Anyone used Choice Air recently?

BAs terms and conditions re paying to select seats clearly states there will be no refund if any upgrade is given or purchased other than through an upgrade by rebooking. However the odds of getting an airport upgrade are never great but it's something people should understand.

I obviously hadn't read that. I can understand it if you get a free upgrade - and wouldn't complain in those circumstances, but seems wrong when you've paid for an upgrade!

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I obviously hadn't read that. I can understand it if you get a free upgrade - and wouldn't complain in those circumstances, but seems wrong when you've paid for an upgrade!

 

 

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It is only refunded if you pay for a full price upgrade. You paid for a promotional operational upgrade (POUG in their language) as they call it. BA kindly give you the tier points for first class which is a nice benefit. Think of it like the $399 upgrade where of course you only get the points benefit of the cabin you originally booked so BA are more generous.

If I got a POUG to first for less than £200 I wouldn't be worrying about the refund of my seat booking fee and I'd still be booking seats to avoid 50A etc

Tickets purchased, seats booked! Now I will just agonize over whether we should have gone with the bulkhead seats in Rouge Premium Economy. Based on some comments on Seat Guru and FlyerTalk, we went with the second row, as some comments said the bulkhead seats didn't have as much legroom. Of course, now we'll have the people in front of us reclining into our space, but as my DH said, we'll be reclining into someone else's :)

My husband also lucked out, because Premium Economy includes two checked bags. For our most recent cruise, he had to pay an additional $100 each way for his golf clubs. So he got a better seat this time for about what he would have paid for an exit row coach seat. I'll be spending the $200 extra this time to get the better seat, but from what I read, it's worth it to get in the better cabin.

The only odd thing was being told in my Choice Air confirmation email to register for checkmytrip.com. The email made it sound like that was the only way to verify everything was correct with our booking, but once I got to the site, and was forced to create an account, it didn't seem necessary.

 

The flights aren't BA, it's Air Canada Rouge. That concerns me based on some reviews, but we're buying the premium seats, so I hope they're okay. Premium on any other airline is coming up at almost double the price, and two stops instead of one.

We had this type of seating in June, flying AC Rouge from Prague to Toronto. There was lots of leg room, and the seat pitch was sufficient that if the person in front did recline, I don't remember it being an issue. That is unlike the regular Rouge seats where your nose would be tight against the seat in front!

My only complaint with the seat was that it had an integrated tray on the right side, likely because one on the seat back in front would be too far away. This lessens the seat width, and I am a bit of a wide body guy.

I had intentionally avoided the first row of seats as I had concerns for diminished legroom. I think we were in the third row and it was fine.

Our flights were booked by the river cruise line, well in advance and once I had the locator number there was no problem viewing the seat locations immediately and while I could have made changes the ones that were assigned were quite acceptable.

There was a two hour delay in leaving Prague, due to weather and then a pregnant woman deplaning, with the subsequent removal of luggage. The pilot did an excellent job of keeping us updated as to our status. Nobody likes delays, but it was handled very well.

One of the things I learned from our pilot was that there are five trans-Atlantic "highways". Weather conditions/storms had blocked four of them, so all traffic had to fly on the fifth one which was one of the reasons for the delay. A side benefit was that we had a great view of Greenland and the breakaway icebergs.

Enjoy your flight.

John

We had this type of seating in June, flying AC Rouge from Prague to Toronto. There was lots of leg room, and the seat pitch was sufficient that if the person in front did recline, I don't remember it being an issue. That is unlike the regular Rouge seats where your nose would be tight against the seat in front!

 

My only complaint with the seat was that it had an integrated tray on the right side, likely because one on the seat back in front would be too far away. This lessens the seat width, and I am a bit of a wide body guy.

 

I had intentionally avoided the first row of seats as I had concerns for diminished legroom. I think we were in the third row and it was fine.

Our flights were booked by the river cruise line, well in advance and once I had the locator number there was no problem viewing the seat locations immediately and while I could have made changes the ones that were assigned were quite acceptable.

 

Thank you for the information--I feel much better about our seats now. I booked us in 2H and 2 K (aisle and window). Debating whether to change them to 2D and 2F, which are the middle two seats, so we can each have an aisle, to make it easier for restroom trips, etc.

I also read that the bulkhead seats don't have anywhere to prop up the free iPads Rouge provides for movies, so you could end up holding it the whole time. Just hoping if the people in the seats ahead recline, we can still see the screen. Then again, perhaps not being able to watch movies will force me to plow through the stack of unread magazines I always seem to have at home :)