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dickinson
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We're flying LAS-LHR-ATH, BCN-LHR-LAS on the return. We are sitting in the back in the row with 2 seats so it will take some time to disembark the 747. Is the security just for those in transit or is it mixed in with those coming in off street as well? Thanks

 

You will clear security at a separate channel from those starting their journey at LHR.

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The first flight to ATH has the 2:05 connection. Heading back from BCN has a 1:45 connection. Since it's the same terminal will there be security again? Thanks

 

As I noted before you will need to clear security again. Any international connection at LHR requires you to reclear security. It is only a handful of domestic flights with intra Terminal 5 connections that allow you to avoid security.

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As I noted before you will need to clear security again. Any international connection at LHR requires you to reclear security. It is only a handful of domestic flights with intra Terminal 5 connections that allow you to avoid security.

 

Be sure to look around for someone with a placard with your name on it.

Might happen, might not happen.

Wife and I had a tight connection at LHR. Unbeknownst to us, there was a BA rep as we exited the plane who escorted us through the terminal, through security, and got us to our connecting flight.

We were flying in Business Class though. Not sure, but that may have been the difference.

 

edit. sorry, got the wrong quote. This info is for Anthony

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Thanks, Globaliser. Now all we have to do is go and pay for the awful seats on this plane. I can't believe how bad they are. I went to Flyer Talk yesterday and read a lot and all the complaints. Sounds inhumane to cram people in so tightly especially on a long haul flight.

 

But when people continue to buy those seats, they are essentially telling the airline, "We like these seats. We want to buy these seats. Keep offering them." People vote with their dollars.

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But when people continue to buy those seats, they are essentially telling the airline, "We like these seats. We want to buy these seats. Keep offering them." People vote with their dollars.

 

You are right. It is only this particular aircraft though and not most of their others. Unfortunately for us we have never had this experience so had no clue to look out for it before purchasing these tickets. I suspect that a lot of the people sitting in the economy section of this aircraft are first timers. I know it will be the last for us.

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A bit off topic but I have travelled BA quite a few times long haul and short haul. I find it fine and choose it over AA across the atlantic. Last year, I was one of only about 4 passengers in economy (Geneva to LHR). Hope your flight is more comfortable than you expect.

BAempty_zps01i94hjb.jpg

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Be sure to look around for someone with a placard with your name on it.

Might happen, might not happen.

Wife and I had a tight connection at LHR. Unbeknownst to us, there was a BA rep as we exited the plane who escorted us through the terminal, through security, and got us to our connecting flight.

We were flying in Business Class though. Not sure, but that may have been the difference.

 

It's certainly not guaranteed.

 

In the case I mentioned (tight connection at T5 that I ultimately missed because the flight was delayed 4hrs) my OH and I were flying business class and as a top tier BA Executive Club members. No assistance on that occasion, even though there were three others also in business class trying to connect to the same flight as us.

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A bit off topic but I have travelled BA quite a few times long haul and short haul. I find it fine and choose it over AA across the atlantic. Last year, I was one of only about 4 passengers in economy (Geneva to LHR). Hope your flight is more comfortable than you expect.

BAempty_zps01i94hjb.jpg

 

I hope so too although it appears the jamming of seats issue is the specific type aircraft. Also the issue with the boxes under the window and aisle seats which interfere with your feet and or your things to stow.

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You are right. It is only this particular aircraft though and not most of their others.
I hope so too although it appears the jamming of seats issue is the specific type aircraft.
Across the BA long-haul fleet, this is currently the worst. The 787-9 is similar but a little better because it was laid out slightly differently.

 

But this phenomenon is not BA-specific. Every 787 around the world (with the exception of one hold-out airline) presents a very similar situation. The difference between different airlines' 787s is marginal.

 

A similar trend is happening on 777s. Traditionally, these were 9-abreast in economy (typically 3-3-3 or 2-5-2). Many airlines have moved or are now moving to 10-abreast in these.

 

Without doubt, all of this is a response to the fact that customers' primary criterion is low price. And this is what the market will collectively get if the market always collectively looks for the cheapest price.

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Across the BA long-haul fleet, this is currently the worst. The 787-9 is similar but a little better because it was laid out slightly differently.

 

But this phenomenon is not BA-specific. Every 787 around the world (with the exception of one hold-out airline) presents a very similar situation. The difference between different airlines' 787s is marginal.

 

A similar trend is happening on 777s. Traditionally, these were 9-abreast in economy (typically 3-3-3 or 2-5-2). Many airlines have moved or are now moving to 10-abreast in these.

 

Without doubt, all of this is a response to the fact that customers' primary criterion is low price. And this is what the market will collectively get if the market always collectively looks for the cheapest price.

 

Sad. Especially because people, especially Americans, are getting bigger. I have definitely learned from this thread to review the aircraft I'll be flying on. Never knew I needed to do this.

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Sad. Especially because people, especially Americans, are getting bigger. I have definitely learned from this thread to review the aircraft I'll be flying on. Never knew I needed to do this.

You can spend hours doing this, and then the airline will have an equipment change on your flight.

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Sad. Especially because people, especially Americans, are getting bigger. I have definitely learned from this thread to review the aircraft I'll be flying on. Never knew I needed to do this.
Better still, you could break the cycle that flows from the general demands for ever-cheaper prices. BA and many other airlines offer premium economy cabins. This is a very decent way to fly even if you don't want to pay the much higher fares for business class or first class.

