BA seat allocation

[Kilkobeano]

We are travelling with children age 12 and 9 so I am guessing that BA will allocate our seats in advance? Does anyone know if that’s done a few days before or just the day before when you can do online check in? And if we wanted to change those seats I guess we would have to pay the usual fees? Thanks

[mason1]

It’s usually 5 days before the flight. Your return flight will be 5 days before that one (ie they don’t allocate both legs at the same time).

[Tiggers Pal]

The official line from their website is 3 days before travel but it’s usually somewhere between 3 and 7 days before. You can change them free of charge when online check-in opens but if you want to change them before that then yes you would have to pay.

[Kilkobeano]

Thanks both that’s very helpful.

[GALE88]

Just bear in mind that BA don't class your 12 year old as a child for seat allocation purposes. It's highly likely you will all be sat together as BA seem to be sensible and have a good reputation on seating, and I definitely don't want to spark off the whole paying/not paying for seats debate. I just wanted to make sure you knew that the 12 year old won't come under their seat allocation policy for children. I was surprised the age cutoff was 12 and thought it was a bit young.

[mason1]

Originally Posted by GALE88

Just bear in mind that BA don't class your 12 year old as a child for seat allocation purposes. It's highly likely you will all be sat together as BA seem to be sensible and have a good reputation on seating, and I definitely don't want to spark off the whole paying/not paying for seats debate. I just wanted to make sure you knew that the 12 year old won't come under their seat allocation policy for children. I was surprised the age cutoff was 12 and thought it was a bit young.

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As the OP is also travelling with a 9 year old, they’ll be allocated seats ahead of check in. We have decided to pay for seats next year with Avios points, as our youngest will be 12.

[GALE88]

Originally Posted by mason1

As the OP is also travelling with a 9 year old, they’ll be allocated seats ahead of check in. We have decided to pay for seats next year with Avios points, as our youngest will be 12.

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I'm glad to hear that. We traveled with a 9 and 12 year old this year and my interpretation of their policy was a little more pessimistic. As I understand it, BA only have to sit one adult with the 9 year old in order to fulfill their policy of sitting a child with their accompanying adult. So in theory they could put the rest of the family elsewhere, possibly splitting the 12 year old up from the rest of the family.
However, I don't want to scaremonger as I highly doubt BA would do this. Its not as if they're Ryanair.

[Sew109]

Originally Posted by mason1

As the OP is also travelling with a 9 year old, they’ll be allocated seats ahead of check in. We have decided to pay for seats next year with Avios points, as our youngest will be 12.

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BA’s policy would be to have an adult with the 9 year old not to sit the entire family together, the policy is to ensure saftely of a child under 12 not for the good of the whole family, but others have said most of the time BA are pretty good

[fredflintstone]

Originally Posted by Sew109

BA’s policy would be to have an adult with the 9 year old not to sit the entire family together, the policy is to ensure saftely of a child under 12 not for the good of the whole family, but others have said most of the time BA are pretty good

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That is BA's minimum. There policy is to sit the family together whereever possible. They try to keep all parties together, not just those with children and seem to be very sucessful baring late plane changes.

BA allocate families with children at 7-5 days out and the rest are given seats at 3 days (although not shown), so families with children have a very very high chance of being together because BA seat maps 6 days out (after bronze would have booked) to MCO and TPA are usually 'wide open' or less than 50% allocated in economy, so sitting families together should not be an issue. This is probably because Ba's high prices for seat allocation put people off paying to book seats.

Using the 'Is my flight full' thread will give an indication on load and if used correctly as the flight gets nearer should save families money from the fear factor of being split.

[stanleycamel]

Originally Posted by fredflintstone

That is BA's minimum. There policy is to sit the family together whereever possible. They try to keep all parties together, not just those with children and seem to be very sucessful baring late plane changes.

BA allocate families with children at 7-5 days out and the rest are given seats at 3 days (although not shown), so families with children have a very very high chance of being together because BA seat maps 6 days out (after bronze would have booked) to MCO and TPA are usually 'wide open' or less than 50% allocated in economy, so sitting families together should not be an issue. This is probably because Ba's high prices for seat allocation put people off paying to book seats.

Using the 'Is my flight full' thread will give an indication on load and if used correctly as the flight gets nearer should save families money from the fear factor of being split.

See more...

Hello fredflintstone - just tried to send a PM and your message box is full