British Air Ug Part 2

JR, Probably the plane is as booked as the Lufthansa flight, but you can't see it because most people in economy are waiting until check in to choose their seats in order to avoid the seat selection charges you mentioned. All seats will fill quickly as soon as on-line check in opens. In the meantime, you could try continuing to negotiate for free seating, which is unlikely to work unless you are a high-level BA frequent flyer, or you could pay for the seats to be sure you get the ones you want, which is what I would do, or you could pay to upgrade if they have an economy comfort type seating. I had the same experience the first time I booked on Aer Lingus. I thought the plane had no passengers! LOL. However, since seating is important enough to you to guide your choice of airlines, you should probably bite the bullet and pay for the seats you want and chalk it up to the price of the ticket and experience. I thoroughly understand how this leaves you with a feeling of "what are they going to pull on me next." You can find more questions, tips, information about BA on flyertalk.com. And if you look through the different airline categories, you'll see a lot of complaints about all the airlines.

If you have assigned seats (paid) you can change them yourself. Go the "manage my booking" on the BA website and you will see what seats you have and how to change them.

I guess I have embraced the whole "pay a little more for the choice seats" thing. Most come with the best boarding times - 1st after all the 1st, business class & other priority categories. Especially on flights where overhead storage may be limited you are sure to store your bag and not need to gate check. For me it is worth the extra money.

If you're expecting empty seats on the flight so you can stretch out...good luck with that. Flights usually go out pretty much full - that's the way the business is these days. The airlines are only reacting to the public's obsession with booking the very cheapest possible flight - it's a race to the bottom. So flights go out 100% full or nearly so (lots of empty seats is a thing of the past), you get zero amenities, and you're charged for every possible "extra" - food, drinks, a pillow, checking a bag, carry-on bags, "premium" seating (which is what you're hoping for), using the toilet (well, not yet, but Ryanair has floated the idea). Every airline is different in how they handle the details, but flying the airlines sure ain't what it used to be. I suggest you steel yourself for the experience of a completely full flight. You'll probably get it. If you don't, consider yourself lucky.

There appear to be a lot of empty seats because most people do not pay to select seats. All those seats will fill up 24 hours ahead of the flight when people check in and select seats for free.

you are all right - well it was all wishful thinking - just never heard of an airline that wouldn't let you see the seats until AFTER you bought your ticket. We do have reserved seats, and in order to go online and look for a change, it will cost another $35 per seat to do so. Guess we will just stay with what we already have. Thanks for the input. Hope they are actually a decent airline! Never flown them before.

I don't understand why, if you paid for seat selection, you did not get the seats you wanted. We fly British Airways routinely and have never had a problem with that. Also, once you pay, you should be able to change your selection with no charge. Just work through the " view/change seats" thing in the Manage My Booking and it should come up as no cost. That is how it worked for us. We have even changed flights and the paid seat selection rolled over to the new flight, so I selected seats on the new flight at no additional cost.

Just book on the website and you won't have any customer service problems!

You will have to hope that you can find what you want once everyone is seated. If you board the plane towards the end of the line you should have free reign to choose your seat. I understand your frustration since BA customer service has gone from one of the best to one of the worst in the last 20 years. It is at the point which I specifically avoid BA at all costs.