British Airways charging for seat assigments?

I would never pay extra to reserve a seat. If you go online at the 24-hour point, you will most likely be able to book seats together (there are plenty of other people who don't want to pay, either). Even if you don't get them all together, you might be able to switch with someone. Your kids are young adults, not children, and you don't have a big a need to sit right with them like you would if they were younger. We have sat in seats rows apart, but since we mostly slept anyway, it wasn't an issue.

Like Nancy said, would not worry about sitting with them, they are young adults and will be fine. First trip to France, my son and his friend who I was responsible for sat on other side of the galley from me, I was worried as I was responsible adult, just once checked on them and they were fine. Getting off plane, they just knew to wait for me, no problems. Relax and enjoy.

If you are flying on one ticket it should be fairly easy to get 4 seats together, assuming you check in at the 24 hour ahead point.When we fly as a family on a BA 747, we book the 4 seats across the center. No one gets a window, but two get aisle seats, and we are all together. You can use the Manage MyBooking feature to look at the seating ahead of time, and see if it is filling up, to decide if it might be worth booking and paying for seats.

I second the advice to keep an eye on the seats between now and your flight, but you will probably be fine not choosing seats in advance. I flew on BA last summer. My friend and I had separate bookings and we had no problem getting seats together for free when we checked in 24 hours before the flight. In fact we also got seats together on the way home, and we waited to check in until we got to the airport. Overall, I don't think it's worth paying the extra money.

You mentioned being in a ff programme - if you do have any elite status with BA you can reserve the seats further in advance. For bronze this is only 7 days before the flight, but silver and gold can at time of booking. If you reach an elite level, you can use the benefits on pre-existing bookings.

Sites like FLyer Talk have plenty of coverage on these issues. "Free" seat allocation is becoming rare these days. And there is no guarantee of seating together with your travel party. Of course, that shouldn't be a problem because your children are grown-up, but there are some horror stories about not even younger children being able to be sit with parents (on ever-fuller airplanes) without paying for seat reservation fees. Actually, families that MUST seat together (younger children, elderly passenger) are one of the targets of these new fees since everyone involve must pay the fees and they are an extra boon to the bottom line of airlines.

I paid 20GBP to reserve a particular seat and it was money very well spent. It was a good, if not brilliant seat, which I would not have got otherwise. I was travelling during the 24 hour window prior to the flight. I only wish I had paid the money weeks in advance and got an even better seat. It was a long haul overnight flight and I would do the same for a longhaul daytime flight, probably not for a short haul. Aisle seats, which are my preference, are taken very quickly.

We belong to the BA Executive Club and have flown BA for over 14 years. If you go into your account on the Executive Club, you can choose your favorite seats, any special meals etc. We have always just checked-in 24 hrs in advance, and our seats are always as we requested, sometimes I will just move them closer to the front. Even with the recent change, I never reserve seats ahead of time. My only recommendation is that you be sure to check-in online prior to your return trip, on our last trip home from UK we didn't have access to the internet as we were at a friends house ( they and their friends are not computer savvy) and there was confusion over our seats when we got to LHR - which was quickly solved by a BA agent. We have never had a problem and always felt BA has treated us well and solved any problems immediately.

Claudette - Our family uses BA when flying to Europe. Have you tried calling them with your situation. Here is a link to their web site that deals with family travel. www.britishairways.com/travel/family/public/en_us?source=MNVINF1family_travel&link=main_nav

Thanks for the input everyone. I think I will go ahead and not pay for those seats in advance. The only one I am really concerned with sitting close to is my 16 yr old because she has anxiety problems. I know the other 2 will be fine.

Really stinks, I paid for 4 legs of a journey to pick my seats. I believe an additional $300 or 2 people. I wish that I didn't do it. I would not
do it again. I flew Air France this last month and had no issues with fees and picking seats. Happy Travels!