Trying to book a flight - don't they want my business?

If I can't/don't get a reply from a big organisation I write on their Facebook page and Twitter, that always gets a response!

I was in the Vodafone shop recently dealing with a guy whose attitude was "the answer is no, what is the question?", believe me he could not have been worse. I turned to DH and said "When we leave the shop I am going straight on Vodafone's Facebook page and Twitter and going to tell them how unhelpful to an old lady ..... has been". It worked, he sorted my problem!

Hi Coolgran - well done to you flying long distance when you have this disorder. Yes, there are many reasons why people like to book seats in advance. It all depends on their own personal circumstances and preferences.
I would never consider that what I do is always appropriate for someone else.

I have a movement disorder which causes great pain and discomfort and I must be able to get up and move about when necessary. I can be on my feet for hours. Not easy to do this on a flight from UK to West Coast USA if you are at a window seat.

We always book our seats so I get an aisle seat. It's ok even if DH is on the other side of the aisle. But we also want the rear seats. Yes, I know these are considered poor seats and near the toilets but it causes the least inconvenience (pardon the pun) to others. I am not walking up and down the aisle to find a tiny standing space to myself. I can flip my seat up and stand in my seat area or slightly outside of it without everyone on the flight wondering what I am up to. I also carry a medical card to confirm I have this condition.

Our seats were booked at the time of the reservation at no extra cost via Thomas Cook. Further up the cabin I think there is a fee to book seats that are slightly bigger by about 1" leg room.

AS it happens we have been to ALL 53 States over the last 18 years WE have done a lot of air miles , and of course My DH, during the course of his career has flown a lot more extra miles .!

Read my post of 21.21, which I will reiterate, so IMO I am not being flippant.

I do not wish to cause you any distress or discomfort, so I will withdraw from this conversation.

I send good wishes to you.

Don't know why you have to adopt such a patronising attitude. Really!
Nine hours is 'nothing'?? So maybe I should mention that I have flown to 18 different US states, and lived and worked in the Middle East, Far East and Africa so I probably know more about long distance flying than you could shake a stick at.

I wouldn't fly if I couldn't sit next to OH. I started this thread,purely out of interest, to know if other grans had experienced problems trying to book advance seats and others came on with helpful.comments which were much appreciated.

Where I was sitting when the plane crashed is irrelevant so why would you ask? 13 on board, two killed, 3 seriously injured. The other 8, myself included, escaped serious injuries. Enough info? Maybe if you had experienced such a traumatic ordeal you wouldn't be so flippant. Some people.....

GEE WHIZ , was only asking where you were seated in what I thought was a polite manner,Didn"t actually ask your knicker size, ^AND ^if memory serves I offered sympathy about your air incident.

Don"t know what point I am supposed to be missing, but OH have been known to sit not to each other, regards a 9 hour flight that is nothing , we go frequently Stateside and take 13 hour flights to the West coast .

We also go to Mauritius and THAT IS A LONG FLIGHT 14 hours right to the Indian Ocean.

[Hmm]

I don't really want to discuss where I was seated. It was not a passenger plane, and you are missing the point.
Suffice is to say i need to be next to an exit and will pay for the privilege. If you are happy to take the risk of maybe undertaking a 9 hour flight not sitting next to your OH, that's up to you. Airlines do their best to juggle seats but it's not always possible, particularly if the flight is overbooked - which is quite common.

I am sorry to hear you were involved in a bad air incident.

May I ask where you were seated ?

I was involved in a bad air incident several years ago in the Far East. Small plane, engine caught fire, crash landed. Great fear of flying now but DD lives in Miami so travel there twice a year. Makes a LOT of difference to me where I sit and I'm prepared to pay to reserve a seat of my choice.

Why do you need to know where you are sitting before you book?
I am afraid I cannot understand that !

We book our flights to various destinations and then about 2 days before flying go on-line and check where they have put us and if we don"t like CHANGE.
Simple as a pimple to me.

Perhaps you will explain ?

Check out the cost of ringing via Skype, I'm not sure of the cost but it might be cheaper.

I've booked a number of flights recently with different airlines on-line and you have to pay by card before you can choose your seats. These were 3 months ahead of flight departures.
I don't see a way of choosing seats on-line before you pay for the tickets unless you go thru an agent but then you may have a service charge on top of flight cost.
I remember last year for the four of us I paid £75 return just for seats with Thomas Cook for a holiday to Turkey.
If you book well in advance I can't see you having a problem getting the seats you want unless it's perhaps around Christmas time.

I travel with KLM and still get my 'points' whoever I book with

I may have to do that Tiggypiro. Have been booking BA direct for years though and accumulated lots of Avios,which have allowed us to upgrade. As far as I'm aware you don't get these points unless booking direct. May have to sacrifice them to save my sanity and look elsewhere, ha ha.

I thought I was being humorous........

Have you tried booking through Trailfinders, Travelbag or Dialaflight ? I have good service from all of them and they are usually cheaper than booking direct with the airline.

I'm laughing about it with DH! Don't call centres just get to everyone?!

0845 numbers are free from my BT landline.

I have a 0800 number to call BT which is also free.

I think you're letting everything get to you and you need to calm down and relax.

TBH Frannygranny I thought I had a deal like that though BT but, after contacting their call centre which is in some far flung part of the World, and holding on (due to 'a high volume of calls' of course!) for 20 minutes, I understand 0844 costs me 10p per min!
I tried to log on to my BT account but because I can't remember the answer to my security question which is 'What Is Your Parents Name? Well, I can't remember what I put originally! ... Was it my mums previous married name, her maiden name, her Christian name OR maybe my dad's surname - which was different to my mums? Now I've been 'blocked' as I had four unsuccessful attempts at answering and now obviously pose a security threat to BT! There is no option for 'Forgot security answer?'. I have to laugh or I'll cry, or run amok. What a frustrating time!!

You could try Lastminute or Expedia online. Nothing to loose, Louisa.

I try to never use 0844/0845 numbers as I have a deal with my service provider for free calls to all calls except premium numbers. Have you tried "Say No to 0845"? I use all the time and it saves me a fortune. Good luck getting the seats of your choice.

Round and round . . . .

Yes, I have emailed, but got an automated response stating they are receiving an exceptional number of emails!! Can't win. Have to see the funny side of it!

Have you tried emaling them? At least you would not be hanging on at the end of the phone line waiting for them to answer.

I can't figure why BA cannot show seat availability before you pay. EasyJet does! You can check any flight and see how busy or otherwise it is.