Booking flight seats with BA

[elle573]

We are travelling BA from LGW in Aug with a 12,8 and 3 year old. I haven’t paid for seats together as quoted £500 plus. My two older ones will be fine away from us but hope to be near my 3 year old but refuse to pay and we’ll just see what happens. I check the flight and not many seats have been prebooked.

[nats1211]

A pp said BA allocate the seats 5-7 days in advance with under 12s, would that mean we could see our allocation at that point and pay to change? We are travelling with an 8 year old and as long as he can sit with me I don’t mind if my partner isn’t directly next to us. Obviously I’d prefer us to be together but currently quoted at another £270 to pay for seats which as we paid 385pp for the flight and luggage is almost the cost of another flight!

[bighal]

Originally Posted by ABZDisney

... 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.

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That happened when the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet came along and people wanted cheaper and cheaper flighs.. something had to give at the end of the day if BA had kept going as it had done then it would have gone bust...

Todays BA is very different, things are improving. I have seen it go down and now its going back up, re-introducing things they dropped as they are on a profitable footing. And when the new club seats get fitted to all the aircraft, which should be within the next 4 years, more and more people will come back.

If I ever decided not to fly with any airline because I didn't like the odd thing or 2 then I wouldn't be flying anywhere.

But back to the topic...
If you have young children then at least one adult will be seated next to them. Even if you have paid for a seat you can be moved by the airline so it's still no guarantee you will be definitely seating together.
We have only ever paid for seats on BA once as we wanted a set of 2 seats together on a flight to Atlanta , all the other times (post having to pay) we just selected at check-in. It does help us as we usually get to select seats when our connecting flight opens which gives us a few hours advantage.
Not all the seats are available to buy anyway when the flight first goes on sale as it does depend on what BAEC level you are, the higher up the more you have to choose from.

[Peko]

Originally Posted by nats1211

A pp said BA allocate the seats 5-7 days in advance with under 12s, would that mean we could see our allocation at that point and pay to change? We are travelling with an 8 year old and as long as he can sit with me I don’t mind if my partner isn’t directly next to us. Obviously I’d prefer us to be together but currently quoted at another £270 to pay for seats which as we paid 385pp for the flight and luggage is almost the cost of another flight!

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Yes, once your seats are allocated (it may be as late as 3 days before, but more usually 5-7 days), you would be able to pay to change them if you wish.

Otherwise, you could take the chance of changing them for free when check-in opens, assuming you are not on a Basic Economy fare. If you do this, and your origin is London, do bear in mind that those with a connecting flight before the long haul will get to check in before you and will have a slight head start on seat selection.