Could be our last Regent Cruise

[newlondon]

pingpong, I do not know what your status in the One World consortium is but if you are elite BA does not charge for seat selection:)

[pingpong1]

TC - hope this clarifies. We always do our own flights. Totally out of Regent's hands and not their responsibility. Regent "backs the cost" of the airfare/s out of our cruise invoice total (The "credit" that Regent allows is certainly not equal to what our own independently-booked tickets actually cost - but I have no problem with that - well, maybe a little). That's why I titled my post "slightly off topic".

 

I selected/booked/paid for our flights back in November 2013 (7 months before our cruise) directly through BA's U.S. website. When you book reservations online on BA's website, AND you want "complete control" over where you choose to sit on the plane by selecting your seats at that time (although they can still "change that" later on, as the mood/whim/circumstances suit them) - then you have to pay extra for that "privilege" of pre-selecting specific seats outside that 24-hour pre-flight window. TC - You are absolutely correct, that if you want to "risk" waiting until just 24 hours before your flight, there is no extra charge for you to go online and select (or change) your seats. However by waiting, you're having to cross your fingers and take "pot luck" to accept whatever seats might still remain open and available and you also face the very real possibility that the seats you might have wanted are already assigned/reserved for someone else.

 

Bill, you are also correct. If you are a BA One World member, with "Elite" status, there is no charge for pre-selecting seats. Unfortunately, since retiring 9 years ago, I don't now/haven't flown enough miles on "One World" carriers to achieve that "Elite" status. ((Back in the "old days" I used to be a "United1K", sniff, sniff) :(

 

My only point was that if I had booked and paid for Business Class seats, 7 months ago, on United, US Air, American, Delta, or ANY OTHER carrier than BA, to Europe or any other place in the world, I would NOT have been charged an "extra amount" (nearly $300 per passenger), over the base price of the Business class ticket/s for being able to select those seats online at the initial time of booking. The itinerary (non-stop to LHR from PHX, along with an easy connection to Stockholm/from Copenhagen) was the only reason I went with BA.

 

Best Regards to all.

[Travelcat2]

Okay -- now I understand. Although we are Elite status, we only book through Regent. It might take getting used to but the Business Class Seats on BA are really nice. You are facing each other which makes it easy to talk. My DH doesn't like to fly backwards and the "backward" seat is by the window so that is my seat:) If you select seats on the upper deck (highly recommend), besides for having a quiet cabin to relax, there is tons of storage space for carry-ons, handbags, magazines or whatever you have with you. This does not exist downstairs.

 

The downside to BA Business Class seats is that you need to climb over some strangers legs in order to get out of your seat (if you are in the window seat). But (and I hate to let my secrets out), if you are in rows 62 or 63 (upstairs) you can squeeze around the seat without disturbing anyone.

 

Really sorry that you had to pay $300. Hope my hints are helpful.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Travelcat2

[RachelG]

We are lifetime platinum with AA so get one world status wih BA and thus don't have to pay extra for seat assignments. But I think making people pay for seat assignments at all is one of the biggest scams ever. It's not like you can fly without a seat. So someone at sometime is going to have to assign one to you. It costs the airline absolutely nothing for people to chose their seats ahead of time. In fact, it could be argued it saves money since an agent doesn't have to assign a seat.

[pingpong1]

RachelG - You echo my sentiments exactly! :p When I first got onto the BA website to book/pay for the reservations. I thought there must have been some "mistake" or that I was doing something "wrong" in the booking process. Further investigation confirmed that this was indeed "normal practice" for BA.

 

After shelling out over $10,000 for (3) Business Class tickets, and then to be asked for an additional $720, just to pick which particular seats I wanted within the Business Class Section (which I had already purchased the "right" to sit in) seemed to be a "scam" to me, as well! i.e., They're not making enough additional money on the purchase already?

 

As I said before, I've never encountered this (having to pay "extra" for seat selection in Business/First) on any other airline. Perhaps it would/might be understandable on a "bargain-basement" airline like Spirit, RyanAir, or Allegiant, (I don't think they even have Business Class) but I was quite surprised (and disappointed) to encounter such a "cheesy" extra charge in Business Class on a supposedly "first-tier international airline" like British Air. Best Regards.

[newlondon]

pingpong, Like Rachel I am lifetime AA platinum. Most of my "miles" were generated by Credit Card traffic, not flights. Just a thought:rolleyes:

[Daniel19]

The issue regarding British Airways charging for seats has now been around for a few years and is very emotive for travellers who do not have any status with the airline. I do not fully understand any logic as to why this was instigated but It was probably to ensure their regular business travellers could always pick good seats. Generally speaking most leisure travellers tend to plan their flights well in advance and pay the cheapest price for those seats. Business travellers are more likely to pay for flexible tickets in case their travel plans change at short notice and also book their flights at shorter notice. A good example of this is that the current business return to Phoenix from London is around £2900 for later this year. If cancelled there is no refund whatsoever. The fully flexible fare for a similar period is over £10000.

I think BA were receiving a lot of complaints from their regular business travellers that when they booked all the best seats had gone!

