Our disgraceful National Airline

[Kenty]

Fly to Lisbon tomorrow for a few days, checked in 24hrs before and see the seats have been allocated, across the aisle 24c and 24d. Loads of seats available and went to change - £15 each! They are shameless, seating couples at the back and across the aisle virtually ensuring a £60 bonus if return.
Now our national airline not only serves appalling food as found out on a recent trip to Miami, they charge for choosing seats after check-in online! I'm sure they don't charge if you ask the check-in to change seats.
I suppose flying mostly Emirates and internal flights in Far East and Australia I have been spoilt!?
If BA want to be a foremost Airline they really have stop behaving like Ryanair and a little more like a Premier carrier!

Is BA bothered or is it all about money?

[TheGuru]

BA ceased to be a premium carrier 10-15 years ago. They are simply 2nd rate in comparison to most major carriers in Asia, Middle-East and Oceania.

[danzltiu]

Surely you can change your seats by using `manage my booking`. never come across that problem before have always managed to choose seats and/or change them on line!

[eliot]

Not having to sit next to the missus snoring = win

[t400ble]

Does it really matter where you sit?

[The jiffle king]

On BA flights there is not usually a cost to changing seats if within the 24 hours leading up to a flight

[Kenty]

Well I checked in through manage my booking and the charge to change was £15, I was under the impression it was free once you had checked in.

[t400ble]

Not worth giving them a call?

[GT03ROB]

Are you on HBO fares?

If so you have to pay for seat selection at any point.

Anything else it is free at/after check in.

Edited by GT03ROB on Friday 15th January 18:07

[Kenty]

t400ble said:

Not worth giving them a call?

Good idea, I'll give it a try, probably be a premium number LOL

[Stephanie Plum]

You can't change seats after you've checked in? Only at the point of checking in or for 7 days up to that point, unless you have status.

I do agree they have lost the plot though.

[tvrolet]

Seat choice/change for non Silver/Gold card holders should be free within 24 hours, although I think there's maybe a charge of you choose a seat with extra legroom? I use BA almost every week so I get free seat choice, but I'm 100% sure a regular seat should be free when you check-in. They also open up more seats 48 hours before, so if you have paid for a seat choice (or get a choice for free) when you book, you can sometimes change to a better seat 24-48 hours before departure.

BA may not be 'premium' any more, but they're typically priced well under any equivalent airline anywhere I want to fly (and that includes domestic 'Lo-Cos' - typically around the £100 mark EDI-LHR on BA; FlyMayBe wanted £240 one way BHX-EDI the other week!). Usually around £1K premium economy return to the US. So for me it's a decent enough service for the money paid. Sure the middle east airlines may have better service, but I've never seen them close to BA on price when I'm booking where I want to fly (rarely the middle east). And as for the US airlines, you even end up paying for drinks on trans-Atlantics.

I'm sure if you'd actually paid full-whack to choose your seat at the time of booking it'd still be a competitive price against the alternatives.

[AdeTuono]

t400ble said:

Does it really matter where you sit?

Of course it does.

[anonymous-user]

BA hasn't been the flag carrier since 1987, it has no more preferential treatment or state privilege than any other airline. Easy jet and ryanair have more clout at many UK airports than BA do now. In Europe anyway, the days of national airlines are long gone.

The problem is these public listed companies are competing with airlines like Emirates that are often state owned and are certainly still enjoying preferential treatment from their governments.

Edited by el stovey on Friday 15th January 21:32

[surveyor]

It's interesting....

I booked a flight for Monday this evening, then realised I'd cocked up and chosen the wrong time. Had to ring them - time on wait, 2 min.

Then nice and helpful, flight changed to the one I intended and seat sorted. Waived £45 change fee as mistakes happen. Total cost to change was £2.

Airline? Easyjet.


BA - I had to ring earlier this week. 30 minutes on hold..... Will be flying on an ancient 747-400 later this year. Even Air France have retired theirs.....

[Issi]

What was wrong with the complimentary meal that they served you?

[surveyor]

Issi said:

What was wrong with the complimentary meal that they served you?

They sell food upgrades now. Guess that guarantee's the free stuff will be ste.

[JuniorD]

I think " disgraceful" is a bit hyperbole and BA isn't really a national airline anymore, except maybe in the very loosest definition of the term. They work on tight margins and don't have the State wherewithal behind them like the vanity carriers you're accustomed to. How much were the tickets out of interest?

[GoneAnon]

BA have been my least favourite airline for years now and I actively aim to avoid them.

It isn't actually that hard to avoid them, given that the only place I can get a "British" Airways plane to is London.

If I can also avoid Heathrow, that's just a bonus!

[tim0409]

surveyor said:

It's interesting....

I booked a flight for Monday this evening, then realised I'd cocked up and chosen the wrong time. Had to ring them - time on wait, 2 min.

Then nice and helpful, flight changed to the one I intended and seat sorted. Waived £45 change fee as mistakes happen. Total cost to change was £2.

Airline? Easyjet.

To be fair to BA, if you make a mistake on a booking you have 24 hours to cancel without charge. I agree re BA call centres - when booking you get a nice Geordie person; if you need to make a change you enter into a circle of overseas call centre hell. Thankfully I have BA Gold which means I can avoid it.

I fly BA when I can and take advantage of sales/avois to get decent deals; I've just booked my wife on a LHR-JFK flight (starting in Copenhagen) for £700 in club world for her birthday, upgrading to first for 20k avios on each leg which is a pretty good deal. I agree BA are not as "premium" as they could be though.