BA seat reservation problem..what next Globaliser ?

[lucky white heather]

Yesterday when the BA new option to prepay seat reservations system opened, I immediately booked and paid the appropriate seat charges ( by credit card) for 2 (existing booking) long haul flights.

The costs were to be debited separately as 2 x £40 on my credit card.

I only received by email one E ticket receipt and it does not detail which of the two flights we discussed on the phone while booking which this receipt refers to , nor does it give any specific seat numbers to help identify which flight this receipt is for.

The second E ticket receipt that we also expected to come by email has not arrived.

Since we were concerned our preferred seats may not actually be booked after all because we only have one E ticket receipt..I phoned BA again last evening to ask if their computer showed our seat assignments. They tell me the seats look as if they are confirmed but I am concerned we have no second E ticket receipt and do not want to discover at checkin on one flight we have no reserved seating after all, having made the effort to book whenever the option to pre pay extra for this option came onstream ...it could be a problem we don't want or need.

 

I have written to BA exec. club detailing our concerns , asking them to investigate and send out the missing Eticket receipt as well as confirm our chosen seats are assigned. Is this all I can do ?

(I will also check with my credit card company that there should be two debits separately charged to confirm two sets of seats have been paid for .)

 

I want BA to urgently assure me our overnight MIA/ LHR seats in particular are definitely attached to our booking since the chosen seats are few in number.

In another " wrinkle" both 777 seat plan diagrams on the BA website apparently do not show the actual configuration of the aircraft type we will be using on one flight ..and on which we have chosen seats we could not see ...where else can the missing 777 seat plan if one exists be checked out for our seat location ?

It does not seem fair nor helpful if a customer wants to choose seats and pay the extra charge cannot see the appropriate seat plan for their aircraft although I know some aircraft may be substituted as/ when necessary but at least all choices that are likely to be used should be offered on the website so more informed decisions can be made .

 

I would appreciate any input from any air experts who can offer further advice.

[crows nest club]

Hi,

 

We pre-booked our seats yesterday also for two flights (already booked) for Europe next year. We did, however, receive two separate e-mail receipts for each flight but this only confirmed that we had reserved 'general seats'. However. if you go into 'Manage my Booking' on the BA website and 'print your itinerary' option you will see the seat numbers that you have booked. Just put in the booking references each time and print out the relevant pages, which replaces your e-ticket receipt and you only have to take these itineraries to the airport, along with your passport.

 

Also you can see seating plans for all the airplines on http://www.seat.guru.com. I do appreciate that there are two 777 Boeing aircraft used on these routes, one with 3 classes and one with 2 classes. I would think that Exec Club would be able to tell you which plane was in use for your flights as they must know if they are selling First Class, Club Class and Ecomony, or only Club Class and Economy on which flight. Once you ascertain this, then you will know which seating plan you need to look at.

 

Hope this helps.

[Gardyloo]

crows nest club is correct - go to Manage My Booking, enter the locator code(s) and you should see the seats. If not, phone BA customer service, but be prepared for some frustration.

 

For a laugh/cry, read this thread on Flyertalk.com for many BA FFers' take on the new system. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1003241-day-1-new-seating-policy-very-disappointing.html

[lucky white heather]

Hi,

 

We pre-booked our seats yesterday also for two flights (already booked) for Europe next year. We did, however, receive two separate e-mail receipts for each flight but this only confirmed that we had reserved 'general seats'. However. if you go into 'Manage my Booking' on the BA website and 'print your itinerary' option you will see the seat numbers that you have booked. Just put in the booking references each time and print out the relevant pages, which replaces your e-ticket receipt and you only have to take these itineraries to the airport, along with your passport.

 

Also you can see seating plans for all the airplines on www.seat.guru.com. I do appreciate that there are two 777 Boeing aircraft used on these routes, one with 3 classes and one with 2 classes. I would think that Exec Club would be able to tell you which plane was in use for your flights as they must know if they are selling First Class, Club Class and Ecomony, or only Club Class and Economy on which flight. Once you ascertain this, then you will know which seating plan you need to look at.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thank you to both Crow's Nest Club and Gardyloo( a very appropriate screen name for here in Edinburgh as you will probably know!)

