Originally Posted by
anabolism
I'm unclear how BA benefits from eliminating A inventory. I understand that BA can easily say that Axxx fares now book into F, and that maintains the price discrimination and RM's ability to set the Axxx availability as they wish, but I don't see how this benefits BA (it keeps things as they are). Allowing AONEx fares to book into F would be nice for us, but means that if there's an F seat for sale, it can be booked with a (potentially cheap) AONEx fare, whereas as it is they can set A lower than F.
I think the intention is you will need availability in both F and A to book a first class A fare.
I suspect “A” will eventually become primarily a mid tier business class bucket, except for dual-inventory A fares which allow booking into F if there is space in the A bucket and the F bucket.
Similar logic to the “instant upgrade” fares that are common in North America.
I don’t see it as a nefarious move. The main thing that should concern us is not that this is an attempt to remove AONEx flyers, rather that BA might not treat the AONEx product range as a high priority.