Seating flight BA London to Miami

We are booked through Oceania a flight from London to Miami to meet ship however I am unable to pre purchase seats through airline. I have airline refs. I am in contact with BA but would like opinions from others who have encountered this problem?

If you have made final payment ask for the flights to be ticketed, then you should be able to choose your seats.

I have paid in Full and have my flight no so presume that is not enough?

I have paid in Full and have my flight no so presume that is not enough?

Having the flight number is not sufficient for most Airlines.

After paying in full for the Cruise, you may request that Oceania purchase your air tickets NOW, which should solve your problem.

There are a couple of issues at work here. As stated above, make sure that Oceania has actually ticketed the flight.

2. BA is a particularly difficult airline since to choose a seat early, you must pay them for that honor. Some of the European Airlines only deal with the party that actually bought the seat, in this case Oceania. They will not deal with you directly until 48 hours pre flight. So to purchase the ability to select your seat early, may have to be done via Oceania. Then, of course, if you have a TA , Oceania will require you to put the request in through your TA not directly. Therefore, to make your seat selection and purchase, you may well need to call your TA to ask Oceania to do the transaction with BA. Complicated? Been there, done that, and another reason I rarely book my flights via Oceania.

Different airlines handle this situation differently. BA, along with SAS, are two of the more difficult to deal with. Also, with BA, if you don't have status with BA (AA doesn't count), all the seats shown available will not be so. The seating options will be more limited, in that many of the prime seats are held for status flyers.

So if this is something you really want to do, I would go ahead and start the chain process by calling your TA with the information. Good Luck, you'll need it!

Had no problem with Virgin, booked seats yesterday!

Will speak to TA re BA flight.

Had no problem with Virgin, booked seats yesterday!

 

Will speak to TA re BA flight.

Yes, that is exactly the issue being discussed here, i.e. that some Airlines allow seating to be assigned to a reserved ticket, whereas others require that the ticket be purchased before specific seats may be chosen.

I have paid in Full and have my flight no so presume that is not enough?

You need to get the booking reference (a six digit alpha-numeric string) from Oceania. Once you have it you should be able to go onto the web site, click Manage My Booking, and select your seats. However, as others have said, BA will charge you for seat selection, and sometimes a significant amount. It is possible, however, that on the cheap fare classes O buys you may not be able to select seats until you check in. If so, make sure you check in as soon as possible when it opens 24 hours before the departure time.

(This is one of the reasons I avoid Oceania air if I can.)

We used SAS to Copenhagen in June 2016 and returned from LHR on BA the next month. For that cruise we did use O's upgrade to PE. (Usually we book our own air, but obviously not always.)

I don't recall having a problem with selecting our seats and we certainly didn't pay extra for the privilege. It's possible I'm forgetting ... but I don't think so. Could the rules have changed since a year ago?

Mura

Mira;

On BA, one can get a free seat assignment by logging in on BA's website under Manage my Account, within 24 hours of actual flight time or at the airport.

If one wants to obtain a seat assignment before that time, they can obtain one by likewise logging in. However, BA charges the passengers to choose seats under this scenario. The amount of the charges vary according to length of flight, aircraft, class of service,and actual seats chosen.

A window seat, in BC, on a transatlantic flight cost about 100 British pounds to book early.

I'm just saying that was NOT our experience. I selected our seats well in advance of departure and did not pay a fee to do so.

That was more than a year ago so maybe our experience at that time is no longer pertinent to the discussion.

Mura

We are leaving on Oct 5 for Lisbon to board the Marina. We had to use deviated air since we are staying over in Barcelona at the end of our cruise. I wanted to upgrade my seats to premium economy on our United flight but it would not let me because the seats were only confirmed and not ticketed. I called my TA and asked him to have Oceania book the flights so I could upgrade and he told me the problem in doing that was once Oceania did that they would no longer be in control of our flight, and if it was canceled or delayed for any reason, we would be on our own to get to the ship. So we decided to just chance getting an upgrade after they ticketed the reservation. A few days later they ticketed our seats and I upgraded to premium economy.

