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Help to check seat availability and flight loads

Old Jan 1, 2014, 6:10 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: NWIFlyer
If you wish to request availability for a specific flight, please state the date and origin/departure airport codes, not just the flight number.

Please also restrict requests to BA/oneworld flights - flights for other airlines may be removed to avoid cluttering the thread and taking it away from BAEC.


As of 15 Oct 2014 flightstats.com no longer displays flight availability.

Fare class availability can be queried in various ways*:

        * Please update wiki if you know of any others.
        ** Origin of data concealed


        What do the codes mean?
        Suppose we have a result as F1 A0 J9 C7 D0 RC IC W9 E9 T4 Y9 BC HC ...

        This means:
        There is 1 seat in the F bucket for sale
        There are 0 seats in the A and D bucket for sale, but you can join the waitlist in case seats get released later.
        There are at least 9 seats in the J, W, E and Y buckets.
        The R, I, B and H buckets are closed to waitlisting.

        There are two important things to note about how to interpret these numbers that many people don't understand as it is very counter intuitive:
        1) There is NO direct relation to the actual number of seats available on the specific flight. They only mean that the airline is willing to sell this many seats on that specific flight. The airline may intend to oversell seats or withhold seats from sale for many reasons.

        2) In the example above, the results show W9 E9 T4 (which are all WT+ buckets). This does not mean that there are 9+9+4=22 seats for sale. Interpret these numbers as "there are at least 9 seats for sale in WT+". There could really be anywhere between 9 and 22 seats for sale - we just can't tell from the numbers the system gives us. Therefore, the conservative approach of assuming that there are at least 9 seats for sale is usually the best one.

        What does the "C" mean?
        Closed to waitlisting.
        In the example above we have RC, IC, BC and HC. This is different to A0 and D0: The A and D buckets are "full" but you can apply to join their waitlists (if your fare permits waitlisting). With R, I, B and H you cannot even request a seat.

        The carrier will determine how to confirm your seat if it wishes. Sometimes this may happen immediately, other times only a few minutes before the flight's departure. The order of the waitlist is determined by the carrier privately, but your Executive Club status will push you towards the front of the queue. Many cheap fares do not allow waitlisting.

        Differences for non-BA airlines
        • Some carriers (those using Sabre such as AA) only show a maximum of 7 available seats (not 9). Others only show a maximum of 5.
        • Some carriers use "L" instead of "0" (e.g., CL DL YL) to indicate you may waitlist for the seat. This tends to happen when the entire flight is on a list basis.
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        Help to check seat availability and flight loads

        Old Jan 1, 2014, 6:09 am
          #1  
        Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges and Environmentally Friendly Travel
        Original Poster
         
        Join Date: Jan 2003
        Location: London, UK
        Posts: 22,200
        Arrow Help to check seat availability and flight loads

        As regular readers will have noticed there are an increasing number of threads asking for seat and flight availability details. To keep these in one place - and also to provide some self help - we have created a new master thread for 2014.

        How to look for seat and flight availability?
        www.ba.com can help. Using flight explorer you can see what 'fare bucket' is currently being sold and if less than 9 seats are left this will also be noted. If you have status or are travelling on a qualifying ticket Manage My Booking will also show you the seat map for your flights.

        www.expertflyer.com. A subscription web-based service that gives you access to the full inventory for flights and also allows you to access seats maps for many airlines (including BA up to departure). One point of note: it uses US Point of Sale availability which can and often does vary from UK availability especially on long routes (e.g. I is available in the US but only C in the UK)

        Last edited by Prospero; Aug 3, 2016 at 2:08 pm Reason: updated the period EF allows a subscriber to view seat maps
        Prospero is offline  
        Old Jan 1, 2014, 9:20 am
          #2  
         
        Join Date: Mar 2007
        Location: LON, RUH and DXB
        Programs: BA Bronze, GF, EK, WY
        Posts: 2,607
        A minor correction: ExpertFlyer does allow the point-of-sale to be selected, but the choices are only US (default) or UK, and you need to click the 'Show Advanced Options' button to see this.
        dunk is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 3:55 am
          #3  
         
        Join Date: Jan 2008
        Location: London
        Programs: British Airways Silver, Tesco, BA Amex, Kris Flyer
        Posts: 533
        How busy is my flight (loads)

        I can't for the life of me remember the website to check loads, could someone please let me know the loads for:

        BA15 - LHR-SYD (departs 24.1.14)
        BA16 - SYD-LHR (departs 1.2.14)

        Thanks in advance
        the_seeker1977 is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 3:56 am
          #4  
         
        Join Date: May 2012
        Location: Ipswich
        Posts: 7,543
        It's www.flightstats.com - look under the availability tab.

        (EDIT: Or indeed, now this thread has been moved follow the excellent instructions above!)

