Does anyone have experience with BA's practices in this regard? I was looking recently at LHR-JFK, and on the day of the flight BA was selling CW tickets for cash (and not listing anything about "Only X seat(s) left at this price, book now to avoid disappointment"). So I assume they have plenty of room in CW. Yet they were not offering any CW award bookings on these flights.

Any guesses on what is going on? It seems foolish for the seats to go out empty -- and even if they are hoping people upgrade with cash at check-in, presumably there will not be a lot of these.

Perhaps I am missing something obvious?