This what I have determined so far.

Both £40 debits are on my credit card but still only one receipt received ..have printed out our itinerary again which now shows the seat numbers we have been allocated.

 

I had already called up seatguru onscreen when we phoned to book the seats yesterday morning and had our preferred seat numbers ready to request while looking at the seatplans . However the numbers I wanted for our day time flight on the 777 did not seem to tally with what the BA person was seeing on her screen so I switched to the BA seat plan screen for their 777 (2 versions) to make sure we had the same layout in front of us. .

She said she was allocating 2 seats together on their own in row 35 (which in both of the BA 777 seat plans are 3 seats together?? ) ...so we assumed (wrongly) there must be another version of BA 777's that we could not see onscreen as we particularly wanted to book "2 only together" if possible.She did not say the seats were in a bank of 3.

 

Now I have doubts the seats allocated are the "2 only together" formation we requested since there are only a couple of versions of BA 777's showing and neither show" 2onlytogether" at row 35..

I did check out some other airline 777's today on various seatguru airline options and some 777's do have 2/5/2 seat configurations but I am still unconvinced our BA flight will be this configuration .

I have posted my letter of concerns to BA exec. club asking for further information and making them aware of the missing receipt and asking them to confirm what exactly has been allocated on our 777 flight.

 

I have done everything so far that I can do, I think?

Thank you both for responding promptly.

[MBandJSinUK]

Hi

We did same for our flight to MIA in Feb - had 1 receipt but both reservations showed up on MMB within the hour. Our LHR-MIA flight is on a 747 so maybe the confusion is over the aircraft type they are using. Both the daily MIA flights use a 747 52J format (52 biz class seats vs the other type which has 70 biz seats) and our seat request was granted for that aircraft type.

[lucky white heather]

Hi

We did same for our flight to MIA in Feb - had 1 receipt but both reservations showed up on MMB within the hour. Our LHR-MIA flight is on a 747 so maybe the confusion is over the aircraft type they are using. Both the daily MIA flights use a 747 52J format (52 biz class seats vs the other type which has 70 biz seats) and our seat request was granted for that aircraft type.

 

We know the MIA/ LHR flight uses a 747 ..we've made the same journey many times before....but unfortunately we have to fly to Newark to join the ship and fly home from MIA so our 2 long haul flights are on different type aircraft...a 777 and 747.

The seats are showing on the MMB itinerary so we have re-printed that and hope the missing receipt is not critical and as long as we actually get the seats we have requested on that longer overnight flight we'll be grateful for that... we can suffer it on the daylight flight (777) but it is a lesson learned about what questions to get accurate answers to when you are actually doing your booking.We still have two other flights that have no requested seats with this booking but these are domestic , so all in all it is a long flight timetable and we wanted to try to get the best arrangement possible like everyone else...

[Joy R]

We are flying to LA with British Airways on 20th November, the flights having been booked by Princess, and we have a booking reference number. Today I got onto the BA website, to pre-book seats, but couldn't do it, so I phoned BA. They told me that as Princess have booked our flight (not a group booking), I can't pre-book seats until they (Princess) have issued the tickets. I then rang Princess UK, who do not issue tickets until about 4 weeks or less before the flight. They are taking the issue up with BA, and told me that they will try to avoid BA in future because of this. But what it means to us, is that we will not be able to pre-book the better seats, because they will be gone before we have the option to do so. I think this is totally unfair, and only gives me more incentive to book flights independently in future (we couldn't do it this time for complicated reasons).

[PennyAgain]

Joy R, the cruise lines buy the cheapest seats they can get. The class of ticket you have may prevent you from pre-selecting seats.

 

I tried telephoning BA in the USA but could not get to a human with several tries. With both the seat selection for a price and the change in charges for luggage (and overweight luggage) the lines are all busy.

 

A friend telephoned BA in the UK (from Texas) and got through to a person who helped her select seats. But the plan fell apart when my friend only had US based credit cards and not one based in the UK. Oh well.