BA are not really a leisure airline and their lifeblood is the business traveller, hence there are over 20 flights per day just to the East coast of the USA.

I am not sure this is the right answer but I really sympathise with anybody who is faced with a further bill just to sit together. If you had paid for guaranteed seats and these were changed,which does happen, then BA should refund the fees. Finally just to rub salt into the wounds, even if you do pay to reserve seats, not all seats are available and the prime seats are held back for their gold card members. I,personally would never pay and would wait and pick seats at online check in, at 24 hours before the flight.

I hope this gives a very amateurish insight into a policy which has stuck around for a few years as I stated earlier.

[newlondon]

Certainly a reasonable explanation except for the unilateral changing of seats without a refund of the booking charge. I would also point out that some of the flights to the East Coast or return are really leisure flights and all passengers should be treated equally--or hold only a few seats for the business traveler.

[RachelG]

The explanation still doesn't hold water. My husband flies very frequently for business. He never has a problem getting a good seat on American because they hold back some for their preferred customers. You can see by looking at one of the seat maps that these are toward the front of the coach cabin. Most of the time, he gets upgraded, and then you take what is left in first or business anyway.

 

In business and first, they don't hold back seats, but really, most seats in those cabins are fine. The reason people mainly want to prebook is to be able to sit together, or (in my husband's case) avoid the bulkhead row. Some people used to book based on FEBO (front even, back odd) to be able to get the meal of their choice, but that doesn't even apply now that you can prebook meals online 30 days in advance.

 

These days they have really cut back on the ability to earn lifetime platinum with credit card miles, but it is a great perk. Husband will be pushing toward exec plat this year due to a plethora of business trips. I don't fly all that much these days except for leisure, so the lifetime plat is important to me.

[Daniel19]

Don't think I was trying to give an explanation, just a view. This is certainly a policy which I don't like, even though it does not apply to me.Can't really compare BA and American Airlines as the seat configurations are totally different in business. First Class is not an issue because all seats are bookable other than row1 which is generally held back for gold members until check in. AA generally seat six across in business (other than 777/200V1 which I think is seven) so nearly everybody gets an aisle or window seat. The new 777/300ER has only four across and is highly rated by those who have used it.The eight seat abreast set up in BA on a head to toe basis,has a real love hate relationship with a lot of travellers and the centre seats are not loved by individual business customers.There are,however seats held back for status passengers notwithstanding the booking fees charged. For example on the upper deck of a 747 only six of the twenty seats are available to book for a fee. Unable to prebook food on BA which can be a real pain on occasions. What is this policy all about, simple, raising revenue!!

[Travelcat2]

I think that we all agree that BA's policy does not endear them to us. There is a lesson to be learned for Regent passengers. If the choice of airlines is going to be BA, book it through Regent. This assumes that the cost will be less than booking it on your own which is has always been for us. Given a choice of AA, United, US Air, Delta or any other U.S. airline, we prefer BA(meaning that we prefer non-U.S. airlines). As I stated earlier, we would not pay extra for seats. As Rachel said, they have to give us a seat and we would wait until 24 hours before boarding.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Travelcat2

[Baggywrinkle99]

We never use regent air. Much prefer to take the credit and have control over our own flights. Transfers in Miami are not expensive at all either.

 

This! We always make our own flight/hotel arrangements so we can do what we want to do, not what Regent wants us to do.

[EAGLESLOVER]

This! We always make our own flight/hotel arrangements so we can do what we want to do, not what Regent wants us to do.

 

I really think it depends on the cruise. Even including the cost of paying the deviation fee, there is no way we could have afforded to fly business class on our next cruise if we had not booked through regent. Although our experience is limited we have been able to get the flights we wanted on all 3 regent cruises by paying the deviation fee. Since we always come in at least one day early we would have to pay the fee anyway. We do book our own hotel and arrange our own transfers because the Regent price for the pre cruise hotel for those of us who book H suites is ridiculous.

[Travelcat2]

This! We always make our own flight/hotel arrangements so we can do what we want to do, not what Regent wants us to do.

 

When you deviate, you usually save money on your airfare and pretty much are choosing the airline and flights that you want. In terms of doing what you want and not what Regent wants you to do, it works well for some people and not so much for others. We did our own international travel for so many years that it nice to have Regent take care of things for us (although we do deviate).

 

I'm wondering if the OP is ever going to come back to this thread. It would be nice to know their thoughts after reading everyone's comments.

[jhp]

I also hope to hear from the OP, otherwise no need for this thread to continue. I think Flossie had it right for rules for UK, right from the beginning. Almost every comment has nothing to do with UK clients in this particular case from what I read. The rules are so different from place to place.

[rarin2go]

Just one more somewhat off-topic and probably eurocentric point: Regent either does not check cabin layouts when booking business seats on short-haul BA flights or does not care.

 

To explain - in some BA business class short-haul cabin configurations of 4 seats per row, seats C & D are not adjacent but either side of the aisle, similarly I & J. This is because the (unusable) seats B & E are still numbered in the plan! Confusing isn't it.:confused: I only realised when I checked our flight details and found that DW and I were separated by the aisle :eek:!

