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Hi Guys
I managed to get a return in club world on A380
For me, the wife and my 8 year old son
LHR to DXB with BA
Using BAPP voucher and Barclays upgrade voucher
I logged in to look at seating plan
The upper deck has 3 seats together in the middle
It will be roughly £400 to £500 to book these seats for return trip
My question is
Will BA keep us together if I don’t book these seats
Should I book them or take a chance
What do you guys do?
I look forward to any advice on this
1st time flying business and looking forward to it
I paid 270k avios and £1,000 along with the vouchers
Flying out 19th December
Back on 7th January
Just need to book my economy flights to Bangkok next
I see ones with emerites for about £2,300
There are no guarantees with seating but BA will more than likely keep you together – though most likely not on the upper deck as this is very popular to pre-book. I never paid for seat selection prior to gaining status, and we flew in CW as a family of 3 numerous times and always ended up together. BA usually seats families with children together a few days before departure, although you won’t be able to see this until check-in.
£400+ is a lot of money which I’d prefer to spend on holiday!
*Bear in mind the A380 gets delayed a lot.
“Together” can mean any combination. It can be 2 seats on the left and one behind. Or two in the middle and one on the right.
I doubt you’ll get 3 seats in the middle row if you leave it for last 24 hours. There are too many people with status nowadays and they can simply book one of the middle 3.
One of my flights last year, a couple split their seats, with the wife taking the centre rear facing one in the middle 3 of the last row while hubby took the window seat.They’re travelling with an 8 year old, so will most likely have seats allocated about 3 days before departure. Booking one middle seat makes no sense, as it would require clambering over strangers to go anywhere.
Booking one middle seat makes no sense, as it would require clambering over strangers to go anywhere.
I thought the same, but the last row has some space to get out.
https://www.aerolopa.com/ba-789I believe on my last couple of OLCIs I spied a (new?) message
saying “A” parent will be sat with any under 12s. And how much
will all 3 of you be chatting together anyway?!Put the £400 towards a slap-up meal/room upgrade!
Booking one middle seat makes no sense, as it would require clambering over strangers to go anywhere.
I thought the same, but the last row has some space to get out.
https://www.aerolopa.com/ba-789With all the CW cabins the last row (centre or window) avoids the climbing over. For the same reason it’s one of the most popular so less likely to be available.
Because you’re travelling with your child BA will very likely keep at least 1 parent and your child together, the other one of you could possibly be seated behind etc. The upper deck is popular for pre-booking, especially for people with the right BA Status, so it depends how badly you want to sit on the upper deck I suppose?
The UK CAA doesn’t understand what seating ‘together’ is, so there’s no chance BA will.
I can say we were consistently seated together prior to having status, flying BA once or twice per year. The only time it didn’t happen, my son was nearly 15 and was put in the row behind us in CW, and the lady who had been put in our row was more than happy to swap as he was in a better seat than her! This was always in school holidays so flights were full. The cabin would show as full sometimes prior to T-24, but when OLCI opened we could see where we’d been seated.
Since then we’ve mainly been in CS where it’s simply not possible to sit 3 together – something to bear in mind in the event of an equipment swap! If you do pay for the seats, keep an eye out for this happening.
Don’t forget that if you do fork out £400 for seats that’s an extra 400TP. Whoo hoo! But before you get too excited I assume that it’s allocated per person rather than all to the unfortunate who actually pays for it, so an even less useful 133TP each.
Personally for flights with big cabins (so the a380, for example) I would take the middle road and pay to match a hotel status to royal jordanian silver status and have your pick 7 days before the flight.
7 days should give enough of an edge over others to get 3 together.
Alternatively just be ‘on it’ exactly 24hrs before the flight and pay nothing.
There’s nothing that’ll make me fork out those fees in full.
As you’ve booked with a 241 and upgrade voucher, you’d have separate bookings, and therefore highly unlikely the 3 if you will be together automatically. The parent on the 241 and your son will likely be seated “together”, but in a business cabin, and what counts as together does not necessarily mean next to.
