Pay for a seat assignment in business class??

[mike carey]

Well. At least be lucky some airlines still have business class. Most are transitioning to First class/ Economy only.

or was it phasing out first class to make it Business/Economyo_O

QF has Business/Econ on domestic and short haul international, and First/Business/Premium Econ/Econ on long haul. When I have travelled on a QF Business ticket on AA domestic flights I was in the First cabin.

 

Out of interest I checked QF's web page, and it sets out who gets free seat allocation (avialable as soon as the fare is paid) and it's basically everyone except people on Economy Sale fares. All higher classes, and Economy Flexible and Economy Saver fares it's free. Even on the Sale fares, for anyone on Silver or higher FF status on QF, any other One World airline or Emirates it's free too. Not much help if you want to fly LHR-SFO, I concede! I suspect the other airlines may have a readout on their web pages.

 

QF are staying a full service airline, and they have a LCC subsidiary.

[gallahadesquire]

I wonder what would if we all started to:

 

Book the ticket on one account / charge;

Charge the seat on a separate charge (and / or account);

Challenged the second charge and refuse to pay it?

 

I'm using my AMEX more and more when I think somethings going to get screwed up. They have GREAT customer service.

[Frequentflier]

My step-mother recently bought a business class flight (with $$) and her return flight is from LHR to SFO on British Airways. They actually want her to pay $125 in order to select her seat in advance. I've heard of no-frills carriers charging for a seat assignment in Economy, but that's the first time I've heard of a business class customer having to pay for a seat assignment. Are any other airlines doing this?

 

I've never heard anything good about British Airways so I've stayed away from it. I'm assuming your stepmother compared costs and found BA was the lowest. If BA is lower with the fee then it might be worth it if she really wants to avoid the risk of a middle seat.

[Guest]

I've never heard anything good about British Airways so I've stayed away from it. I'm assuming your stepmother compared costs and found BA was the lowest. If BA is lower with the fee then it might be worth it if she really wants to avoid the risk of a middle seat.

Well, yes, I did help her shop around, and the trip was the most economical and convenient for her travels. Her primary airline is United, but if we wanted to book it on United with codeshares, the price wound have been more than double. She's taking a tour of Morocco, then stopping in Belgium on the way back. The fares for her trip came to $5400. Had she gone with United, it would have been over $11,000. On the way over, she's flying AA from SFO to JFK (I've been on their A321T's, and boy are those Business Class seats nice!), then JFK to MAD (Madrid) on Iberia, then Iberia to Morocco. AA and Iberia didn't charge her for the seat assignment. She's not nimble, so she prefers an aisle seat so as not to have to walk over everyone. It looks as if Iberia has 1-2-1 seating in Business, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I had a similar problem when I bought my tickets from my New Zealand/Australia cruise next month. At the time, AA wasn't flying into Sydney (although they are now). First of all, they told me no way, no how could I use my miles to upgrade on any OneWorld partner (Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui). Then, if I wanted to code-share, I would have to pay thousands more and would only get 1/2 of the miles credited towards AA. It would have cost me thousands more to go on a code-share SFO-LAX-SYD-AKL, then SYD-LAX-SFO in regular Economy than to just buy a non-code-share Premium Economy seat on Cathay Pacific and go SFO-HKG-AKL then SYD-HKG-SFO. So I just bought the Premium Economy seats for Cathay Pacific (which were somewhat better than the Premium Economy seats on Qantas or Air New Zealand), but will only get credit for CP's Marco Polo club, for whatever that's worth. The only plus is that since I'm Emerald on AA/OneWorld, I will be able to use their lounges, but no AA credit. I hate to lose my status on AA, but there's no sense in paying thousands more and suffering in worse seats to keep a status, when the status doesn't do much for you. All of this status and airline alliance stuff is becoming more and more BS.

For my stepmother, at least her British Airways flight doesn't have any middle seats, although the window seats go backwards. Why wouldn't they have the window seats go forwards and the aisle backwards? Quite silly.

http://travelskills.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-09-at-2.42.15-PM.png

 

Cathay Pacific's Premium Economy:

http://www.ausbt.com.au/photos/view/maxsize:467,284/4f4b05e3cfe445e9b2e604d8767f2254-cxyplusheroangledfeetup.jpg

Qantas Premium Economy:

http://www.flightcentre.com.au/sites/flightcentre.com.au/files/styles/airline-hero-banner-380x200/http/media.fclmedia.com/global-images/fc/flights/hero/premium-economy-4.jpg?itok=XOolCAHv

[Guest]

Had I taken the AA code-share, I would have had to pay extra for this, regular economy, on Qantas:

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/uf/135010/phprUOz9Z.jpeg

[+ Charlie]

I don't know if they charge for seat allocation, although I doubt it, but I would recommend checking Air NZ from LAX to LHR (B777). I did a random check on Wotif and they came in as one of the lower business class fares (on that day at least). Air Canada would be good too, although that would involve a stop in YVR (B767 + B777) or YYZ (B767 + B777 or A321 + B787/B767). Both are in Star Alliance so you'd get your United miles.

I recently flew ANZ roundtrip LAX-LHR in business class and paid about $1000 more than I did the last time I flew that same route in the same class on Virgin Atlantic, and I didn't notice that it was $1000 better.

[RussJohnson]

I'm just going to start ferrying to Dublin, avoid departure tax altogether.

