Can’t choose seat – only available at check in?

[williamd]

Companion voucher booking to US, GLA – LHR – DEN out, LAS – LHR – GLA back. MMB – choose seats – shows “Seat choices are only available at check-in”.

New one on me – anyone have any insight on this?

EDIT – I should add, there is no option to purchase a seat as normal, or (lowly bronze here) choose 7 days prior to flight.

[strickers]

Is it tomorrow? They reduce the number of available seats the closer it gets to check in, they do it so they have flexibility to move people around. It might be something more sinister but it’s probably not.

EDIT: I’ve had it at the 7-day point too on very busy flights.

[williamd]

No – not until October – just booked today – so seems a tad odd. Itinerary has 4 flights and all say same.

[strickers]

Has it been ticketed?

[williamd]

Good question, I haven’t received a confirmation email and points are still on my account, however I can see everything in MMB. Will check in morning, thanks.

[Lady London]

could be an equipment change pending on one or more of the flights. Some airlines’ IT might operate a sledgehammer solution and block you from sorting seats on all flights on the ticket till the equipment change comes through.

ISTR some people also had problems in the past if they tried to do things with bookings to the US before their passport and visa info had been attached to the booking.

[ekposh]

Almost certainly not ticketed is my guess.

[williamd]

Still the same earlier, but I’ve still not received a confirmation and the points have yet to be deducted. Assuming they will go through today at which point I’ll check again.

[ekposh]

Wouldn’t bet on it. Mine took 2.5 weeks to get ticketed and that’s for early September. Avios usually deducted immediately though so a bit odd yours haven’t.

[Garethgerry]

My avios companion voucher email ,comes through in under an hour. I can choose seats straight away.

I personally would chase this.

[Garethgerry]

To be precise , Meant to say companion voucher booking confirmation email comes through in under an hour

[SamG]

The fact your Avios haven’t been deducted suggests something has gone wrong. Call in and ask them to check on this and that it is queued for ticketing correctly with your CVV saved

[williamd]

Yeah thats normal, but this was done via call centre not online so wondering if that makes a difference (?).

Garethgerry wrote:

To be precise , Meant to say companion voucher booking confirmation email comes through in under an hour

[williamd]

The payment is pending on my Amex which suggests that will go through ok.

SamG wrote:

The fact your Avios haven’t been deducted suggests something has gone wrong. Call in and ask them to check on this and that it is queued for ticketing correctly with your CVV saved

[SamG]

When are you flying?

It doesn’t always mean it’ll go through. They take the pending transaction and then they have a week to actually issue the ticket before the CVV drops out and they need you to supply it again to actually debit the money (yes, their systems are that bad!)

If you look at the booking in the app do you see a ticket number 125-xxx , you need that to fly

[williamd]

Flight is October, I’ll be giving them a call later if it deosn’t come through. Looking at the booking on the App as suggested – ticket number is blank.

[JDB]

SamG wrote:

When are you flying?

It doesn’t always mean it’ll go through. They take the pending transaction and then they have a week to actually issue the ticket before the CVV drops out and they need you to supply it again to actually debit the money (yes, their systems are that bad!)

If you look at the booking in the app do you see a ticket number 125-xxx , you need that to fly

@SamG the CVV dropping out is not a BA systems issue, it’s a PCI-DSS requirement and it cannot be overridden by eg the customer’s consent. It is deemed by the credit card standards people that there is no acceptable cryptographic solution.

[SamG]

Worth a call to check all in order and it’s queued correctly but I have seen a few people mention on here that it’s taking a while at the moment and they do not have a way for it to happen faster as they’re processed in order of date of departure

[williamd]

Update – called them this afternoon, they didn’t really explain what the issue was, but it appears the agent I dealt with didn’t fully complete the booking – had to provide some info again including payment details again – and now have a confirmation email and ticket numbers, and can choose seats.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

[SamG]

JDB wrote:

SamG wrote:

When are you flying?

It doesn’t always mean it’ll go through. They take the pending transaction and then they have a week to actually issue the ticket before the CVV drops out and they need you to supply it again to actually debit the money (yes, their systems are that bad!)

If you look at the booking in the app do you see a ticket number 125-xxx , you need that to fly

@SamG the CVV dropping out is not a BA systems issue, it’s a PCI-DSS requirement and it cannot be overridden by eg the customer’s consent. It is deemed by the credit card standards people that there is no acceptable cryptographic solution.

indeed. BA not processing the payment within 7 days is their issue though!