Cheap airline seating

cordi13

I’ve ended up paying £81 per person each way for my husband and me for seat reservations with BA for Premium Economy Heathrow to Singapore return. It’s the only way to secure a 2 seat configuration rather than be stuck in the middle of the cabin. I like a window seat to look out of and my husband likes the aisle to stretch his legs, and for a 12-14 hour flight I don’t want to settle for the middle of the plane. It’s annoying when I’ve already paid for Premium Economy seating to have to shell out over £300 more. Luckily I didn’t pay full price for the flights due to a mixture of Avios and a cabin upgrade voucher through my credit card.

When I flew to Lima last year with Iberia I could select my Premium Economy seats for free as soon as I had booked it, months before check in. Iberia and BA are both owned by the same company (IAG) so I think it’s a bit rich that one charges and the other doesn’t.

jimi_man

cordi13 said:

I’ve ended up paying £81 per person each way for my husband and me for seat reservations with BA for Premium Economy Heathrow to Singapore return. It’s the only way to secure a 2 seat configuration rather than be stuck in the middle of the cabin. I like a window seat to look out of and my husband likes the aisle to stretch his legs, and for a 12-14 hour flight I don’t want to settle for the middle of the plane. It’s annoying when I’ve already paid for Premium Economy seating to have to shell out over £300 more. Luckily I didn’t pay full price for the flights due to a mixture of Avios and a cabin upgrade voucher through my credit card.

When I flew to Lima last year with Iberia I could select my Premium Economy seats for free as soon as I had booked it, months before check in. Iberia and BA are both owned by the same company (IAG) so I think it’s a bit rich that one charges and the other doesn’t.

Just to add context, Iberia charge for seat selection exactly the same as BA. A lot depends on your fare class. A BA flexible fare (J) comes with free seat selection, but on the discounted fare you’ve gone for, it obviously doesn’t. 

Most airlines charge for seat selection to protect their status customers. 

zagfles

jimi_man said:

cordi13 said:

I’ve ended up paying £81 per person each way for my husband and me for seat reservations with BA for Premium Economy Heathrow to Singapore return. It’s the only way to secure a 2 seat configuration rather than be stuck in the middle of the cabin. I like a window seat to look out of and my husband likes the aisle to stretch his legs, and for a 12-14 hour flight I don’t want to settle for the middle of the plane. It’s annoying when I’ve already paid for Premium Economy seating to have to shell out over £300 more. Luckily I didn’t pay full price for the flights due to a mixture of Avios and a cabin upgrade voucher through my credit card.

When I flew to Lima last year with Iberia I could select my Premium Economy seats for free as soon as I had booked it, months before check in. Iberia and BA are both owned by the same company (IAG) so I think it’s a bit rich that one charges and the other doesn’t.

Just to add context, Iberia charge for seat selection exactly the same as BA. A lot depends on your fare class. A BA flexible fare (J) comes with free seat selection, but on the discounted fare you’ve gone for, it obviously doesn’t. 

Most airlines charge for seat selection to protect their status customers. 

BA do seem to be most snobby airline almost trying to preserve that old fashioned idea of the "jet set". But now that flying is available to everyone not just the "jet set" they need something else to make people feel they're a cut above the rest, like "status". 

We've just flown long haul on Air France, IIRC there was a charge if you wanted to reserve seats before check-in, but afterwards you could change the seats you were allocated mostly for free, there was an extra charge for some seats eg near the front, something like £10, and emergency exit seats something like £50. Could even choose a premium economy seat for something like £100 and about £500 for business. So their cost to upgrade cabin is similar to BA's cost just to select a seat 

Quite impressed with AF, good entertainment system with latest films, meals were good and decent drink selection, all free, even champagne, and that's in bog standard economy. Could even use messaging apps like WhatsApp (text only) on the in-flight wifi free. 

jimi_man

zagfles said:

jimi_man said:

cordi13 said:

I’ve ended up paying £81 per person each way for my husband and me for seat reservations with BA for Premium Economy Heathrow to Singapore return. It’s the only way to secure a 2 seat configuration rather than be stuck in the middle of the cabin. I like a window seat to look out of and my husband likes the aisle to stretch his legs, and for a 12-14 hour flight I don’t want to settle for the middle of the plane. It’s annoying when I’ve already paid for Premium Economy seating to have to shell out over £300 more. Luckily I didn’t pay full price for the flights due to a mixture of Avios and a cabin upgrade voucher through my credit card.

When I flew to Lima last year with Iberia I could select my Premium Economy seats for free as soon as I had booked it, months before check in. Iberia and BA are both owned by the same company (IAG) so I think it’s a bit rich that one charges and the other doesn’t.

Just to add context, Iberia charge for seat selection exactly the same as BA. A lot depends on your fare class. A BA flexible fare (J) comes with free seat selection, but on the discounted fare you’ve gone for, it obviously doesn’t. 

Most airlines charge for seat selection to protect their status customers. 

BA do seem to be most snobby airline almost trying to preserve that old fashioned idea of the "jet set". But now that flying is available to everyone not just the "jet set" they need something else to make people feel they're a cut above the rest, like "status". 

We've just flown long haul on Air France, IIRC there was a charge if you wanted to reserve seats before check-in, but afterwards you could change the seats you were allocated mostly for free, there was an extra charge for some seats eg near the front, something like £10, and emergency exit seats something like £50. Could even choose a premium economy seat for something like £100 and about £500 for business. So their cost to upgrade cabin is similar to BA's cost just to select a seat 

Quite impressed with AF, good entertainment system with latest films, meals were good and decent drink selection, all free, even champagne, and that's in bog standard economy. Could even use messaging apps like WhatsApp (text only) on the in-flight wifi free. 

