BA to start charging for seat selection

[Darren Wheeler]

Wouldn't be so bad if they were offering 99 pence flights, but to sting people who may have spent thousands on a club ticket is just penny-pinching.

It is now the no. 1 most read story on the BBC website.

quote:Originally posted by Scrooge
Southwest is running a great add right now over here regarding bag fee's LINK



Excellent one Scrooge. Loved it. Now if only VS would come up with something similar ... instead of the overblown we're 25 production!

quote:The introduction of the levy comes as BA attempts to bolster its balance sheet after a 401m loss in the last financial year - the worst result since privatisation in 1987 quote:

Who told them this was going to bolster its balance sheet; that statement made me laugh out loud. P***dling your passengers off generally does not bolster anything. The exit seats I can understand, as they are coveted but all seats; ludicrous.

In the article I read it mentioned quote:This new levy follows the airline's decision to cut luggage allowances and abolish free meals on short flights. quote:,
I have not read recently about a cut in luggage, the quote implies this was as recent as the food thing?!?

I see the VS Facebook page has jumped on this change by BA releasing the following statement;

'With BA's more expensive seating, passengers now have the option to choose a better value-for-money airline like Virgin Atlantic. We do not charge for pre-assigned seats and have no plans to do so.'

-Steve

[Neil]

Well that is a positive start, and looks like VS have done what was suggested by a few people on here and are going to make a big deal about the difference. Fingers crossed they mean it and don't suddenly decide to do a u-turn.

It seems if your seat gets changed for operational reasons; you can apply for a refund.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/pa ... blic/en_gb

I'm surprised that VS only reaction to this is a Facebook and a Twitter message. I would have thought SRB would be jumping on every media outlet for this one!

quote:Originally posted by DarkAuror
It is now the no. 1 most read story on the BBC website.


And featured on today's Radio 4 'You And Yours'. (Look, it was on when I went to Waitrose, ok?)

Worst thing for me with this is that one of the benefits of having status (having a relatively free choice of seats) is seriously diluted!

[Scrooge]

Well they did on facebook

' Virgin Atlantic With BA's more expensive seating, passengers now have the option to choose a better value-for-money airline like Virgin Atlantic. We do not charge for pre-assigned seats and have no plans to do so.' LINK

Ok, I posted on that thread and I am going to post it here.

WTF is that, that is a Ryanair/ MOL type statement, it is highly inaccurate to say the least and pure BS at most.

Actually it's sad to see them come out with such a badly written stupid statement.

Latest post over of FT included:

'today I joined the Virgin Flying Club'

... hopefully such messages will keep the bean counters in Crawley under some sensible control!