Myra;

If you're discussing BA, not SAS, then perhaps:

1. You have very high status with BA, that is an exception to policy;

2. Oceania negotiated a deal, for that year, to grant its cruisers free seat assignments ; or

3. You got lucky.

BA typically follows a very strict policy as I outlined. Our of the cruise lines was using Austrian Airlines which is even more difficult to deal with .

Workstocruise;

Please supply a United Flight number and aircraft type that you flew "Premium Economy " on. With United Airlines. Was it Lufthansa, or Swiss Air offering the service?

I know that Air Canada charges for seat selection on its lowest price fares. If you are booked on Premium Economy, there is no charge for seat selection and if I remember correctly, there is no fee for your 1st checked bag.

Air Canada allows two free checked bags in Premium Economy for international flights. Well, regular Air Canada does anyway. Not sure about Rouge in that I haven't and won't fly them.

Seat selection is free on their flights. For we Americans, here's an interesting catch if your flying BC. Many of Air Canada's flights to US cities are on planes with single service i.e. Economy. So when one is flying the connecting US leg of an international flight it's in Economy. However, those planes have a few seats that have extended legroom such as the bulkhead and exit roll seats that are typically blocked off for BC flyers. Here is the catch. If you book direct BC or PE with Air Canada, you have access to those seats. If you book on UA you must call Air Canada for seats and they won't give you those seats unless it's within 24 hours of departure and the seats haven't been previously taken. All part of the game.

Rouge to Florida had free checked bags in Premium

I think it was 2 but we only every take 1 ea so it was not important to us

AA also has 2 free bag in their BUS to Florida but no lounge access unless you have status with them

Workstocruise;

Still waiting on that United flight information where you upgraded to "Premium Economy "!

What was the cost of that upgrade?

Lyn;

No lounge access domestically unless you're a member of the Admirals Club.

AA does give Admirals Club access to those flying on international routes in BC and above. I've never considered US-CAN or US-MEX flights or how they're handled!? I'm a member so I haven't asked!

Lyn;

 

No lounge access domestically unless you're a member of the Admirals Club.

That is what I said NO lounge access on AA for US-CAN flights

A/C BUS & Premium Rouge give you lounge access ..they have a nice lounge in MIA now

When I booked my upcoming flights to MIA I took AA because they had better flight times

Then AA cancelled the flight & put us on a 6pm flight GRRR

Sorry pinotlover, I was gone all day today. We are booked on a United flight #168 Dulles to Lisbon. The upgrade price was around $120 each.

Sorry pinotlover, I was gone all day today. We are booked on a United flight #168 Dulles to Lisbon. The upgrade price was around $120 each.

UAL does have premium economy as I flew it home from London however, it is just like domestic where they only difference is a slightly longer amount of leg room. Same seats as economy and no meal or drink difference on International flights at least a couple of years ago and this was on a 787.

No the meals and drinks are the same as economy, but the leg room is quite a bit more, and on an 10 hour flight it's worth the extra cost.

Hi,

Just to clarify, UAL (United) does not offer Premium Economy (PE). They offer what their marketing team calls "Economy Plus". As mentioned above, it's just a normal economy seat with 4-6 inches more seat pitch (leg room) but not any additional seat width or any additional benefits over normal economy.

Other airlines that offer what is called Premium Economy have much larger seats than economy (pitch and width) with upgraded service, food, and drinks. Think of it as business class seats a dozen years ago before lie-flat business class seats came into the norm.

United's Economy Plus has never been classified as Premium Economy product. Agree it's better than 31 inch seat pitch but not in the same ball park as PE (IMO).

Cheers,

John

John is absolutely correct. UA does not offer Premium Economy service on those routes. Workstocruise didn't pay $120 to upgrade to PE, but a better Economy seat!

Why is there so much confusion about Comfort Plus, Economy Plus, and Main Cabin Extra ( pick your Airlines) not being Premium Economy???? Words and terminology have specific meaning in the industry!