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Hi all
Maybe one of you could help understand how it works.
I have booked 12 reward seats on the same flight in August. It’s for 5 passengers on different combos – trying to cover all my bases while I wait for my nephew to make his mind up.
Do you know if the system may clock that and cancel any of my bookings? Or will somebody from
BA contact me to clarify? Is it within my right to have multiple seats on the same flight?Thank you
In my experience BA will not cancel ticketed bookings on the same flight even if for the same passengers
They do cancel duplicate unticketed reservations (e.g. those made by a travel agent that haven’t been ticketed yet) so I suspect it’s in some T&C that you shouldn’t be doing this but on a practical basis almost certainly nothing will happen
I have booked 12 reward seats on the same flight in August. It’s for 5 passengers on different combos – trying to cover all my bases while I wait for my nephew to make his mind up.
There was absolutely zero need to book this many seats – which has now prevented others from booking them until you make your mind up as to which ones to cancel so they could be put back on sale.
You should have booked it as though the entire party was travelling and then should it be required call to remove the non flying nephew and have that ticket refunded.
Alternatively booked those you know will travel on one booking and your nephew on a separate one (should he be old enough).
??? If you’ve booked 12 seats for 5 people, haven’t you just given BA 7x£35 – £245 – in cancellation fees? Completely confused?
Generally 50p per leg to cancel these days.
Generally 50p per leg to cancel these days.
Exactly. Max avios and 50p per seat
In my experience BA will not cancel ticketed bookings on the same flight even if for the same passengers
They do cancel duplicate unticketed reservations (e.g. those made by a travel agent that haven’t been ticketed yet) so I suspect it’s in some T&C that you shouldn’t be doing this but on a practical basis almost certainly nothing will happen
Great thank you, really helpful.
I have booked 12 reward seats on the same flight in August. It’s for 5 passengers on different combos – trying to cover all my bases while I wait for my nephew to make his mind up.
There was absolutely zero need to book this many seats – which has now prevented others from booking them until you make your mind up as to which ones to cancel so they could be put back on sale.
You should have booked it as though the entire party was travelling and then should it be required call to remove the non flying nephew and have that ticket refunded.
Alternatively booked those you know will travel on one booking and your nephew on a separate one (should he be old enough).
I think there was zero need for you to come and patronise me.
Why did you do this and not put your nephew on a separate booking?!
I think there was zero need for you to come and patronise me.
Well I can’t help if thats how you feel.
If you have come here before booking asking the best way to accommodate someone who may not end up travelling I’d have given you the same advice.
But booking twice the number of seats you need is really antisocial.
I think they may be blocking more than just twice the number of seats they need.
Given the number of seats booked, and the maximum seats required I assume that:
They have a minimum of 3 pax
The Nephew may also come (+1pax = 4pax)
The Nephew may also bring someone (+1pax = 5pax)Booking for all these eventualities would come to the total of 12 seat combos as per the original post.
If my assumptions are correct, I do think that blocking out 12 reward seats for a group of only 3-5 is rather selfish, depending on how long they keep them blocked for. Especially as this assumption would mean that the nephew is old enough to fly by themselves.
But this is just an assumption, the OP did not provide much in the way of clarification/justification here, so I could be completely wrong and out of order…
Behaviour like this is definitely the downside of the 50p cancellation fees…
I have done it before, but it’s been when I’ve wanted to change the date of the inbound, so rather than paying £35pp change fee, just re-booked with my new preferred inbound, and then cancelled the duplicate, for £1pp.
Or, after I’ve earned a voucher, so re-booked with the voucher applied. I only did that as there was standard avios availability still left. In that instance, paid £35pp to cancel, as it was long-haul.
But, I cancelled the duplicates immediately. My situation slightly different, but wouldn’t hold on to duplicate bookings for any extended period.
I think there was zero need for you to come and patronise me.
It wasn’t patronising (to be pedantic) . It was distaste for your booking methods, and alternate suggestions (both of which I agree with). A lot of posts on this forum are contributions to help others use Avios to find reward flights. Booking 12 seats for 3-5 people is contrary to that.
Whilst your seats are booked (even if it is a long way in advance), so other people arrange their travel plans long in advance. Knowing you are going to cancel over half the seats – not really supporting the community you’re asking advice from! Regardless, happy travels!
