Originally Posted by
Tumbleweed666
1. They hope they can still sell seats in those cabins so they don't want to fill up seats with non rev too early.
2. If they always do this when its empty, then there is no incentive for anyone to buy first class.
Err, well actually the incentive is that people might not have the miles to travel in F. That really ought to be sufficient. If BA allowed you to redeem into F and J buckets (i.e. essentially whenever there is a seat available) then they should still be selling most of their seats for money because there shouldn't be anything like enough miles in circulation to fill those cabins. In fact, BA have been throwing miles around all over the place, and then they effectively had to devalue the miles they've been so generously giving people by restricting availability so much. It's all madness.
Originally Posted by
Sixth Freedom
If BA are reasonably confident of selling a seat, even if that sale is 1 hour before check in for the flight closes, they will not open availability for redemptions.
Not as simple as that. I've seen U-class availability open up (and I've used it) on flights showing J1 C1 D0 R0 I0 with about two weeks to go before the flight and at a time of year so busy they could have sold that one seat twenty times over.
Originally Posted by
PUCCI GALORE
Can you not all get together in CW for the last leg?
I wouldn't recommend it. F is so much nicer than CW on the 777 to TLV and you can still guest the whole family into the Concorde Room which is a significant part of the trip on such a short (4.5 hour) flight. It's a daytime flight so a normal (not extended!) visit to the Buddy seat shouldn't be a problem, and F pax can always visit CW pax (even though it is more crowded back there!). Keep looking for availability - the 10K upgrade is such a baragin - and if you don't find it I strongly recommend splitting yourself across the two cabins for the trip: you won't feel that far apart.