Turns out the upgrade is worth it. More quiet space. An excellent meal. A full bed. A full English breakfast on waking. And then a hot shower in the lounge.

Thanks guys!

As someone who stresses about air travel it is never reassuring when the online check-in system says "sorry, we can't process this request". Hm... airline systems are something I want to work.

Worse is calling (yes, I am a nervous traveler) and the agent is unable to get the system to work either. Uh oh, I can sense a middle-row seat looming in my future.

I received a new response from British Airways today in my "saga". The gist of this response I think is:

1. It's a silly policy, but it's *our* policy
2. I understand you spend tens of thousands of euros with us annually
3. We're tired of you doing so, please give that money to another carrier

Below is the actual response. Simply put when I book a rewards flight with miles my family does not benefit. Frankly I'm astounded. BA is deciding to lose thousands of euros for a 100 euro service fee. And yet airlines moan all the time how they lose money. Perhaps it's poor customer service like this for their best customers?

Dear Mr Steckler Thank you for coming back to us. I am sorry that you are unhappy with our response, which was well reflecting your concern about your family not being able to select seats. Our seating policy is in place since 2009 but you may not have realized it as as a Gold Member you were still entitled to a free seat selection for your personal travels. I understand you remain unhappy and I will certainly pass on your comments to our Management Team to let them know your impressions. Thank you again for contacting us and for giving me an opportunity to look at your case again. I hope our decision will not deter you from flying with us in the future. Best regards [name deleted] British Airways Customer Relations Your case reference is:[case reference deleted]



I fly a lot. I fly long-haul from Europe to the United States at least 8 times each year, often more. For an airline that is nice money. And when I fly I tend to fly British Airways. Why? It's a little longer and I need to transfer through Heathrow but overall the level of service aboard is better than what I find on Air France or Lufthansa. SAS is no longer flying the route I want so that is sadly out.

After accumulating hundreds of thousands of air miles I decided to take my family on a trip. And here is where the problems start.

1. There are no flights available. But hey, we are flexible and rather than fly to Seattle we will fly to Vancouver and drive down.
2. There are no business class seats available. Well darn. I have a lot of miles and wanted to treat my family to the upgrade experience. But okay, coach it is.
3. What's that? In order to select seats for my family I need to spend 25 euros per person each way? Huh?

So I called BA. I asked about issues 1 and 2 but really, I can't get that excited about this. Next time I will book a little earlier. But issue 3? You are seriously going to nickel-and-dime me on this? I spend loads of money on flights each year, certainly even skipping one flight with BA will cost them more than they will ever earn from this pathetic surcharge. As a business I expect BA to have a customer support team and they do. So I write. And get essentially a form letter back explaining that BA instituted this cool new feature so people wanting seats could pay for them. Hello? Did you read my email where I explained that according to their own rules as a Gold card member I don't have to pay for this? Or I don't know, did it occur to anyone that perhaps this is my last flight on BA and will now switch to Air France which is overall more convenient? In my response today I pointed out that this is penny-wise, pound-foolish. Do you think they will care? Do you think anyone will even notice as they lose a valuable customer? I await their next response to see how bad their customer support is.