[RussJohnson]

Well, yes, I did help her shop around, and the trip was the most economical and convenient for her travels. Her primary airline is United, but if we wanted to book it on United with codeshares, the price wound have been more than double. She's taking a tour of Morocco, then stopping in Belgium on the way back. The fares for her trip came to $5400. Had she gone with United, it would have been over $11,000. On the way over, she's flying AA from SFO to JFK (I've been on their A321T's, and boy are those Business Class seats nice!), then JFK to MAD (Madrid) on Iberia, then Iberia to Morocco. AA and Iberia didn't charge her for the seat assignment. She's not nimble, so she prefers an aisle seat so as not to have to walk over everyone. It looks as if Iberia has 1-2-1 seating in Business, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I had a similar problem when I bought my tickets from my New Zealand/Australia cruise next month. At the time, AA wasn't flying into Sydney (although they are now). First of all, they told me no way, no how could I use my miles to upgrade on any OneWorld partner (Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui). Then, if I wanted to code-share, I would have to pay thousands more and would only get 1/2 of the miles credited towards AA. It would have cost me thousands more to go on a code-share SFO-LAX-SYD-AKL, then SYD-LAX-SFO in regular Economy than to just buy a non-code-share Premium Economy seat on Cathay Pacific and go SFO-HKG-AKL then SYD-HKG-SFO. So I just bought the Premium Economy seats for Cathay Pacific (which were somewhat better than the Premium Economy seats on Qantas or Air New Zealand), but will only get credit for CP's Marco Polo club, for whatever that's worth. The only plus is that since I'm Emerald on AA/OneWorld, I will be able to use their lounges, but no AA credit. I hate to lose my status on AA, but there's no sense in paying thousands more and suffering in worse seats to keep a status, when the status doesn't do much for you. All of this status and airline alliance stuff is becoming more and more BS.

For my stepmother, at least her British Airways flight doesn't have any middle seats, although the window seats go backwards. Why wouldn't they have the window seats go forwards and the aisle backwards? Quite silly.

http://travelskills.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-09-at-2.42.15-PM.png

 

Cathay Pacific's Premium Economy:

http://www.ausbt.com.au/photos/view/maxsize:467,284/4f4b05e3cfe445e9b2e604d8767f2254-cxyplusheroangledfeetup.jpg

Qantas Premium Economy:

http://www.flightcentre.com.au/sites/flightcentre.com.au/files/styles/airline-hero-banner-380x200/http/media.fclmedia.com/global-images/fc/flights/hero/premium-economy-4.jpg?itok=XOolCAHv

 

I understand keeping it all on one alliance, but United LHR-SFO probably would have worked better.

[mike carey]

I recently flew ANZ roundtrip LAX-LHR in business class and paid about $1000 more than I did the last time I flew that same route in the same class on Virgin Atlantic, and I didn't notice that it was $1000 better.

That may well be right! I wasn't suggesting that ANZ was better than all the others, simply that it may be better than BA charging $125 for claiming a seat allocation. The subsequent discussion seems to have been that even after paying the $125 the overall fare was less than the alternatives.

[Frequentflier]

Well, yes, I did help her shop around, and the trip was the most economical and convenient for her travels. Her primary airline is United, but if we wanted to book it on United with codeshares, the price wound have been more than double. She's taking a tour of Morocco, then stopping in Belgium on the way back. The fares for her trip came to $5400. Had she gone with United, it would have been over $11,000. On the way over, she's flying AA from SFO to JFK (I've been on their A321T's, and boy are those Business Class seats nice!), then JFK to MAD (Madrid) on Iberia, then Iberia to Morocco. AA and Iberia didn't charge her for the seat assignment. She's not nimble, so she prefers an aisle seat so as not to have to walk over everyone. It looks as if Iberia has 1-2-1 seating in Business, so that wouldn't be a problem.

I had a similar problem when I bought my tickets from my New Zealand/Australia cruise next month. At the time, AA wasn't flying into Sydney (although they are now). First of all, they told me no way, no how could I use my miles to upgrade on any OneWorld partner (Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Air Tahiti Nui). Then, if I wanted to code-share, I would have to pay thousands more and would only get 1/2 of the miles credited towards AA. It would have cost me thousands more to go on a code-share SFO-LAX-SYD-AKL, then SYD-LAX-SFO in regular Economy than to just buy a non-code-share Premium Economy seat on Cathay Pacific and go SFO-HKG-AKL then SYD-HKG-SFO. So I just bought the Premium Economy seats for Cathay Pacific (which were somewhat better than the Premium Economy seats on Qantas or Air New Zealand), but will only get credit for CP's Marco Polo club, for whatever that's worth. The only plus is that since I'm Emerald on AA/OneWorld, I will be able to use their lounges, but no AA credit. I hate to lose my status on AA, but there's no sense in paying thousands more and suffering in worse seats to keep a status, when the status doesn't do much for you. All of this status and airline alliance stuff is becoming more and more BS.

For my stepmother, at least her British Airways flight doesn't have any middle seats, although the window seats go backwards. Why wouldn't they have the window seats go forwards and the aisle backwards? Quite silly.

http://travelskills.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-09-at-2.42.15-PM.png

 

Cathay Pacific's Premium Economy:

http://www.ausbt.com.au/photos/view/maxsize:467,284/4f4b05e3cfe445e9b2e604d8767f2254-cxyplusheroangledfeetup.jpg

Qantas Premium Economy:

http://www.flightcentre.com.au/sites/flightcentre.com.au/files/styles/airline-hero-banner-380x200/http/media.fclmedia.com/global-images/fc/flights/hero/premium-economy-4.jpg?itok=XOolCAHv

 

$5,400! Maybe I'm out of touch or cheap or something but I think that's a lot of money and the lady shouldn't have to pay extra to choose seats. While I've never worked for an airline I'd think taking good care of a cash paying $5,400 customer would be good for repeat business and word of mouth. Airlines are making money, some a lot more than others, so it would seem now is the time to focus more on service and less nickel and dime charges. Maybe my views are because I have too many years experience in an industry that got hit hard by the recession and received no government assistance. We have had and do treat customers really well. We don't poke at them for relatively small dollar amounts,