To give some more context, the flight I’ve booked seats on is currently showing no limits on the number of biz seats available. You can check for yourself.
6th August, FCO-LHR at 15:30. So that means they have a very large biz cabin and I’m not taking away anything from anybody. This may change of course, but by the time that happens I will have released the seats (end of this week).
Plus, the nephew is a minor (11yo) which means I have to book him with the entire party.
Can I also add, I don’t see why I should justify myself and I’m only giving some context to those who are all horrified by my appalling behaviour, when in fact had they been in my circumstances would have probably behaved in a similar way. If the system lets you do it, why wouldn’t you? Especially if there is availability and you’re not taking away anything from anybody.
To give some more context, the flight I’ve booked seats on is currently showing no limits on the number of biz seats available.
Especially if there is availability and you’re not taking away anything from anybody.
On an aircraft with a finite number of seats available, these statements cannot possibily be true.
@ Vinz you have given specific details of the flight which you are holding multiple seats on ,I’ve feedback this to BA as like others I find this behaviour totally unacceptable
@ Vinz you have given specific details of the flight which you are holding multiple seats on ,I’ve feedback this to BA as like others I find this behaviour totally unacceptable
This must be a wind up, surely 😀
Seriously? While it is a bit annoying and selfish I think you just have to accept that people probably do this all the time, I would imagine mostly people in high-powered jobs who don’t know exactly when they’ll be able to travel. I’ve seen Rob mention speculative bookings on several occasions so it’s clearly a common strategy. I can’t imagine that BA will have the slightest interest in someone doing something their systems allow them to do.
However, I’m still a bit gobsmacked that anyone would come on here and ask for help with something like this, knowing the kind of response they’re likely to get!
How selfish
Seriously? While it is a bit annoying and selfish I think you just have to accept that people probably do this all the time
Yes we all make bookings that we might cancel. But not multiple bookings on the same flight. I’m quite surprised (not surprised by BA IT) that the system allows it.
I know people who book multiple restaurants and then cancel all but one at the last minute. People, not friends. So I don’t mind if restaurants charge £25pp for reservations. Not sure if they charged 50p it would cover the restaurants’ costs 😉As for the OP, if he’s going from FCO-LHR, there can’t be more than 44 seats in Club if you take the curtain all the way back (row 11??), so how he’s managed to book so many on what will be a busy flight is beyond me.
However, I’m still a bit gobsmacked that anyone would come on here and ask for help with something like this, knowing the kind of response they’re likely to get!
I in all honesty didn’t think that it would cause such a fuss. I’m sure many people do this, and in all fairness this is the first time I do it, hence my question: would the system kick me out? Nothing else. I’m sure many of the outraged do it without saying then come here and profess them appalled, horrified, outraged by my disgusting behaviour. Some of the petty ones even reported me to the headmaster so I can be punished, failed and condemned to oblivion.
Sometimes you have no other solution, especially when your plans are up in the air (no pun intended).
Anyway, I will leave it to that. Won’t be coming again to put more fuel to the fire.
@northern lass , your right , BA prob won’t do or care less , however as a premier status holder , I’ve feedback to my contact.
what Vinz has done and then published is just ridiculous and silly and to expect no one is going to question what they have done is …
Sometimes you have no other solution, especially when your plans are up in the air (no pun intended).
But you did have a solution – which I told you about in my very first response.
And just because you can see loads of unselected seats on the map doesn’t mean that there are loads of seats – cash or avios – for sale as not everyone selects seats in advance.
You’re not a neophyte poster here. If you came before booking saying “this is the situation how best can I book it?” You’d have gotten answers without the criticism of taking up a large number of seats unnecessarily.
From my experience, if you book Avios seats for 5 people and then have to call customer services to cancel for 1 or 2 of them, the £35pp fee will apply. Even if you split the booking into two with the intention of cancelling the one you dont need online to get the 50 pence treatment, if often doesnt work, as the original booking has been modified, and the website feeds you a generic cancellation form which is not immediate and still charges you the £35 (or whatever cash component corresponded to the fare if less than £35).
So while I don’t endorse going to the extreme of booking 12 seats, if the decision on whether the nephew comes or not means a short period of double booking, I don’t think its quite as bad as some of you claim. The reality is that cancelling Avios tickets should really not be 50 pence as it incentivices over-booking in many different ways. I suspect its not going to last if BA ever get around to reworking their IT system.
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