I am losing my non stop flights from Charlotte to Italy thanks to the merger with American. In looking at flights if I book to Venice I fly to London and then on British Airways to Venice. It says no seat assignment when I purchase the tickets. How does this work? How and when do I get a seat for the connecting flight? Thanks.
Linda
It is my understanding that you pay for an advance seat reservation on BA. But something like 24, 48 hours earlier you can select a seat. Maybe you can select a seat at check in. BA dropped off my list of preferred airlines when they started charging for seat reservations at booking.
With BA, seat assignments appear when you check in on line or if you purchase the right to choose a seat beforehand.
Not all airlines let you choose your own seat at the time of booking.
Some you have to pay extra for this luxury, and some don't let you do it at all on short haul flights, such as intra European. It looks like you will have to direct your question to American, if that's who you are booking with.
On BA you can pay for seating selections in advance, or no charge from all the available seats at online check-in beginning 23 hours in advance.
However, I am a bit confused by your post. I can't see where you could ever have flown Charlotte to Venice non-stop, this is a US Air route that went Charlotte to Philadelphia to Venice, and is still available in all its forms through American Airlines. In fact, depending on when you would fly this, the planes might not yet have been repainted with the AA logo. The effect of the AA-US Air merger on routes is minimal, other than the elimination of any duplicate flight between the two airlines.
I did a trial on BA for April and it gave the various AA flights to Venice that used to be US Air (and in fact show on the US Air reservation system as US Air flights until mid-October), and no direct flights. In fact, ita matrix states there are no direct flights to Venice from Charlotte. It does offer an interesting alternative, though - Lufthansa, with the one stop being in Munich. As you have no doubt seen many times here, having the one stop in Europe rather than in the US is always preferable, and I think all here would agree that a transfer in Munich is way preferable to a transfer in Philadelphia..
One practical difference between AA and US Air that I did notice - in early July we booked PHL-London, and return from Dublin, on US Air, for April 2016. US AIr had a much more liberal policy for seat selection, and in fact our row 18 seats on both flights which we were able to select for free would have required an additional payment of $70 per seat had we booked a month later when AA had taken over the reservations for next year. Their first free seats were much further back and in the middle.
I am sorry for the confusion. I have flown the past 4 years non stop from Charlotte to Rome on USAir. With the merger effective next month I can't fly non stop to Rome which I prefer to do since I usually visit family first and then continue elsewhere. I have decided to fly to Venice next year and American has a one stop flight that continues on British Air. If I buy the ticket it says I can't seat assignment for that leg and will have to contact BA. I don't like not having a seat assigned. It doesn't give an option (or it didn't yesterday) just said to contact BA.
I would prefer to transfer in Philly (even though I am a Pgh girl!)
Linda, BA automatically assigns you a seat. You just don't see which seat it is until you check in, at which time you can change your seat. Also, you can buy your choice of seat earlier so it is likely you will receive an ID number which will allow you to go on the BA site to pick your seat, but it is such a short flight, relatively, you might not want to do that. Join the BA frequent flyer club, it might give you some options. Wray
Hi Linda,
If you want to buy a seat reservation in advance for your BA operated flight you can do so with the BA record locator that will be in one of the email receipts from AA.
I wouldn't bother if I were you. You can select a seat for free when you check in.
Connecting through Heathrow is quite the experience. Very organized, but also very busy! Good food choices too. Even though lines might look long and horrible for security, Starbucks, etc. everything moves really efficiently in my experience over there.
Erik
Linda-I see where the US Air Charlotte-Rome flight has been taken away. I am wondering, why do you want to book a set of American Airline flights on British Air - is there any reason that the extra layer of booking added gives an advantage? Moreover, although AA dropped the Charlotte-Rome direct flight, they have not dropped the Rome-Charlotte direct flight, so you could fly on AA to Venice through Philly, and then come home direct from Rome,
More importantly - have you noticed that if you fly from Charlotte to Heathrow (AA) you must then at your own time and expense transfer to Gatwick to fly on to Rome?
Also, PHL is our home airport, we are just on the other side of Philly, and we don't believe it's anywhere near as bad as a lot of people here think - although we have never had to transfer there. But on a two-flight itinerary going overseas, most will agree that it is much safer in terms of anything messing up your flights if your first stop is in the EU, where their rules will take care of you if you miss your connection because of airline problems. If you are connecting stateside and your first plane is late, very little good can happen on your behalf. EU rules will likely not protect you from being unable to timely get from Heathow to Gatwick.