        Last edited by windowontheAside; Jan 22, 2014 at 4:49 am
        windowontheAside is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 4:58 am
          #5  
         
        Join Date: Apr 2006
        Location: London
        Programs: BA bronze, Hertz pres circle, Marriott Platinum, hilton diamond
        Posts: 2,537
        Originally Posted by the_seeker1977
        I can't for the life of me remember the website to check loads, could someone please let me know the loads for:

        BA15 - LHR-SYD (departs 24.1.14)
        BA16 - SYD-LHR (departs 1.2.14)

        Thanks in advance
        BA 15 1 LHR
        01/24/14 9:55 PM SYD
        01/26/14 7:00 AM 777
        Unavailable
        NA / NA F0 A0 J1 C1 W0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 G0


        BA 15 0 SIN
        01/25/14 8:05 PM SYD
        01/26/14 7:00 AM 777
        Unavailable
        86% / 19m F0 A0 J0 C0 W0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 G0
        aceman is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 5:36 am
          #6  
         
        Join Date: Aug 2013
        Posts: 137


        Can anyone help with this?
        The same flight number BA 2156 is showing more than 1 result with different stats.
        blackstone82 is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 8:52 am
          #7  
        FlyerTalk Evangelist
         
        Join Date: Feb 2009
        Location: From ORK, live LCY
        Programs: BA Silver, EI Silver, HH Gold, BW Gold, ABP, Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci
        Posts: 14,177
        That's probably because it has two legs, PUJ-ANU and ANU-LGW.
        stifle is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 9:12 am
          #8  
         
        Join Date: Aug 2013
        Posts: 137
        i still dont quite understand it though as the two different flight numbers are stated.
        BA 2156 and IB 4740.
        Both are listed once as direct.
        Both are listed as pug to anu with the other flight as the 2nd leg anu to lgw.
        regardless of flight number all are operated by BA.
        So why does each listed flight have a different number of available CW seats?
        blackstone82 is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 9:50 am
          #9  
        FlyerTalk Evangelist
         
        Join Date: Feb 2009
        Location: From ORK, live LCY
        Programs: BA Silver, EI Silver, HH Gold, BW Gold, ABP, Seigneur des Horaires des Mucci
        Posts: 14,177
        The Iberia codeshare may not be up to date, may be showing results from a different point of sale, or may have more seats available for market segmentation reasons.
        stifle is offline  
        Old Jan 22, 2014, 10:14 am
          #10  
         
        Join Date: Aug 2013
        Posts: 137
        ok cheers. was looking for a paid upgrade but the quote was more than the first leg in cw
        blackstone82 is offline  
        Old Feb 10, 2014, 7:13 am
          #11  
         
        Join Date: Jan 2014
        Location: UK
        Programs: BAEC Gold, Hilton Diamond
        Posts: 870
        Loads on BA175 this month

        I am travelling on BA175 on the 22nd and I am wondering how busy its looking.

        There have been plenty of cancellations on the LHR-JFK route this month and many have cited low loads as the reason.

        I am really looking forward to this trip in particular and would hate to be shunted onto a later flight as its a short trip I'm taking.
        BHDATC is offline  
        Old Feb 10, 2014, 7:19 am
          #12  
         
        Join Date: Jan 2006
        Programs: Mucci, BA Gold, HHonours Diamond, BA AMEX PremPlus
        Posts: 5,140
        F7 a7 j9 c9 d9 r9 w7 e6 t4 y9 b9 h9 k9 m9 l9 v4 o5 g0
        Teece is offline  
        Old Feb 19, 2014, 1:40 pm
          #13  
         
        Join Date: Nov 2013
        Programs: BA Gold
        Posts: 176
        Am on the BA0198 from Mumbai to London on the 21st march 13.50,when i booked the ticket a few weeks ago i was told this flight in wtp was busy,i got to Uua my outbound but no space for the return,have been watching on flightstats and at the moment its showing
        W2 E0 T0 ,however if i do a dummy booking on BA its saying 4W tickets left.I know this flight is still a few weeks off but am i right in thinking it could be close to being oversold,would really like to Uua or an op up would be even better.thanks
        tia2013 is offline  
        Old Feb 21, 2014, 1:51 am
          #14  
         
        Join Date: Jun 2007
        Location: Ayrshire/London
        Programs: BA,BD,VS,ANA
        Posts: 258
        BA423

        Could someone with EF access check the availability on the following flights
        BA423 lhr>cpt 27/2
        BA58 cpt>lhr 06/03

        much appreciated
        dm827430 is offline  
        Old Feb 21, 2014, 2:23 am
          #15  
         
        Join Date: Nov 2010
        Posts: 5,585
        BA 43 F4A2J0C0W3Y7B4H1 rest 0
        BA 58 F0A0J0C0W0Y9B9H7K4M2 rest zero.

        Plenty of chance for an opdown on BA58
        rapidex is offline  

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