Booking flight seats with BA

[ABZDisney]

We always pay to book seats when we fly with BA, primarily because we like to sit together & do not want to leave it to chance.
We fly economy on domestic & short haul European & Club on longer European & long haul flights & factor in the cost of the seats to the overall cost of the flights.
We have seen get people genuinely upset & on a few occasions get quite angry in economy & Club when people refuse to move from their seats so that they can sit together.
On one occasion I was asked to swap out of my window club world seat to an aisle seat in the same row in the middle because the chap in question "Was a frequent flyer & preferred window seats", when I politely refused to move he got quite animated & told me that I was being unreasonable & that he had a BA Gold Card & that would get the Cabin Services Director to move me.
Sure enough the CSD came along & asked me I would be willing to move, when I told her that two of us were travelling together & that we'd paid to reserve our seats months ago she apologised & backed off immediately.
The chap in question was furious & proceeded to make MRS ABZDISNEY feel very uncomfortable by staring at her across the aisle giving her the evil eye as we taxied & took off, it got so bad that once we were airborne I swapped seats with her & eventually complained to the CSD about his behaviour, she promptly had a word with him he calmed down, but the whole situation was awful.
In summary, if sitting together is a major issue for you then I would recommend paying to book your seats.
BA are under no obligation to seat you together as a family other than ensuring that at least one parent is seated adjacent to a child & this can be across the aisle if that is all they can manage.
I have also heard anecdotally from people that BA are actively allocating people on the same booking to different areas of the plane in order to persuade them to pay to book seats the next time, it's one of the reasons that we only fly BA when we absolutely have to.

[hornetgirl]

Originally Posted by Gemsie0812

Hmm I'm flying WT+ so I am guessing it will be different as there are not as many seats.

See more...

The WT+ cabin is much bigger on the refurbished planes than it was before (at the expense of the club cabin) so may not be as bad as you think.

[Peko]

Originally Posted by hornetgirl

The WT+ cabin is much bigger on the refurbished planes than it was before (at the expense of the club cabin) so may not be as bad as you think.

See more...

True, but it’s still only 52 seats in WT+, compared to 252 seats in economy, and WT+ is very popular, so the chances of being split are raised.

Originally Posted by ABZDisney

I have also heard anecdotally from people that BA are actively allocating people on the same booking to different areas of the plane in order to persuade them to pay to book seats the next time, it's one of the reasons that we only fly BA when we absolutely have to.

See more...

I’ve seen no material evidence of BA doing this with families. It’s possible that other groups booking Basic Economy fares have been split, but for all BA’s numerous faults, splitting families up deliberately isn’t one of them. Of course, it does happen on certain heavily booked flights/cabins.

[dave]

Originally Posted by Gemsie0812

Hmm I'm flying WT+ so I am guessing it will be different as there are not as many seats.

See more...

We fly wt+ on the return flight on an a380. Think there’s more on a 747.
We were a family of 3 so weren’t worried. However we now have my daughters friend both 13 on a different booking. As the cabin is only small on this aircraft and most of the 2x2 seats were getting booked up we took the plunge.
I didn’t want to leave it by chance of one of us sitting separately anymore. Used some avios points to reduce the price a little.

[ABZDisney]

Originally Posted by Peko

True, but it’s still only 52 seats in WT+, compared to 252 seats in economy, and WT+ is very popular, so the chances of being split are raised.



I’ve seen no material evidence of BA doing this with families. It’s possible that other groups booking Basic Economy fares have been split, but for all BA’s numerous faults, splitting families up deliberately isn’t one of them. Of course, it does happen on certain heavily booked flights/cabins.

See more...

As I stated in my original post, other than ensuring that at least one parent is sitting adjacent to a child & yes across the aisle counts, BA are under no obligation to sit whole families or groups of people who are on the same booking together.
If you couple this policy with charging for seats then you have a potentially toxic mix of people who think that they have a right to sit together because they are a family & people who have paid to sit in a particular seat & hence are less likely to be willing to move to facilitate a couple or family to be able to sit together.
BA are making millions of pounds each year from charging people who want to guarantee to be sitting together, the days of them actually caring about their passengers ended when Willie Walsh took over & things have got progressively worse under the tenure of Alex Cruz.
If you want to be sure that you are actually sitting together as either a family i.e. in the same row & sitting next to each other the only way is to book your seats & pay in advance.
I don't say this because I approve of their policy, I think it's absolutely outrageous & one of the reasons why we have cut down massively on the amount of flights that we book with them.
I had a BA Gold Card for years & was a huge fan of the airline but things have got so bad with them over the last few years in all classes with things being cut or to use BA marketing terminology "Enhanced" that I refuse to give them my money unless there is no alternative.

[Peko]

Originally Posted by ABZDisney

As I stated in my original post, other than ensuring that at least one parent is sitting adjacent to a child & yes across the aisle counts, BA are under no obligation to sit whole families or groups of people who are on the same booking together.
If you couple this policy with charging for seats then you have a potentially toxic mix of people who think that they have a right to sit together because they are a family & people who have paid to sit in a particular seat & hence are less likely to be willing to move to facilitate a couple or family to be able to sit together.
BA are making millions of pounds each year from charging people who want to guarantee to be sitting together, the days of them actually caring about their passengers ended when Willie Walsh took over & things have got progressively worse under the tenure of Alex Cruz.
If you want to be sure that you are actually sitting together as either a family i.e. in the same row & sitting next to each other the only way is to book your seats & pay in advance.
I don't say this because I approve of their policy, I think it's absolutely outrageous & one of the reasons why we have cut down massively on the amount of flights that we book with them.
I had a BA Gold Card for years & was a huge fan of the airline but things have got so bad with them over the last few years in all classes with things being cut or to use BA marketing terminology "Enhanced" that I refuse to give them my money unless there is no alternative.

See more...

I’m not going to get into the rights and wrongs of BA’s seating policy, there are arguments for and against it. It definitely doesn’t favour the occasional traveller in premium cabins.

My point was that I’ve seen no evidence of BA deliberately splitting up families with children under 12, they will usually try to keep them together, well beyond the minimum requirements of the CAA guidelines (and I’m fully aware of those). Both the CAA guidelines and the BA seating policy have been in place for many years, and there isn’t much evidence of deliberately splitting families. It’s sometimes unavoidable, and as I said, a greater likelihood in cabins other than economy.

I’m neither a fanboy nor a hater of BA, and would agree with some of what you say, but I do still fly BA a lot because it suits me. I’m under no illusions about BA.

Of course the only way to guarantee it is to pay, but the OP was looking for an indication of the likelihood of being seated together without paying, and I was trying to help with that.

[Themousefamily]

For what it’s worth, we have flown ba to Orlando 4 times. 1 x economy 1 x wt+ and 2 x club. My two children have ranged between 9-15 at the different times. I have NEVER paid for my seat choices because I disapprove of the policy that much 😂 and we have always been seated together. My theory with the smaller cabins is that at least I wouldn’t be far away from my family if we went seated together. Also just to add, with club world the charge for choosing seats is approx £65 per person per leg! I will not pay it out of principle and I will face the consequences if I must!

[Notte510]

I've been split up (2+1) before, whilst not ideal, it's not the end of the world. We also had a 3 year old, look on the bright side, it can be hard work on a 8-10 hour flight, splitting up gives one of you a break every now and then. It's easy to think 'we must sit together', and my heart sank when I found out, however it really isn't that bad.

[Notte510]

PS - Got 2 kids now, considering choosing our seats next time just so I can be apart :-)

[jane2211]

Always book seats for peace of mind x