Unable to book BA seat, booked via Qantas FF

[cwilko]

Via my Qantas FF, I have booked a Syd-London flight for June next year. It offered a partner airline flight (British Airways BA16). However, I can't reserve a seat via the Qantas platform, and the BA website seat selection doesn't appear to function. I'm inputting the details, but it's not working. Any suggestions, or past experience, with this please? Thankyou

 

[Danger]

Do you have any oneworld (or BA) status? If not, BA charges for seat selection, even in premium cabins, until 24 hours before departure.

That aside, you should be able to select or pay for a seat through BA's manage booking function.

 

[cwilko]

Thanks for your response.
No BA status unfortunately. Yes prepared for the cost of the seat selection, however the BA site doesn't seem to be functioning, even though I'm inputting all the Booking Number, departure, etc information. So I can't even purchase the seat at this stage. Not sure what to do, other than trying a phonecall to British Airways.

 

[Lynda2475]

Has the booking been ticketed?

Once before when I couldnt choose a seat it was because the booking hadnt been ticketed yet. Once the change had been ticketed I was able to go in and select seats for free (but i was QF Gold at the time so had status)

 

[cwilko]

Yes it's booked. But I don't have any special status.

 

[Lynda2475]

A booking gets you a PNR but to be ticketed you must have an 081- ticket number (usually comes as a PDF) this ticket number isnt always issued when the PNR is. Sometimes there is a lag.

A booking and Ticket are not the same thing.

 

[cwilko]

Hmm. I only have a Booking Reference No. issued by Qantas for my awards-purchased booking. I think I'll have to get onto British Airways ... somehow haha! There are no actual people to talk to anymore. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.

 

[Lynda2475]

No you need to chase Qantas, it will be a Qantas ticket for a BA flight.

It can sometimes take 24-48hours for a ticket to be issued if booked online and longer if done over the phone as awards go to a manual ticketing queue. If its been a few days you should call up and get them to check why its not ticketed; if it takes too long the booking can be cancelled.

Check that your credit card was charged for the taxes? If it hasn't been charged (as opposed to pending) it likely still awaiting ticketing.

Once ticketed you will be able to pay for seats on the BA site.

 

[cwilko]

All good. I called BA and got to speak to someone. The seat selection is free if you select 24 hour before ... but who wants to take that risk. So I've purchased seats for our 2 tickets, at a cost of $A426 for optimum area of Business Class cabin. Worth it for such a long haul. Thankyou again for yourhelp.