[soh]

I have booked reward flights SYD-SFO-LHR-HKG-SYD and have requested seats via Qantas by phone without an issue. The only flight on BA metal is SFO-LHR on BA 284 and I was advised BA will not accept seat requests - fair enough.

On 'manage my bookings' on BA.com however I noticed that they allow OLCI and seat selection 24 hours before my first flight which is is SYD-SFO on QF73. I am staying in San Fran for 4 days so could I use OLCI for the SFO-LHR leg before I have even left Sydney and 5 days before my SFO-LHR flight or am I clutching at straws?

I am a Bronze with QFF at the moment and am flying in economy so options for influencing anything is somewhat limited...

Anyone have any experience with this?

[Dave Noble]

You will not be able to do that

You will be able to check in online 24 hours before departure of the BA flight

Dave

[soh]

Dave

Thanks for the quick reply. Didn't think so but thought it was worth the question. On a related issue would it be possible to check in at SYD for the QF flight and pick up the boarding pass for the BA flight leaving SFO 4 days later or again is this a no no??

[serfty]

Originally Posted by soh

... or again is this a no no??

Yes, this is a no no!

As Dave posted, you can OLCI for your BA flight @ T-24h

[Commuter]

Is it just the seat allocation you want?
If that is the case, I thought you could do the seat allocation on BA online without doing the OLCI.

I don't know if my being a OW E helped, and it was not an award flight, but for my previous long haul flight on BA a couple of months ago, I just logged into the BA website's 'manage my booking' type of thing (can't remember its exact name) and assigned myself a seat well in advance of the flight. I did the same for a short haul BA flight recently.

[Mal]

Originally Posted by Commuter

Is it just the seat allocation you want?
If that is the case, I thought you could do the seat allocation on BA online without doing the OLCI.

BA had huge changes a few months ago where they cut pre-allocation of seats unless you meet certain status rules or full fare types.

Then at T-72, some more people are allowed to choose a seat, and then finally at T-24, online check-in opens and it becomes free-for-all with allocations.

British Airways - Seating Policy

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by Commuter

Is it just the seat allocation you want?
If that is the case, I thought you could do the seat allocation on BA online without doing the OLCI.

I don't know if my being a OW E helped, and it was not an award flight, but for my previous long haul flight on BA a couple of months ago, I just logged into the BA website's 'manage my booking' type of thing (can't remember its exact name) and assigned myself a seat well in advance of the flight. I did the same for a short haul BA flight recently.

Passengers in First Class or in booking classes JCWY or with One World Emerald or One World Sapphire status or travelling with infants or have certain disabilities are allowed to pre-select seats

Most other passengers can pre-select seats at check in

Certain other categories of passenger will be allocated seats by BA at around T-72 ( they do not get to choose them but are assigned them ) and depending on the category may not be able to change them themselves even if they want to

Dave

[soh]

I was simply looking for seat allocation. I prefer the first row of 2 at the back when travelling with my partner (never had any turbulence, food choice, toilet, galley noise issues to date).

We generally return to the UK at least once a year and avoid BA wherever possible but with the award flight route via SFO we had no other options available during a European summer.

Thanks for the info but it looks like it will be T-24.

[Commuter]

Thanks Mal and Dave. I didn't realise that I could pre-allocate seat on BA because of my OW status. I thought everyone could, although I had the vague thought that it might have been a 'benefit' because all the nice seats remained un-allocated despite leaving my allocation late. At least it will encourage me to keep my OWE status going. (I'll be flying on BA a lot for a while...)

[serfty]

Certainly more than a few months ago - it was December '06 and caused quite a bit of angst; many with seats pre-selected already had them wiped or moved. Also the implementation was poor with the revised seating software full of bugs

More here from the FT BA Executive Club Forum:

• Improved seat number pre-allocation facility - Page 7 - FlyerTalk Forums
• How to tell BA about ba.com seating errors - FlyerTalk Forums