No seat availability for reservation

Hi all. Bought tickets lgw-cun and, as we’ve dropped to bronze, had to pay £75 each per sector to pre-select seats. Flew outbound late Jan and due to fly back next Monday (23rd). Flying CW and always book bulkhead so neither of us have to climb over anyone’s legs (both short ). Reserved 5a and 5b on configuration shown to achieve this. Earlier this week I noticed BA app said our seats had changed so selected link to view seats and it advised no seats were reserved but that they were now available to reserve (which at -7 days they would be anyway being bronze) but seat map strangely shows cabin rows as 1-4 (no cabin has this configuration/numbering in cw) and whilst it tells me to select seats, the map shows none available for selection. I tried emailing BA on Tuesday but told I needed to call so I called on Wednesday but got the Indian call centre who, after a 15min call on a mobile from Belize, told me that there was probably a pending aircraft change and I should be able to select seats Thursday morning. It’s now Saturday and the app is still showing no availability. Do you think I have anything to worry about or is this normal? I leave Belize lunchtime tomorrow to travel into Mexico, overnight in chetumal and then long road trip to cancun airport so I will have limited if any internet so am concerned that the problem may be more than a possible aircraft change. Any ideas or should I not be worried?

I could be wrong but it sounds like there’s been a change to one of the 777s that has a First cabin even though it’s a route on which no F is sold.

The F cabin won’t be used unless the CW cabin is full, in which case it’ll be opened up for some lucky CW passengers (though with the standard CW service).

Unfortunately when this happens a bug means the seat map you see in MMB automatically shows the F cabin, which you can’t book in, and won’t let you see the CW cabin, which you can.

I don’t know if there’s a solution, other than to keep checking the seat map, check in ASAP and try asking at check in whether rows 1-4 are available. You never know ....

Thanks gumshoe...... have had that happen a couple of times before on this route but only ex Gatwick and was offered 1st seats at twilight check in but we still had the pre reserved cw seats when we arrived for check in and had already online checked in with those seats. Could see that there was no availability left in cw for his flight (at least BA are no longer selling seats in cw) so was just worried about arriving after a long journey to find we’d been bumped or something. Fingers crossed you are correct. Thanks a lot!

Just an update on this. I was also unable to check in online but was told to travel to the airport to check in having been assured by the call centre that our seats were reserved for us. Arrived after 2 days travelling from Belize only to be told we were being bumped to PE (or economy if no PE available) and we would get 75% of one way fare refunded plus £300 compensation in vouchers. We were even told that we had been bumped as we hadn’t done online check in but it transpired that nobody that was bumped had online check in available so clearly the decision was made for us. We were offered flights 2 days later but we couldn’t wait that long but after 2 days travelling already and a 3hr drive to do on arrival, we were not happy to be downgraded so we got them to book us on an A.A. flight in economy to Miami (they claimed they could only do Y for that route) and then CW Miami to Heathrow. They got us to a hotel for the night and transfers back booked for morning but now struggling to change car hire from Tues to Wed morning and from LGW to LHR! Apparently they have bumped about 20 people as the CW cabin on the replacement aircraft is only 4 rows... I didn’t even know BA had aircraft with 3 classes and only 4 rows of CW? We apparently have to apply to customer services for compensation for this, any tips on how to do this? Thanks all

Oh dear, sorry to hear that, not the outcome anyone would wish for.

Yes, BA is in the process of refurbishing its fleet of LGW (and some LHR) 777-200s and reconfiguring them with no F cabin, only 32 J seats and 10 across (instead of 9) in Y. You were clearly unlucky and got one of those.

As for your rights, under EC261/2004 you are indeed entitled to a refund 75% of the fare paid for that leg (but not including taxes). You can claim that on the BA website. The £300 goodwill gesture is totally separate so if they didn’t already give you vouchers or a pre-loaded card at the airport you’ll have to call customer services and chase it - sadly you may have to fight for it though.

Good luck.

Thanks again gumshoe..... we were told that the compensation you referred to (75% + £300) only applies if we took the downgrade but nothing applied if we took the new flight (via Miami in Y/CW) which we have taken. We were told we have to make a case to customer services and to claim back any out of pocket expenses such as esta costs, car hire charges etc. We’re not now sure what, if anything, we’d be entitled to other than out of pocket expenses?

Thanks for info on refurbs..... was totally unaware of that!

PS would we be entitled to the EU compensation of 600 Euros for late arrival when we weren’t actually denied boarding as we were offered a PE or Y seat but we were unable to be boarded into the cabin we had paid for?

Sorry, I misread your post and thought you’d accepted the downgrade. As you didn’t, the 75% refund entitlement does not apply.

I think you should be able to claim delay compensation under EC261/2004 assuming you were more than 3 hours late arriving back into London. BA may disagree, as technically you turned down their offer of a downgrade on your booked flight and asked to take a longer routing, but it’s worth fighting if they do as it’s your right to demand to be rerouted in ‘comparable conditions’, ie in the cabin you paid for.

As for out-of-pocket expenses, BA don’t normally quibble about reimbursing reasonable amounts for hotels, taxis, emergency clothing etc in the event of delays & cancellations, as there is a duty of care requirement enshrined in EU law.

Costs incurred by changing car hire may be trickier though, as they’re an incidental expense that airlines aren’t liable for. Similarly, BA wouldn’t reimburse you for a lost hotel night caused by a 24 hour delay - that’s what EC261/2004 compensation and travel insurance are designed for.

It may be worth posting your story on the BA board over on Flyertalk if you’re a member. There are several regulars there who would be able to give far better advice than me about what to expect from BA in these circumstances.

Thanks so much gumshoe.... very helpful! We actually have a kind of boarding card ticket print out given to us yesterday which lists our new route and actually uses the words “involuntary reroute” so hope that will help. We will arrive a day late. Will update with final outcome. Thanks again.