British Airways/Purchasing seats procedure

Not on British Airways, but on a different European carrier (either Lufthansa or KLM). I was nervous but was able to get an aisle seat, which was my only requirement.

You should have a ticket number and/or purchase confirmation. Usually these will help you buy a seat reservation from the connecting airline directly. It will cost you, of course.

We are frequent American flyers but fly BA when flying to London as it always has been cheaper than doing a codeshare with Ametican. I pay to choose our seats at booking on BA.

We use AA miles to fly in Business class to Europe, which usually means we get stuck with British Airways. Our upcoming September trip is the first time I have paid to select seats in advance. I want to experience sitting in the upper deck of a 747.

In previous years, I would check the seat availability in advance of our check-in day - there would only be two seats left anyway. But, those seats weren't in the middle of the middle in the back. I think it's a rip-off, but you don't want to be stuck with the worst seats on the plane.

I am an AA/BA passenger.

You go by the rules of whose name is on the plane. Seat selection, baggage, etc.

You were probably given a record locator number. That is for the AA reservation. The number will be different for BA. Call AA and get the BA record locator. Once you have that, you can log in via the BA website (manage your booking) and choose a seat. (This also lets you see what seats are available.

I have never waited the 24 hours to get a seat. I fly over on the same flight each time. It's a 747 and I want the upper deck. I'm willing to pay extra for it. Much more peaceful than anywhere else on the plane. But that's not a choice in Main cabin.

My husband and I did the American/British Airways code share to London back in 2015 and encountered the same issue of not being able to reserve a seat ahead of time. We took a chance and chose not to pay for seat selection. I kept checking the BA website to see what seats were still available and was discouraged about our chances of sitting together, but interestingly, when I logged in 24 hours (to the minute!) in advance to finally choose seats there were way more open than had appeared before. We had no trouble finding seats together right where we wanted them. I suspect that BA may hold some seats back in hopes of selling them, but open them up when the 24 hour mark is reached. It is, of course, a gamble, especially as more and more people are willing to pay the extra to guarantee a seat.

I have always had a separate record locator number for BA and used this to reserve seats.

Mary, did you buy this ticket from American Airlines, or from a third party like Expedia? Was it the cheapest option?

As explained above, you are bound by the rules of the airline on whose plane you are flying, no matter what segment it is ( first or second).

You need to find out if you are in Basic Economy or Standard Economy on the BA flight. Same cabin, but different rules.

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/travel-classes/economy/our-long-haul-fares

Basic is " hand baggage only" ( no free checked bags) and you are assigned a seat when you check in, without the opportunity to select it yourself. But you can still pay to choose ahead of time.

If your ticket is in Basic Economy for a long-haul flight, I suggest you pay to get what you want.

If your ticket is in Standard Economy, you could wait until check-in and see what they have allocated for you. If you do not like it, you can change seats for free at that time, but you are limited to what is available.

Thanks to all of you who have commented here. Very appreciative. My son is also taking this flight and is waiting to possibly purchase a reserved seat. I am almost certain it will be a British Airway plane. I have my BA reservation code already, and will keep checking to see availability- so far, there is a ton. Thanks again....

I always fly BA. For years my husband and I would wait for the 24 hour check in to choose our seats. We were always sitting together when assigned by BA. Sometimes we chose other seats and sometimes not. There were always other options, but we didn't necessarily need to take those options.

Is the BA segment a long one ?? We will be flying Basuc Economy on Lufthansa Paris>Munich (2 hours) and then on United Munich>SFO. Paid to get United seats for the 10+ hour flight but for two hours we have no problem waiting to get whatever is available 24 hours prior.

Last fall, I booked three seats on open-jaw, codeshare flights to Italy in May on BA/AA; the booking required me to call BA directly, rather than book online (it was a quick booking window found through a google flight alert I set up.) All four legs of our flights are flying on AA aircraft, but our seats on just the international legs were assigned by BA at the time of booking. After logging into BA’s site, I was directed to AA’s website if I wanted to change our assigned international seats and/or to select our domestic flight seats – all which required an additional fee. I paid a small sum for advance seats on the domestic legs and kept the assigned international ones. (After reading comments from others, maybe next time I’ll chance it and wait for the 24-hour period.) It was a good airfare price, so I can't complain too much.

As Lola mentioned above, these rules apply to Basic Economy seats, which I felt the BA booking agent kind of glossed over when I asked about it; he just assured me that we’d be seated together (after confirming we only had carry-on bags) so I incorrectly assumed we had standard economy seats. With the newer seating fares, compounded by the codeshare airlines rules, etc. I'll be better prepared next time.

Rather than pay to pick out any seats for our upcoming BA flight from SEA to London, we choose to pay for their Economy Extra or whatever they call it and that allowed us to pick out our seats month ago. We fly from SEA to Europe every year and choose to pay extra for whichever airlines we are flying for their economy extra seating for this 9 1/2 hour flight for this guy over 6'. We are fortunate to be able to afford that luxury.

We flew BA last summer with another couple. We’ve always paid for BA seat selection on the long leg of the flight, but they chose not to. They still had seats together with the 24 hour window. This year we’re paying for the seats outbound on the long leg and taking our chances on the return and waiting for the 24 hr. window.

We also had that situation. Round trip from SFO to Rome, outgoing on AA where we picked our seats but did not pay extra to BA on the return flights. When we checked in 24 hours in advance, they had seated us together in our preferred seats and a decent row so we didn't bother to look for better seats. But we were worried until we checked in. The problem is that you don't know until you check in so you need to decide if you want to take the chance that they will seat your family together or pay extra. Other people's experiences are just that and while helpful may not predict what your experience will be. Good luck!

If you have Avios you can purchase your seats using those.

What is your reason for wanting to select a seat? If it's because you want to ensure that you're seated next to your patner then invariably BA will ensure that's the case, it's only Ryanair that actively separates people in order to increase revenue from seat selection fees.

The only way to achieve free seat selection with BA without waiting for online check in is to be Silver status with their Executive Club or buy first class tickets. I'm afraid it's all part of the degeneration of British Airways inspired by that fool, Alex Cruz, who has come in to the organisation with his obsession of bringing with him his experience of low cost airlines and applying their practices.

I try to avoid BA despite being an Executive Club member and owning one of their credit cards however they fly the largest range of routes from the UK, fly from the more convenient airports to me and usually offer the best combination of price, flight time, location and convenience. My next six upcoming flights are all with BA which demonstrates the monopoly they have on flights from the UK