
13 refitted 777-300s (which also feature the new First Suite)

This equated to 59% (66 of 111) of BA’s long haul aircraft based at Heathrow. Club Suite is not operated from Gatwick and there are no plans to do so.

Since we wrote that article in February, work has started on the 12-strong Boeing 787-8 fleet with the first Club Suite aircraft now flying. Sadly our prediction that all would be completed by the end of the year was massively wide of the mark.

Cost of reserving British Airways business class seat

The old Club World layout delivers a huge variety of travel experiences since the dense layout means many people do not have direct aisle access, are facing backwards or do not have much privacy.

In theory there are no bad seats with Club Suite.

If you are booked on a Boeing 777 and the business class layout looks like this:

….. then you are getting Club Suite. Save your money and don’t pay to book a seat.

With Club Suite, the experience becomes more uniform. All seats have aisle access and someone in the middle block is sat totally separately to their neighbour.

You can’t easily talk to your partner even if you are sat side by side in the middle block, even with the divider down, so it doesn’t matter much if you are separated – and other passengers should have few problems moving to help you if you are.

Unless you are obsessed with having a window seat, there seems little to justify paying to choose a seat when in Club Suite.

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.