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paid the seat reservation fee - BA then changed my seat

In an email prior to boarding I saw that my reserved seat was changed. I wrote BA on Aug 31 requesting a refund of the $30 fee; no response to date.
Please comment on how to escalate this, including contact info if possible. Thanks

Posted by
9371 posts

It's happened to me a couple of times. I had an aisle seat, and I got an aisle seat, just in a different row. The first time it was a row or two back, the other time it was a row or two forward. I think they will tell you they have the right to do that. That's why I never pay for a seat reservation anymore.

Posted by
17440 posts

They inform you when you pay for seat choice that your choice is not guaranteed. Maybe they change things to accommodate a family or something, who knows. As long as they didn't switch you to a worse seat (i.e., aisle to middle) you won't get anywhere with your complaint. The good news is you don't have to check in exactly 24 hours in advance and fight for a seat.

Posted by
1446 posts

Lola is 100% correct. Plus, BA is notoriously slow with refunds - a friend did not receive her refund for the snow-canceled flights from last Christmas until July.

Posted by
643 posts

Pretty common. We reserved our seats on Delta from Seattle to Amsterdam roundtrip, and they moved our seats a few rows due to an equipment change (different seat arrangements in the airplanes we were flying on). Not all Boeing 747s within one airline are identical. They may have one planned for the date of your travel, and then the fleet gets shuffled around due to equipment being in the hanger for maintenance. You just have to roll with it. I don't see why they should refund your money, you did get to reserve your seat early, right? That was the whole point of the $30 fee. We weren't even given the option and had to wait 24 hours before our flight from Seattle to Heathrow in 2008. Thankfully we were able to get good seats 24 hours prior to flying.

Posted by
96 posts

This is why I will never fly on BA again. In 2010 I paid $90 each for my husband and I to get those middle sleeper seats in Business class (the cost of a pretty nice hotel room but we wanted the seats that are side-by-side). When we boarded they'd given our seats to someone else and we were instead put in two seats on the right side of the plane so our only way to communicate with each other was through a small window that was between us.