[Travelcat2]

Just one more somewhat off-topic and probably eurocentric point: Regent either does not check cabin layouts when booking business seats on short-haul BA flights or does not care.

 

To explain - in some BA business class short-haul cabin configurations of 4 seats per row, seats C & D are not adjacent but either side of the aisle, similarly I & J. This is because the (unusable) seats B & E are still numbered in the plan! Confusing isn't it.:confused: I only realised when I checked our flight details and found that DW and I were separated by the aisle :eek:!

 

I am curious to know if you went online to change your seats and if there are side by side seats available on that flight.

[rarin2go]

I am curious to know if you went online to change your seats and if there are side by side seats available on that flight.

 

I knew it was confusing! But it's difficult to explain - because it is strange.

 

But yes - there are side-by-side seats: A & C, for example, are side-by-side - only separated by a vestigial seat B (about 12 inches wide) same for D & F, G & I et seq for the number of rows in club. To put it another way: Row 1, for example comprises of 4 use-able seats - A & C on one side of the aisle and D & F on the other. HTH.

 

And yes I did go online & paid around 40GBP to get us side-by-side (as defined above) Regent having put us in C & D.

 

TBH the middle 'seat' is quite useful as a storage/holding area for one's stuff!

[Travelcat2]

This is getting more interesting. We have been in the A/C seat configuration (with the empty space in the middle). What really threw me in your post is that you had to pay to change your seats. :confused: It seems like everyone is paying for seats all of a sudden. We changed our seats (from what Regent selected) for our flight next month and didn't have to pay. Think I need to go back into my reservation and see if I could change it without a charge.

 

Thanks so much for the explanation.

 

P.S. Just went into our reservation and pretended that I wanted to change seats. I saw the following statement in red You can choose any available seat for no extra cost. This is new. Now I'm wondering if you are booked in Business Class. Perhaps BA has instituted a charge to change seats if you are not in Bus. Class???

Edited May 25, 2014 by Travelcat2

[rarin2go]

..... Now I'm wondering if you are booked in Business Class. Perhaps BA has instituted a charge to change seats if you are not in Bus. Class???

 

Yes we are in business but we had paid to change the time of the flight and for an upgrade to business and I simply assumed it was down to me to change the seat allocation - I paid because I don't have any FF status with BA since I retired some years back & I don't really sweat the small stuff when it comes to travel comfort :D

[Travelcat2]

Yes we are in business but we had paid to change the time of the flight and for an upgrade to business and I simply assumed it was down to me to change the seat allocation - I paid because I don't have any FF status with BA since I retired some years back & I don't really sweat the small stuff when it comes to travel comfort :D

 

Ok, now I understand. We also do not sweat the small stuff when it comes to travel comfort. And, BA is one of our favorite airlines for comfort -- right along with Cathay Pacific (Cathay Pacific gets an edge in terms of seats:-)

[rarin2go]

Ok, now I understand. We also do not sweat the small stuff when it comes to travel comfort. And, BA is one of our favorite airlines for comfort -- right along with Cathay Pacific (Cathay Pacific gets an edge in terms of seats:-)

 

Ah but does Cathay give you one-and-a-half seats for the price of one? ;)

 

(My preference is Etihad BTW.)

[RachelG]

I always thought that vestigial middle seat on BA would be the perfect place to stow a toddler, or a small dog. It does have a seatbelt.

[zimmer46]

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to respond, and secondly my apologies for not replying before now. We have been away for a few days, but I have been catching up on the thread.

 

Going back to my original post. I referred to a telephone call with Regent. That call was actually made by my TA who told Regent she was not at all pleased. Since then it has been escalated within Regent in the UK so we are waiting to hear what the outcome is.

 

Reading through the various points made. The first thing is - these flights are not a deviation. They are included in the cruise fare and booked through Regent. Their preferred airline from UK to the US is United, but they allow BA as an option although it is more expensive. We have looked at excluding the flights and booking them ourselves, but it works out a lot more expensive. I cannot say if Regent have actually got confirmed seats for us, albeit in Economy. We have asked Regent to book World Traveller Plus as an upgrade. That may well be the issue, since as has been suggested, BA do not issue an eticket or allow seat booking until the full fare has been paid. However, as I said in my original post, I have no issue about paying the full airfare upfront to allow me to book my seats. Even then it will cost us £35 per seat, per leg to pre book. We will wait and see what Regent come back with. I am hoping a compromise ie we will pay the full air fair element up front and book out seats and pay the cruise balance at the appropriate time. After all, Regent has been sitting with our £1500 deposit since April 2013 !

 

Watch this space.

[Travelcat2]

I understand the situation a bit better now. In the U.S., I do not believe Regent would do an upgrade to Traveller Plus (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If booked in the U.S., your choice would be Business or Economy Class. And, if you wished to fly an airline other than what Regent has selected, it would be considered a deviation. This challenges more than one policy from what I can see.