 

But be careful not to mistake some airlines' economy-with-extra-legroom sections for premium economy - the latter is a separate cabin with distinctly different seating.

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I just went to pay for seats and after entering all the info it wouldn't do it and said to contact my local British Airways office. Anyone know what that is about? There should be nothing wrong with my credit card. I used the one that has no foreign transaction fee figuring even though I was being told what the seat cost in US$ the company must be a British company and therefore a foreign company to me. If I try another credit card and it goes through then I pay the fee. Figured I would check here first.

Edited by dickinson
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I just went to pay for seats and after entering all the info it wouldn't do it and said to contact my local British Airways office. Anyone know what that is about? There should be nothing wrong with my credit card. I used the one that has no foreign transaction fee figuring even though I was being told what the seat cost in US$ the company must be a British company and therefore a foreign company to me. If I try another credit card and it goes through then I pay the fee. Figured I would check here first.

Easy solution is to phone and find out.....

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I just went to pay for seats and after entering all the info it wouldn't do it and said to contact my local British Airways office. Anyone know what that is about?
Possibility number one: It is possible that it's because your ticket hasn't been issued. If you need to pay for seat pre-allocation, then this can't be done unless you have a ticket for the flight. A reservation isn't enough.

 

Sometimes, travel agents (including cruise line air travel departments) work on the basis of contracts that allow them not to issue a ticket until much closer to the date of travel even though the reservation has been made. (The reason that travel agents take up this opportunity is that the travel agent does not have to account to the airline for the fare until the ticket is issued.) So this may be what's happened here.

 

If you want to check online before phoning BA, there are two possible channels. One is to pull up your reservation using www.checkmytrip.com which is a service run by the company that provides the reservation system on which BA's reservations are hosted. I think, though, that you now need to create an account with CMT before you can pull up a reservation. The other is to use the MyFlights service - www.myflightsapp.com - which can be access either via an app or via the website. Again, you need to create an account, but this service will also monitor your booking and let you know if it detects any changes. Both of these services will show you whether there is a ticket number associated with your booking: you are looking for a 13-digit number either starting 125 or 001.

 

Possibility number two: There is a ticket but it's a 001 ticket (issued by/on behalf of American Airlines) rather than a 125 ticket (issued by/on behalf of BA) and that is somehow stopping the paid pre-allocation system.

 

Possibility number three: There is another booking record held by BA which is the one that the seat pre-allocation needs to be done in, but you don't have the reference/locator for that one.

 

Phoning BA could take you a long way towards sorting out what the problem is.

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My ticket is issued. It is 001 so issued by American. I tried last night to call BA. I did not care for the agent. I explained situation and then heard nothing. Kept saying hello. Finally he said hello. Said he never heard me explain situation. Then he starts asking questions that did not apply. At first he said he did not know why I couldn't do seat assignment but then changed his tune and said there was probably an issue with the website in the payment system. Said it could take 24 hours to fix. He could take my cc info and do it himself or I could wait. I chose to wait as I did not feel comfortable giving him my cc info. I'll try again on their website in a few minutes once I go get my cc.

 

Just tried again and got the same. I'll try calling again.

 

Just called again. Was told system has crashed and should be back up in 90 minutes. When I asked when this happened she said about 30 minutes ago. Of course, this happened to me last night so it either crashed earlier or was back up and crashed again. I have to call back to make sure it didn't go through because it could have and I could have been charged more than one time in which case they will refund me.

Edited by dickinson
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I still could not do a seat assignment so I called back. Was told system was back up. The nice person on the phone not only took care of my seat assignment but also it cost $6 less (everything helps) because I got the price it would have cost if I had picked my seats when the reservation was made. Apparently you get a little discount doing it that way. So now I have my seats.

 

Thanks for all the help. I'm sure this thread will be of interest to others who search cruise critic.

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It will cost me $10 to use my phone for 24 hours while out of the country. I planned to do so only for emergencies. This may be an emergency ;)

 

 

 

I don't have my info with me at the moment but I was able to put things into the AA website however it automatically transferred me to BA website. If I tried to pick it seats it said I could not do it and would have to call. I called them, AA and Princess (got wrong info from BA at first because they said I was not ticketed but I was). Ultimately BA (on the second call) told me I have to pay if I want to pick my seats.

 

I have a feeling that Princess allowed seat picking on the BA flight for no charge but not on my seat that was on flight that was AA operated by BA (a code share flight).

 

Later today I can try some of the things you suggested and see what happens. Can't hurt!

 

Has anyone else been able to pick seats on BA with no charge? Is that a perk with Princess or was it just a fluke?

 

Think about it this way... You have an eight-ish hour flight. That works out to $1.25 an hour to be more comfortable, and ~.0025% of the cost of your trip. Under those terms, $10 to use your phone probably seems like money spent wisely.

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  • 1 month later...

Update - The seats, for us, were not as bad as I expected. They actually seemed the same as other airplanes. The boxes underneath the seats were window and middle and not window and aisle as I expected.

 

The one glitch was that this flight was very late and landed about 3.5 hours late. Now we have to file a claim under an EU law which might give us money back. The delay was because they had to replace a coupling to the engine.

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Having flown BC, PE, and Economy on BA , on various planes, I generally find the total experience very similar to that of its Oneworld partner AA. The greatest difference is that on some flights, and on some aircraft, BA does offer true PE, something AA promised to do in the future on very limited flights. It can be difficult to justify paying BC prices for the short hop between either CLT or JFK to LHR on AA. However, choosing PE on BA metal is a no brained, imo.

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