[scottish]

We are flying to LA with British Airways on 20th November, the flights having been booked by Princess, and we have a booking reference number. Today I got onto the BA website, to pre-book seats, but couldn't do it, so I phoned BA. They told me that as Princess have booked our flight (not a group booking), I can't pre-book seats until they (Princess) have issued the tickets. I then rang Princess UK, who do not issue tickets until about 4 weeks or less before the flight. They are taking the issue up with BA, and told me that they will try to avoid BA in future because of this. But what it means to us, is that we will not be able to pre-book the better seats, because they will be gone before we have the option to do so. I think this is totally unfair, and only gives me more incentive to book flights independently in future (we couldn't do it this time for complicated reasons).

we are flying with british airways to dudia april 2010 flights booked with RCCL (not group booking) and are in the same position cannot pre select seats till RCCL issue tickets even

though we paid to upgrade to wt+ RCCL will not issue tickets till about 55 days before the cruise.so by that time all the best seats will be gone and we could end up not sitting together totally unfair ,as we are booked so far out we feel we are getting penalised british airways and the cruise lines NEED to get together to sort this mess out now as it will only put people off from flying with british airways who are now trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of their passengers

[Globaliser]

Now I have doubts the seats allocated are the "2 only together" formation we requested since there are only a couple of versions of BA 777's showing and neither show" 2onlytogether" at row 35..

I did check out some other airline 777's today on various seatguru airline options and some 777's do have 2/5/2 seat configurations but I am still unconvinced our BA flight will be this configuration.

All BA 777s are 3-3-3 in economy. Depending on which precise configuration you're flying, there may be a handful of rows of two seats only. But you have to ask specifically.

I then rang Princess UK, who do not issue tickets until about 4 weeks or less before the flight. They are taking the issue up with BA, and told me that they will try to avoid BA in future because of this.

This is Princess spin. They don't issue tickets until 4 weeks before departure for their own reasons, namely to hang on to your money until the very last possible moment. So if this means that you can't take advantage of the new facility that BA offers to you, that's a problem that arises because of Princess' business policies.

[lucky white heather]

All BA 777s are 3-3-3 in economy. Depending on which precise configuration you're flying, there may be a handful of rows of two seats only. But you have to ask specifically.This is Princess spin. They don't issue tickets until 4 weeks before departure for their own reasons, namely to hang on to your money until the very last possible moment. So if this means that you can't take advantage of the new facility that BA offers to you, that's a problem that arises because of Princess' business policies.

 

 

Thank you for that information regarding the 777 seat configuration Globaliser..we did ask for a "2 seats only" availability on our flight while on the phone doing the seat reservation discussion ....but perhaps if any had been available on the aircraft they were already spoken for and therefore unavailable. We'll manage.

[Elaine0138]

we are flying with british airways to dudia april 2010 flights booked with RCCL (not group booking) and are in the same position cannot pre select seats till RCCL issue tickets even

though we paid to upgrade to wt+ RCCL will not issue tickets till about 55 days before the cruise.so by that time all the best seats will be gone and we could end up not sitting together totally unfair ,as we are booked so far out we feel we are getting penalised british airways and the cruise lines NEED to get together to sort this mess out now as it will only put people off from flying with british airways who are now trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of their passengers

 

We are travelling in November to Miami and our flights were booked by RCCL, I was able to phone and book our seats this afternoon.

[scottish]

We are travelling in November to Miami and our flights were booked by RCCL, I was able to phone and book our seats this afternoon.

 

Thanks for your response. Are you flying November 2009 or November 2010? If its this year, then RCCL will have already issued your tickets and BA have advised us that once that is done they are able to take pre assigned seating requests. RCCL have told us our tickets wont be raised until around end Feb since we fly to Dubai April 2010.

 

On the other hand, if you aren't flying to Miami until next year, then I will be back on the phone to BA.

[Elaine0138]

Sorry Scottish It is November this year, what I was actually meaning that there were still pleny of seats to choose from even at less than 50 days out, we got our first choice on both flights.