Well to be fair, Air France do exactly the same as BA and charge for seat selection before checkin as BA do. Slightly less than BA - £50 per person per leg (in the OPs example), instead of £81 but the principle is still the same.

After checkin with BA, you can change seats for free - the same as AF. A fee is payable for extra legroom/exit seats - again, same as AF.

On the dummy AF booking to Singapore that I did six months out, there was a difference of slightly over £2000 each way between the cheapest Business fare and Economy, so I'm not quite sure how you got offered a Business upgrade for only £500?? Sounds like a bargain to me

As I said, most airlines do this. It's a perfectly sensible strategy - the best airline customers (both in amount paid per ticket and frequency of ticket bought) tend to book late. Therefore it's an eminently good idea to make sure that there are a choice of seats for them, rather than giving away the 'best' seats to those who book first and pay the least (who are likely to be the opposite of the above).

Air France do have a reasonable hard product and being a French airline, I'd be disappointed if they didn't offer champagne in all classes!! However BA offer all of the above other than champagne (I've had AF food and it wasn't that great tbh - Asian airlines tend to be the best IMO). BA also offer free wifi for messaging apps as well. 

With regard to the OPs seat selection charges, they are unfortunate with the choice of cabin. The best WT+ seats are heavily skewed to the windows - the middle four aren't particularly great so paying for seat selection is generally recommended since the window seats will usually be taken by checkin time. In Club with the Club Suite it's not worth paying as they are no bad seats and in WT there will usually be enough seats for you to get a reasonable choice at checkin time. BA don't split people up. 

zagfles

jimi_man said:

zagfles said:

jimi_man said:

cordi13 said:

I’ve ended up paying £81 per person each way for my husband and me for seat reservations with BA for Premium Economy Heathrow to Singapore return. It’s the only way to secure a 2 seat configuration rather than be stuck in the middle of the cabin. I like a window seat to look out of and my husband likes the aisle to stretch his legs, and for a 12-14 hour flight I don’t want to settle for the middle of the plane. It’s annoying when I’ve already paid for Premium Economy seating to have to shell out over £300 more. Luckily I didn’t pay full price for the flights due to a mixture of Avios and a cabin upgrade voucher through my credit card.

When I flew to Lima last year with Iberia I could select my Premium Economy seats for free as soon as I had booked it, months before check in. Iberia and BA are both owned by the same company (IAG) so I think it’s a bit rich that one charges and the other doesn’t.

Just to add context, Iberia charge for seat selection exactly the same as BA. A lot depends on your fare class. A BA flexible fare (J) comes with free seat selection, but on the discounted fare you’ve gone for, it obviously doesn’t. 

Most airlines charge for seat selection to protect their status customers. 

BA do seem to be most snobby airline almost trying to preserve that old fashioned idea of the "jet set". But now that flying is available to everyone not just the "jet set" they need something else to make people feel they're a cut above the rest, like "status". 

We've just flown long haul on Air France, IIRC there was a charge if you wanted to reserve seats before check-in, but afterwards you could change the seats you were allocated mostly for free, there was an extra charge for some seats eg near the front, something like £10, and emergency exit seats something like £50. Could even choose a premium economy seat for something like £100 and about £500 for business. So their cost to upgrade cabin is similar to BA's cost just to select a seat 

Quite impressed with AF, good entertainment system with latest films, meals were good and decent drink selection, all free, even champagne, and that's in bog standard economy. Could even use messaging apps like WhatsApp (text only) on the in-flight wifi free. 

On the dummy AF booking to Singapore that I did six months out, there was a difference of slightly over £2000 each way between the cheapest Business fare and Economy, so I'm not quite sure how you got offered a Business upgrade for only £500?? Sounds like a bargain to me

£500pp per leg was more than we paid for the flights! But I have heard that you can get class upgrades at the checkin desk on some airlines for a reasonable price (far less than £500), a friend of mine always enquires and he's got them for around £100-200 in business, not sure what airlines. AF have the option in the app, it was available right up to boarding time, I was looking at it while sat at the gate! 

£2000pp is really ridiculous! For the two of us that would be £8k return, well over what we spent on the entire holiday! We did briefly consider the PE seats for £100pp but even that seemed bad value, in the end basic economy was fine and were glad we didn't waste our money. 

Nick_C

Most airlines don't charge for seat selection when you are flying in business class. 

ThorOdinson

What we really need is a guide on getting business class seats for economy class prices.

Hoenir

ThorOdinson said:

What we really need is a guide on getting business class seats for economy class prices.

No shortage of people who can afford and wish to travel business class. Well worth the money in my personal opinion. 

Nick_C

ThorOdinson said:

What we really need is a guide on getting business class seats for economy class prices.

www.headforpoints.com

tom2812

Hi, I had a booking for LHR > NAS booked for 25th February 2025, returning 6th March. Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic cancelled the route (the day before I'm due to fly!) and I've been transferred to BA. Virgin couldn't move the seat selection over so they've refunded my seat selection (around £100). I've gone on to the BA website to try and book some seats and they want £76 per person per way! I'm astounded that, through no fault of my own, I've been moved from Virgin to BA, then have to pay triple the cost for seat selection. I understand that it's free 24 hours in advance, but since it's our honeymoon I'd rather ensure that we have decent seats... do you know if there's anything I can do since it's a cancelled ticket?