British Airways’ (BA) new charge to select a seat in advance could put customers off flying with the airline, according to a survey conducted by a London travel agent.
Travel Designers director Nick McKay sent out a survey to 2,506 clients and fans of his ‘Say No to BA seat reservation charges’ group on social networking site Facebook. McKay has seen 203 people join his Facebook group since September.
A total of 91% of those surveyed said they were “highly dissatisfied” with the charge, which means customers who want to choose their seat more than 24 hours before their flight will have to fork out between £10 and £60.
A further 57% of respondents said they were “very likely” to choose an alternative to BA following the imposition of the charges.
One customer said: “BA might be trying to recoup losses, but this is not the way to do it. This will badly affect families, who will have to pay £40 or more to sit together.”
Responding to the survey, BA sales manager for TMC channels Scott Davies said the airline would like to have worked more closely with the trade on the new charges.
“We’ve taken on board feedback from the trade around the introduction of our new seating policy and recognise that, ideally, we would have launched it with greater input from them.
“We certainly remain commited to consulting with the trade regarding any changes to our business that involve or affect them. We will of course take learnings from the introduction of this initiative. ”