One thing that British Airways keeps doing that really, really, annoys me

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There are a whole variety of things about British Airways which are bad and genuinely very annoying and that the airline needs to be called out for over and over again (ridiculous surcharges, seat selection fees in Business Class, non-functioning website, non-functioning app, low quality food, dirty aircraft, … I could go on and on) but that’s not what I’m here to discuss.

Leaving all the very big gripes to one side, there’s one thing that BA keeps doing that really, really annoys me and that I need to get off my chest (yes, this is a first world problem, so if you don’t like those, stop reading now).

Stop moving my seat assignment without telling me!!!

If you fly with British Airways with any kind of meaningful frequency, you’ll probably already know how bad the airline’s communications are, but for any readers who aren’t frequently handing over their hard-earned money to BA, let me just say that it’s hard to overstate how appalling the airline’s communications are.

When it comes to sending out pointless pre-departure emails that serve no purpose whatsoever, British Airways is up there with the best, but when it comes to keeping you informed about things you actually care about, the airline is terrible.

I see a great example of this lack of communication every time there’s an aircraft swap on one of my flights (something which BA does disappointingly often on some of its short-haul routes) or when the airline decides to increase the size of its Club Europe (short-haul Business Class) cabin on one of my flights, because I almost never get a message to tell me that’s what has happened.

Why is this important?

Well, I choose my British Airways Economy Class short haul flights with great care (or I book them very far in advance) to ensure that I can select a seat in one of the aircraft’s exit rows or, at the very least in the one of the seats towards the front of the Economy Class cabin where there’s a little more leg room and where I won’t lose feeling in my legs after a couple of hours.

Just about whenever there’s an aircraft swap on one of my flights, my seat changes and I’m kicked out of the exit row seat and into some godforsaken row with just 29″ of pitch (legroom), and because I almost never get a message from BA telling me that this has happened, by the time I’ve realised that I’ve lost my seat, the exit row seats and the seats towards the front of the cabin have been taken and I’m left with the dregs.

On flights of one or two hours in length, this isn’t the end of the world (I’ll live!), but I often fly on some of BA’s longer short-haul routes where the flight times are four of five hours long, and 5+ hours in a seat with just 29″ of pitch is verging on torture if you have long legs (as I do).

Yes, I know that’s a little hyperbolic, but I’m usually ready to call Amnesty International after suffering through one of these flights!

How hard can it be for BA’s systems to inform me when my seat selection has changed? How hard can it be to make sure that the system emails every passenger with a seat assignment when that same system processes an aircraft swap?

Every other airline that I book with seems to be able to do it in a timely manner (with the exception of Qatar Airways which takes it’s time but eventually gets around to telling me), so why not BA?

It can get worse

As if losing an exit row seat wasn’t bad enough, British Airways can take its annoying habit further.

There have been instances where I’ve had an aircraft swap on one of my flights, been kicked out of the exit row, and been reallocated to a non exit row seat even though exit row seats are still available.

What’s that all about?!

I’ve already selected an exit row seat, I’ve confirmed that I’m eligible to sit in an exit row seat, so why when an aircraft swap happens and exit row seats are still available, am I not reseated in the exit row? Why am I suddenly in 29E?

Sure, this isn’t the worst-case scenario because it means that I’ve noticed the aircraft swap before all the good seats have been taken and I can do something about it, but it’s still super annoying.

Where the logic here?

Finally (for this rant), there’s one other highly illogical way the British Airways seating systems can act when there’s an aircraft swap.

A few times, I’ve had an aircraft upgauge on one of my short-haul flights and BA has gone from offering an A319 to offering an A320 on the route.

When this happens, the flight goes from offering 6 exit row seats (row 10) to 12 exit row seats (rows 11 and 12) and so, logically, you’d expect that the 6 people who were originally seated in row 10 would be moved to seats in row 11 and 12 and six other lucky passengers would also get an exit row seat.

Nope. Not when BA has anything to do with it.

Each time this has happened to me I’ve ended up in a seat somewhere behind the exit rows (usually in row 15 through 19) and I still can’t work out why.

Bottom line

As I said towards the beginning, yes, I know this is a “first world problem” and yes, I know that there are far bigger problems in the world than this (obviously), but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.

I know BA’s IT systems are from the early medieval period and that the people assigned to run them are most likely interns whose knowledge of IT only extends as far as being able to switch on a laptop, but is it too much to ask for passengers to be informed when their seat assignments are changed? Just how hard would it be to make sure that happens?

Related: Now that the duct tape has been ripped off, will British Airways have a problem of its own making?