V-Flyer

Because I wanted to grab a window seat in CW where I didn't have to clamber over a stranger's legs, I paid for specific seats on booking.

With just over a month till we fly we have now had 3 changes of plane config without any notification of seat change from BA. The first time I noticed the change, several months ago, was completely by accident when I went to the Seat Plan. I discovered I had been moved into a middle seat next to the bassinet. Fortunately there was one window/ aisle pair of seats still available for us to move into. With another change of plane an extra row suddenly appeared at the back of the cabin , so I have now grabbed that. But for how long ? ! So now I regularly check and play the BA game of "Guess where you are sitting now ?"

So I recommend anyone who has paid for a seat to keep checking your booking !

Are you back in a 3 class 777? It's unfortunate I know from you past posts they substituted a four class aircraft at one stage. I must admit that I continually check my bookings as a matter of course as I have suffered the same fate at the hands of VS (a346 to a 747) where upon check in I was upstairs and my wife downstairs which was suitably rectified and last year by BA/IB who changed my flights and didn't tell me, again sorted at check in. Still the fares to Tampa in the sale were amazing at under £1300.

I also have a TPA-LGW booked with BA in about 4 weeks AND..it has just changed from a 4 class to a 3.

not fussed about where I sit and there are so many open seats I am going to wait until T-24

Yes, Paul, it is now a 3 class 777 48J !

Hi Hiljil,

Be interesting to hear your comparisons after you've sampled BA's Club.

Thanks

David.

The reason your seats are switching could be that BA have two variants of their three class 777's at Gatwick.

The G-VIIx 777's have 40 CW seats where row 4 is the last row in CW, with 4A/B & 4J/K being the best seats for not stepping over neighbour.

The G-YMMx aircraft have 48 CW seats where row 5 is the last row. The problem with these though is that the window is missing by 5A & 5K, so whilst you gain from the 'not stepping over' aspect you lose with the window.

In summary the 40J LGW 777's offer the best of both worlds as 4AK are the window seats where you don't have to step over anyone, and they have a full compliment of windows.

Cheers
James

BA have seven B777 based at LGW and three of these are four class covering such routes as BGI,GND, UVF and POS. plus another 777 is due to transfer from LHR due to new additional flights being announced.

Thank you James for that very helpful summary but I do have to say that on occasions a 4 class 777 is used. For our return flight from Tampa BA changed our reserved seats 4AB to 15FG because row 4 was now in First Class. I phoned BA about this and apparently you cannot upgrade to First it is just unused .....

Best wishes
Hilary

Hi David ,

Just to say I did post a comparison after my first flight with BA. I don't know how to give you the link but it was on 15th May 2013 and was called " Another view of UC versus CW " .

I will see if any thing has changed by my next flight and will certainly do a comparison again !

Thank You,
Hilary

Thanks guys for putting me right, must admit I'd (wrongly!) assumed that there was no BA First ex Gatwick at all as was researching a few months back when booking Avios reward flights.

Now I understand that, in line with what Hilary says above, whilst there may be a First seats on some Florida flights, they're not available for purchase.

Cheers
James

PS: I managed to secure BA First using Avios but ex LAX as opposed to MCO, am very excited as it's BA's 'enhanced First' on the A380! TR to follow in October :-)

James

Enjoy great reward especially as cheapest first flights are £8.5K to Lax. Have doube BA380 to HKG and it is superb

mine ,like Hils was a 4 class with no option to upgrade ( I am told they use Fc as an overflow if needed but still CW food)

we are also back to a 40J now.
my view is the CW seat is more comfortable than the uc one.


James very envious of the 380

Often when a 3 class flight has a 4 class plane, FC won't be used due to many reasons, one being that there are no/not enough First trained crew for that flight.