Flight Seats

[capegirl]

How long before BA flight can one select seats (to be paid for)?

[LadyL1]

As you are asking this question, I am assuming you are not a preferred member of the Frequent Flyer Club. This being so, it is 24 hours before your flight and check in (on-line). At this time you can see your allocated seats, and if not a full flight can change them. 

Once you have your flight reference from Cunard, you can pre-book seats, but it is quite expensive, and increases depending in which class you travel.

[siforest65]

We flew to our cruise last week and it allowed us to pick seats free of charge about 30 hours before departure (usually though it was 24 hours). As above, you should be able to pay for them as soon as you get your booking reference although I do recall it may not have given us the option until a couple of days after getting the booking info. Not that I would pay it.

[Windsurfboy]

If you want to pay , then it's as soon as you have bought your  ticket  via manage my booking.

 

If not it depends on the type of ticket 

 

Flexible tickets you can book seat again as soon as you bought ticket for free.

 

If you you have a non flexible ticket via Cunard and don't want to pay then it's 24hrs before flight.

 

Unless you are a gold or silver executive club member it's free as soon as you buy the ticket. Bronze exec club member it's 7 days before flight

[capegirl]

Thank You for your replies.  Cunard have booked us on Virgin Atlantic and gave us our flight ref no.  I was able to choose seats without paying!

[Windsurfboy]

Virgin often has very cheap upgrades, well worth checking out.

[capegirl]

Thank you for advice Windsurfboy.  Do you know when these cheap upgrades are advertised.  We are flying NYC to LHR in May 2020. 

[Wordzz]

Just to chip in here, we are also flying from New York to LHR in May, 2020, also with Virgin Atlantic. I rang Cunard last week to arrange the flights (we're spending a few days in NYC rather than coming straight back on disembarkation day.), and upgrade deals were indeed available. Whether they can be described as 'cheap' is debatable, but they are much less than 'full price', and for us the upgrade to Virgin Upper Class (= Business Class) is a price worth paying. Premium Economy was also available, and we've found that to be very good with Virgin, too. Not every deal is available on every flight, so it helps if you have a bit of flexibility on precisely which day you fly back. Also, the deals are sometimes on flights from JFK, sometimes from Newark.

[capegirl]

Thank you Wordzz.  We are on the QM2 on 6 May TA so looking forward to it.  Staying 3 nights in NYC.

Edited July 3, 2019 by capegirl

[Wordzz]

Have a fab trip, Capegirl - it's a great time to be in New York!

Forgot to say, if you did decide to upgrade your flights, you could probably still do so with a phone call to Cunard, even though you've already booked.

Have a wonderful time whatever you do.

[Windsurfboy]

Virgin often has very cheap upgrades, well worth checking out.

 

Just ring them up, I  upgraded my son and daughter in law in June for a April flight last year , transatlantic, 240 dollars each both ways

[capegirl]

16 hours ago, Windsurfboy said:

Virgin often has very cheap upgrades, well worth checking out.

 

Just ring them up, I  upgraded my son and daughter in law in June for a April flight last year , transatlantic, 240 dollars each both ways

Interesting! Thanks

[Neuhoftraveler]

On 7/2/2019 at 12:36 PM, Windsurfboy said:

Virgin often has very cheap upgrades, well worth checking out.

@windsurfboy -- Are you referring to upgrades arranged directly with Virgin, after booking Economy through Cunard, or to higher fare classes offered by Cunard for a higher price than for Economy? I infer from Wordzz' comments that it's the latter, but I'm not sure I infer correctly.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Neuhoftraveler

[Solent Richard]

On 6/26/2019 at 8:14 AM, capegirl said:

How long before BA flight can one select seats (to be paid for)?

 

Hi Capegirl.

 

Have the seats been booked through Cunard?

 

That will have an impact on when one can select seats.

[capegirl]

Hi Richard

 

When I spoke to Cunard about booking my flights and what date, times, arrival airport they were very helpful.  They booked me on a Virgin to Heathrow.  As soon as they confirmed booking they gave me a Virgin reference number I was then able to manage my booking on Virgin site and choose my seats.  I am only sailing next May.

 

Regards

 

[Wordzz]

10 hours ago, Neuhoftraveler said:

@windsurfboy -- Are you referring to upgrades arranged directly with Virgin, after booking Economy through Cunard, or to higher fare classes offered by Cunard for a higher price than for Economy? I infer from Wordzz' comments that it's the latter, but I'm not sure I infer correctly.

Neuhoftraveler - My experience to date has always been with flights (and upgrades) booked through Cunard.

 

I'm not sure where you're located, but on one-way TAs booked in the UK, the return flight (Economy) is included in the fare, departing on the  evening of the same day that QM2 docks in NYC (we tend to do Westbound crossings, so the flight is New York to LHR). We either book our crossings on the phone direct with Cunard or whilst onboard, usually long before flights are released (which is generally around 11 months in advance).

 

Once flights become available, I just ring Cunard and tell them we want to 'deviate' our return flight - i.e. fly back X number of days after QM2 arrives in NYC, with X being the number of days we want to stay in New York. There has never been a fee for that, though I suppose in theory there could be. At the same time, I just ask if there are any deals on upgrades. So far there has always been an upgrade deal available, either to Premium Economy or Upper Class  (that's on Virgin Atlantic - we avoid flying with BA if at all possible so I can't speak about them). I've found Cunard to be very good at this - they will hunt for deals on different flights (there are usually several each day) and also search code share flights. So later this year, for example, we are flying back from JFK with Virgin but on a Delta code (Delta had a deal, Virgin didn't, but it's the same flight, go figure), and in May 2020 we are flying from Newark at a later evening time, because that's where the deal was available.

 

At the time of booking the flights, Cunard give me a reference number, which I can then use to select our seats on the Virgin Atlantic website.

 

Of course, there may not always be deals available, and I think they are sometimes short-lived, but so far we have always been successful. Then it's a case of how far your budget will stretch - Upper Class is very nice, but is considerably more expensive than Premium Economy, which is also pretty good IMO.

 

HTH - sorry it's a bit longer than I intended!

[Neuhoftraveler]

@wordzz:  Thanks for this very informative response.  We are in the US, where the one-way TA fare eastbound does not include return air.  Cunard has quoted a couple of air fares, but I'll now ask them about other flights and fares on the day we plan to return.  What you've told us will be very useful, I think.

[Underwatr]

Do you call Cunard directly for air reservations when your cruise is booked with a travel agent?

[capegirl]

I booked through Cunard direct. Was only a matter of days after booking that they booked my flights  Not sure what the arrangements are with travel agents.