Questions and Answers

Looks like Alaska if really going to join One World at the end of March. Suddenly I will become One World Sapphire. I see one of the listed benefits is “access to preferred or pre-reserved seating*” (*In accordance with the individual policy of the oneworld airline operating the flight). Does anyone know what that means with respect to British Airways? In particular, does this mean I will not have to pay to chose a business class seat on British Airways? I am kind of doubting it, but would love to be surprised.

Thanks

[QUOTE=”Steve from LA, post: 71815, member: 3327″]Looks like Alaska if really going to join One World at the end of March. Suddenly I will become One World Sapphire. I see one of the listed benefits is “access to preferred or pre-reserved seating*” (*In accordance with the individual policy of the oneworld airline operating the flight). Does anyone know what that means with respect to British Airways? In particular, does this mean I will not have to pay to chose a business class seat on British Airways? I am kind of doubting it, but would love to be surprised.

Thanks[/QUOTE]

Hey Steve, I think you should be able to select business class seats at time of booking as Sapphire. This post is nearly 4 years old, but I think the info is still correct: [URL]https://onemileatatime.com/british-airways-hand-baggage-only-fares/[/URL]
Don’t let the post title confuse you – it does cover J seating as well.

FYI, last time I flew BA J (though as Emerald) I was able to select my seat (upper deck on a 747) at booking. That was in 2018, but I don’t think anything has changed since the post linked to above.

Did a little digging, as I was curious. If you are OW Sapphire, that maps to Executive Club Silver on BA

[URL=’https://www.oneworld.com/members/british-airways#tiers’]British Airways – oneworld Member Airline | oneworld[/URL]

If you look at the Executive Club SIlver Benefits, per BA’s chart you have free seat selection at the time of booking.

[URL=’https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/executive-club/tiers-and-benefits/compare-the-tiers’]Compare the tiers | Executive Club | British Airways[/URL]

This from the BA website, so your seat selection should be free.

Hope this helps.

Thanks both of you. That is a pleasant surprise. Guess now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that all my current Alaska Gold benefits don’t get devalued too much with the changes.