Cheap airline seating

sclare

Might be a bit niche, but Ethiopian Airlines allow free seat selection on booking.

d2jlr

Recently booked 3 x BA BUSINESS CLASS seats from Aberdeen to Bangkok in November at cost of £6000.
Then told we still had to PAY a FURTHER £80 EACH WAY (FURTHER £480 TOTAL) to have immediate allocated seats in Business Class on LHR/BKK/ LHR legs...funny enough the ABZ/ LHR/ ABZ legs were free with immediate allocation!!
After spending nearly 2 months fighting with BA regarding this matter we got nowhere.
We are travelling KLM Business Class in December/ January back again to BKK with free immediate allocated seats and therefore will NOT BE BACK TO BA!!

So the problem is not just limited to Economy passengers...got a problem then vote with your bum and never fly with that carrier again...lets see how long their greed lasts!

Nick_C

AFAIK, BA is the only major airline to charge for seat reservations in Business Class. It would have been £99 pp each way when we flew to LA last year. We took our chances. At T-24 when we checked in on line, we had been allocated seats together. We changed them for seats we preferred. Cabin was only half full there and back.

I only use BA when I'm getting an Avios redemption. If I'm paying, I choose a different airline. Its not only the seat reservation issue, Club World is quite high density.

Spudpuddin

American Airlines usually are.. once you book you can pick seats. I didn't at the time as I couldn't access website with details TUI give me for my honeymoon to the states. I ended up with seats miles away from my wife so I was a bit gutted leading up to it. A TUI agent advised me not to pay for the seats left as they become free on day of check in or day off your flight. They do this to get money off you. So she phoned American Airlines on my check In day to find out if i could change seats over the phone so I could sit with my wife but they said they can't do anything and advised us to wait until bag drop at the airport and get there handy (in our case 3hours before) because they hold 3 rows of seats spare for emergencies.
So we asked can we be moved and they give us 2 exit isle seats with loads of leg room, that would of cost us couple hundred dollars originally.
So my advice is.. if this happens to you try and sort them as soon as you book or get to the airport earlier than they advise you to get to an airport before your flight. This way the money you didn't waste on a seat you can happily spend in duty free. 😁

rufford155

We are flying with Emirates to Japan via Dubai and we were able to book economy seats for free.
They have given us three seats together - great - but not the ones we asked for !

johnwnormington

Booked 3 days beforehand on Jet2.com no option other than to pay for seats. No where could I see an option to continue the booking without paying for a standard sea, two rows from rear of plane..

markaw73

We’re going on holiday next week and TUI have put my 11 year old son, my wife and myself at the front, middle and rear of the plane respectively. My son hates flying and is really scared. We checked in as soon as we were able but all seats had been reserved already so no chance of upgrading or swapping. If their policy is not to have under 12yo separate from at least one parent how can they do this to my family?
Really poor customer service from TUI and would never book a family holiday with them again now.

richardw

I think easyJet are using this https://www.recaro-as.com/en/aircraft-seats/economy-class/sl3510.html seat

Nick_C

richardw wrote: »

I think easyJet are using this https://www.recaro-as.com/en/aircraft-seats/economy-class/sl3510.html seat

Could be worse.

It's only a matter of time before we see something like this:-



Or this (11 across on an Airbus A380)



Sadly, although people moan about comfort, most people simply want the cheapest possible flight.

richardw

Nick_C wrote: »

Could be worse.

It's only a matter of time before we see something like this:-

.... (11 across on an Airbus A380)

.....

If BA or Emirates order more A380s I think they’ll be 3-5-3 across in Economy and BA would make a lot more money on winter routes to MIAmi.