Well, I'm assured that the BA employee who took the booking (which was made over the phone) guaranteed a seat for me, so maybe its that staff member who has this wrong. I certainly do think BA can be castigated for this, as all the other airlines that we travelled with managed to fulfill my requirements with ease and the BA employee at no time stated that this asinine policy would be in force (or my colleague simply would have booked a ticket elsewhere). Although I was in very real discomfort on this flight because of my height, I certainly wasn't alone. Many other (smaller) people in Economy were having problems with their seating too. The outward flight (booked through BA) ended up thankfully being on Qantas,who seem to have a very different attitude to Economy class. ie. Enough space to sit in comfort and recline the seat without causing discomfort to the passenger behind (as was happenning to several people on the BA flight). Although I do think paying out (a lot) more money to sit in another section is unfair and penalising me just for being taller than average, that's not the point. The point is that we were guaranteed a seat with extra leg room by a BA employee and acted in good faith (with information provided by that employee) that this would be provided. Every other company we used fulfilled their promise, but if this policy (or rather 'non policy' is common amongst other airlines) then I will certainly consider upgrading to a higher class. But not ever again with BA, I find their and their staff's attitude disgusting. Also, I have friends who've worked for their Euroflleet services for many years now and they're desperate to get out, as a once excellent company goes further and further downhill.

Hi There, I've often dipped into this site before but never felt the need to post. But after my recent trip with BA, I just had to share this with you.. I flew back from Shanghai to London with BA on May 5th and experienced one of the worst flights I've ever had with any airline. I'd been on a tour of Australia and China for two weeks which entailed 9 seperate flights with differing airlines (Qantas/Jetstar/Shaghai Airlines and BA). Even though my seat with extra leg room had been booked a month in advance (I'm 6"3) I got on board to find no seat allocated and the cabin staff indifferent to helping me out. Most of my 13hr journey was spent standing,as the seat I'd been given was woefully inadequate and I couldn't sit in it for more than 20 mins or so without getting cramp. To add insult to injury I then found out that most of the people in the seats I should have been sitting in had only booked their seats 24hrs beforehand (and I was a good deal taller than all of them too!). As all my travel requirements had been followed to the letter by all the other airlines, I was hugely dissappointed that the only time I travelled on my own national airline should have been handled with such incompetence and insensitivity. When I informed the cabin staff that my seats had been booked a month earlier they just shrugged their shoulders and gave the attitude of 'Well, other people are sitting there now- we can't do anything about it'. We're flying longhaul again later this year and I shall insist on using a professional, 21st century airline like Qantas or Cathay, not hamfisted, bumbling BA!