Seat charges

KyRoamer

Level 2 Member
I am flying EWR-BCN via LHR on an AA first class award. The LHR-BCN flight has European business class but no first class seats.

There is no charge for first class seat assignments. BA charges $33 for an advance seat assignment in business class. Since I am on a first-class award, I feel entitled to free assigned seats on all segments.

I plan to call BJ and ask it to waive the $33 charge. Any suggestions as to how I might approach this?
 

SanDiego1K

Level 2 Member
Do you have status on AA or any other OneWorld partner? If you do and it is mid tier or better, the seat selection fee will be waived for you.
 

KyRoamer

Level 2 Member
Interesting thought. I booked via an AA award and used my no status AA ff#. I changed that to my platinum US ff# and got seats assigned for our spring trip. Come spring I will have no US or other OneWorld status. Do you think our seat assignments will hold? I hope so.
 

Mountain Trader

Level 2 Member
Here is a site that let's you see what your One World status equivalent is with status in one of OWs airlines:

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status

So of you are, for example, AA Gold, that makes you a OW Ruby, and that means you can select seats free on BA 7 days before departure (which is plenty of time in most cases). Unfortunately, US is not an airline included in the chart. Maybe that happens when the US/AA merger is complete.
 

Mountain Trader

Level 2 Member
It is included just not in alphabetical order. It follows AA.
Thanks for the correction.

In my experience, if I have my AA Gold number in the BA res, free seat selection usually opens up at T-7 days. If it doesn't, calling BA has always worked for me.

To me, charging extra to pick seats in Business Class is really a nickel and dime move.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
Thanks for the correction.

In my experience, if I have my AA Gold number in the BA res, free seat selection usually opens up at T-7 days. If it doesn't, calling BA has always worked for me.

To me, charging extra to pick seats in Business Class is really a nickel and dime move.
AA Gold no longer gets that with AA, only AA Platinum and Executive Platinum. Is it different when booking BA?
 

Mountain Trader

Level 2 Member
AA Gold no longer gets that with AA, only AA Platinum and Executive Platinum. Is it different when booking BA?
I haven't used AA Gold to select seats on BA in about a year. However, it seems AA Gold still equates to OW Ruby:

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status/-/tierstatus/american-airlines/aadvantage-gold#tier

And BA seems to still say OW Ruby can select seats at T-7:

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/tiers-and-benefits/compare-the-tiers

So I think it still likely works.

One other factor-in my experience, once you get to T-7, you can not only pick seats for the first BA flight on your itinerary but also for all the rest or the flights on that itinerary, even if they are a long way off in the future. I have done this when free seat selection opened up automatically on BA.com, and also when it didn't and I had to call BA.
 

smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
I haven't used AA Gold to select seats on BA in about a year. However, it seems AA Gold still equates to OW Ruby:

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status/-/tierstatus/american-airlines/aadvantage-gold#tier

And BA seems to still say OW Ruby can select seats at T-7:

https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/tiers-and-benefits/compare-the-tiers

So I think it still likely works.

One other factor-in my experience, once you get to T-7, you can not only pick seats for the first BA flight on your itinerary but also for all the rest or the flights on that itinerary, even if they are a long way off in the future. I have done this when free seat selection opened up automatically on BA.com, and also when it didn't and I had to call BA.
OK, I guess Gold still has seat selection ahead, just not free Main Cabin Extra ahead which they had before. Thanks.
 

KyRoamer

Level 2 Member
I had no issues as US Airways platinum. I was able to immediately select seats even though the flights are months off. Just hope when I lose status that I keep seats. My guess is that as long as there are no equipment changes and I do not initiate any schedule changes that I will keep the seats.
 
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