Bronze tier free seat selection is a farce

[Speedfriend]

I am flying WTP to Johannesburg with my family on Wed at short notice. Because I am staying longer, my booking is separate to theirs. When I looked at the seat selection today, it is showing me (with Bronze) as having been allocated a seat and with no other seats to select from (which would be free)

But when I go into my family’s booking, it shows 11 empty seats that they can book for a fee of course.

What is the point of the Bronze tier free seat selection if they are just going to hide the seats from you anyway.

Who could I complain to about this?

[ekposh]

Surely not? That’s really cheeky if so. Have you looked at Expertflyer? Doesn’t seem right to me.

EDIT: Expertflyer is showing a full seat map if it is tomorrow so curious as the family are seeing 11 empty seats

[AndrewT]

The myriad complexities of which seats are available to who is a murky world at the best of times, but presumably by Wednesday you mean tomorrow, so OLCI is either open or the flight may have already been set up for it. While I’m not suggesting that what you are seeing is ‘right’, at this late stage anything is potentially possible.

If you want to complain it would be to BAEC, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t go far. There is never any suggestion that you get free selection of all unoccupied seats (as you rarely do), only free selection of all seats which are available to you. Why someone / a booking without status should have access to more seats than someone with status I can’t say, but possibly related to offering seats together (which would be consistent with the proximity to OLCI).

[AndrewT]

ekposh wrote:

EDIT: Expertflyer is showing a full seat map if it is tomorrow so curious as the family are seeing 11 empty seats

The OP didn’t say which flight, but Experflyer is currently showing six WTP seats unoccupied on BA55 and three on BA57.

Unless of course the family is not in WTP, which would render the whole thread rather silly, but I can’t think of any other way they could be seeing eleven available seats.

[jintycat]

I was trying to book seats with Bronze. MMB showed abou o seat availabile but due to various reasons with FF number I could not book it online so I booked via the chat but they could only see 2 seats free…made no sense to me that I could see 9 free including the ones I wanted but they could only book 2 so I ended up going with what they could book for me..#lottery

[Richie]

Does their booking include children?

[Speedfriend]

Sorry, Flight is on Thursday not Wed! And family booking includes 2 children under 12, which have not been allocated seats. Given BA stated policy that children under 12 will be seated with an adult from the booking (which is only my partner in my family’s booking), I don’t see any need to pay for their seats at this point

[AndrewT]

Helps if you get the facts right 🙂 But you still haven’t said which flight. On Thursday BA55 has 10 WTP seats unoccupied, BA57 has 17.

However BE CAREFUL. There’s is no guarantee the family group will be seated together. The (CAA) rules allow adjacent rows or either side of aisles. Best advice if you don’t want to pay (which has nothing to do with the odd availability situation) is to make sure you check in as soon as OLCI opens and hope something drops in to place.

[Richie]

Family seat selection is also a farce.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Speedfriend wrote:

Sorry, Flight is on Thursday not Wed! And family booking includes 2 children under 12, which have not been allocated seats. Given BA stated policy that children under 12 will be seated with an adult from the booking (which is only my partner in my family’s booking), I don’t see any need to pay for their seats at this point

BA will allocate those seats before OLCI opens even if they aren’t showing in MMB at present.

[AJA]

I notice that OP says is on a separate booking to the rest of the family. If so that would explain why the rest of the family can’t book seats for free as bronze tier only allows seat selection for everyone on the same PNR.

It doesn’t explain why OP can’t change their own seat allocation though I think a call to BAEC may be able to resolve that.

[AndrewT]

The enquiry was purely related to why the Bronze status holder has a more restricted view of ‘available’ seats than the non-status holders on the second booking. There was no suggested expectation that the latter should be able to choose for free, just an understandable comment that they could pay for the privilege while the Bronze can’t choose anything for free.

The flight will be under airport control after T-72 so I’m pretty sure no one in BAEC customer services will be able to change anything now. It’s OLCI or airport check in, but as BA Flyer IHG Stayer said above the chances are the family group will get seats allocated. There aren’t four together on either flight, so no options on that front regardless of status.