If only one parent needs to be close to your son, you could just until T-24, and see what is available. Worse case, you can take turns looking after your son.
I missed that due to the unusual format of the original post! Yes, BA will treat the 2 bookings as completely unrelated. However, again we did the same a few times (or one adult on a cash booking) and there were always seats to select reasonably close together. It’s up to you, of course, but at least one adult will be seated with the 8-year-old.
Thanks Guys
I will take my chances and not pay any extra as it takes away a bit of the value we are already getting by travelling business
I have one more question
How strict are BA for Names matching excatly the same as on your passport
I added me and my sons names on the booking but I never added our middle names and our middle names are on our passport
Also my sons passport expires in October 26
The trip ends Jan 26
This is 10 months validity left
I assume this is ok and 6 months is the minimun
My plan will be to do this trip then get him a new passport
I have booked our DXB TO BKK return with emerites we will have 2 nights in Dubai to break up the outbound journey
Just shows you persistance is the key with these BAPP vouchers availability
I was checking everyday and today I got lucky with seats showing up
BA is not bothered with middle names.
When going to the UK your passport just needs to be valid on the day of the flight for the airline’s purposes (the UK border force will be fine with a recently expired passport).
@sinc100 – we are the same combo as you: 2 adults + 1 child, using 241+Barclays.
Last summer, we rang BA and they “made a note” that the two different bookings were
linked, and we did indeed get placed next to each other in the end. Might have just
been lucky, of course, but maybe worth doing anyway.Can anyone confirm if when you buy a BAPP flight along with a couple of reward flights along with a cash purchase all at the same time for the same leg (i.e. over a phone call) that they will all be sat together? We will have an infant with us
Is anyone else reading these messages as if they were a song/sonnet?
@jb89, no, they will be separate bookings and the only way to guarantee you’ll be together is to pay for seats or select via status. BA can make a note in the booking and you may well end up together but it’s not guaranteed – even when passengers are all on the same booking.
Well you paid £3700 for the flights (let’s say at 1p/Avios) which is probably a bargain. So 12-15% more to sit together. It’s worth considering if:
a. it’s upstairs where you want to be, and
b. it will make the trip more enjoyable for you allAs it’s your first time in Club, I think the experience will be special (for 2x 8+ hours you’re on the plane). So personally I’d be tempted to pay. And I absolutely hate paying for seat selection (esp in Club).
@sinc100 – we are the same combo as you: 2 adults + 1 child, using 241+Barclays.
Last summer, we rang BA and they “made a note” that the two different bookings were
linked, and we did indeed get placed next to each other in the end. Might have just
been lucky, of course, but maybe worth doing anyway.+1.
Had manual linking of our 241+BUV PRNs & surprisingly we ended up sitting together as thought no one reads manual notes. Not sure it made any difference, but stressed the child is alone on BUV PNR & would become unaccompanied if sat in different parts of the cabin.
Well you paid £3700 for the flights (let’s say at 1p/Avios) which is probably a bargain. So 12-15% more to sit together. It’s worth considering if:
a. it’s upstairs where you want to be, and
b. it will make the trip more enjoyable for you allAs it’s your first time in Club, I think the experience will be special (for 2x 8+ hours you’re on the plane). So personally I’d be tempted to pay. And I absolutely hate paying for seat selection (esp in Club).
Good point. The other thing is too many status holders these days thanks to BAH and on top you have the sparrows and jays.
@jb89, no, they will be separate bookings and the only way to guarantee you’ll be together is to pay for seats or select via status. BA can make a note in the booking and you may well end up together but it’s not guaranteed – even when passengers are all on the same booking.
Thanks that’s really good to know- so the BAPP and other reward seats also won’t be on the same booking? But obviously if I pay for seats on the others we should be together. Having an infant automatically means you get seat selection straight away is that right?
No, you can’t have different types of booking on the same PNR, so 241, Barclays and cash would all be separate. I think you can select seats with an infant, but can’t remember if you have to call BA to request the bassinet or whatever.
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