Originally Posted by
shogan1977
I don't think availability within 24hrs was the OP's point...
That BA had pulled even short term availability was one of the points he was making. I pointed out that the short term availability was still there.
Some flights open close to departure but get this: two days ago, July 16 they opened 8 F seats on the 1800 LHR-BOS departure for this coming Saturday July 20. There were 5 pax booked at the time. Today, July 18, there are zero availability on that same flight. Guess what, still only 5 pax booked. Nobody redeemed seats yet they pulled them down to zero. The last departure on that same day has only 1 pax booked and zero Avios availability. And oh by the way, the other cabins are open so it's not an overbooking/protection issue they are holding the F seats for.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/21121254-post1.html
Originally Posted by
diver858
It appears that BA may be following AA's lead by severely limiting saaver award availability on their metal, in favor of lower cost partners. For example, AS seems to be carrying the load for AA from the West Coast to Hawaii, AB to Europe. When booking a flight with Avios a few months back for my daughter within Europe, the only availability was on AB.
On the AB nonstop from LAX-TXL on July 10 (Wednesday), my daughter reports a half-full Y cabin - lots of room to stretch out.
My own view is that at least some of the reduced availability that people are complaining about is occasioned by the BA F and J awards being easily searchable and bookable on aa.com. There are a number of complaints on the aa forum from folks saying the only saaver awards bookable are BA flights. Indeed aa seems to have restricted their own saaver awards thereby encouraging people to book aanytime awards or on partners. As I have loads of AA miles and BA avios for my August flights I was searching for AA or BA awards. AA F awards would have been preferable due to lower fees but no saaver awards were available although BA F and J awards were available.