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Availability of Business or First Class Awards

Availability of Business or First Class Awards

Old Jan 24, 2019, 9:39 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by JACCIH
What do the F and J mean? First class and ?
First & business class. (common use by many airline). Business class can also be referred to as C, depending on the airline.
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Old Jan 24, 2019, 10:59 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by eponymous_coward
But was it brutal drinking Krug in the front of the plane?
Sometimes one has to "suck it up" and take the brutal. Aren't you supposed to appreciate the finer things that way? Although on my last CX F HKG-LAX I had the flu, no Krug, no Caviar, ate a small portion of the bone-in tenderloin, kept hydrated with water and slept most of the way. Now that was truly brutal.

James

On JL6 today the brutal offering is Louis Roederer Cristal 2009 and Bollinger La Grande Anne 2007.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 11:23 pm
  #18  
 
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Fairly disgusted seeking o/w Europe to SEA in May. Coach over the pond silly , costly routings. XxxPHL-DFW(5 hr cnx) overnight DFW then SEA. Etc.

Randomly Seattle to Auckland in October. 5am Seattle - LAX for a midnight Fiji/AKL cons in coach

what is with ridiculous connections?
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 10:01 am
  #19  
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I am surprised that BA, on flights that have fairly empty F cabins just a few days out, aren't releasing anything.
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 12:43 pm
  #20  
 
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Hi -

Not trying to hijack the thread ... the 777 that CX flies HKG-SYD is a 3-class. They might swap it out from time to time, but generally, no F on the route.
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 1:00 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by Eastbay1K
I am surprised that BA, on flights that have fairly empty F cabins just a few days out, aren't releasing anything.
The policy on many(most?) non USA airlines is not to the fill the pointy end with upgrade & award flyers.
If frequent flyers thought they were entitled to (freebie) better seats, sales for real cash money of F & J would likely decrease
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 1:17 pm
  #22  
 
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I searched extensively for January 2018 availability from 360+ days out and every day following. No spot ever opened up the entire time except for Premium Economy on Qantas. There was never any released to Alaska. I complained to Alaska, but fell on deaf ears.

Their Europe connections are just frankly subpar right now. After losing Delta/Air/France/KLM, it's not at an acceptable level. They need a legitimate European partner.(BA is OK, but massive fuel surcharges).

They do have competitive amounts available for Asia from JAL/Cathay/Korean Air/American, etc. (hopefully Singapore will be added sometime, although they've been slow here too).

All this said, I've basically switched over to Chase Sapphire for most of my reward spending, because although Alaska advertises like it's easy to get award flights, the reality is, it's not.
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 2:13 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by Mwenenzi
The policy on many(most?) non USA airlines is not to the fill the pointy end with upgrade & award flyers.
If frequent flyers thought they were entitled to (freebie) better seats, sales for real cash money of F & J would likely decrease
I've been at this FF game for 33 years now. It isn't historically uncommon for these premium awards to be available at 2 main points - when the flights are loaded into inventory, and within a few days of travel if there is space. (This provides a good way for airlines to reduce their FF balance sheet and/or get $ from partner airlines on seats that would go vacant).
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 4:09 pm
  #24  
 
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Originally Posted by falawa
Fairly disgusted seeking o/w Europe to SEA in May. Coach over the pond silly , costly routings. XxxPHL-DFW(5 hr cnx) overnight DFW then SEA. Etc.

Randomly Seattle to Auckland in October. 5am Seattle - LAX for a midnight Fiji/AKL cons in coach

what is with ridiculous connections?
I was trying to do PNW to Europe in May a few months ago and even then I ended up with DE from YVR to FRA.
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Old Jan 28, 2019, 5:54 pm
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by Eastbay1K
I've been at this FF game for 33 years now. It isn't historically uncommon for these premium awards to be available at 2 main points - when the flights are loaded into inventory, and within a few days of travel if there is space. (This provides a good way for airlines to reduce their FF balance sheet and/or get $ from partner airlines on seats that would go vacant).
I have always wondered if that holds true. Do the $ they get from partners really offset the real costs of an amenity kit, pajamas, Krug & Caviar?

Of all the F awards I have flown, I have yet to be on a flight where occupancy has been more than 50%.

James
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Old Jan 29, 2019, 1:27 am
  #26  
 
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Originally Posted by Flying for Fun
I have always wondered if that holds true. Do the $ they get from partners really offset the real costs of an amenity kit, pajamas, Krug & Caviar?

Of all the F awards I have flown, I have yet to be on a flight where occupancy has been more than 50%.

James
Probably. The incremental cost of adding a passenger in a premium cabin is probably a couple hundred dollars. If there's a cost of 1cpm, that probably gets you to break-even or even a small profit on that seat. The key is that it does this without lowering the "headline price" on what is often a very expensive ticket (e.g. $10-20k for a super-long-haul F seat).
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Old Jan 29, 2019, 1:29 am
  #27  
 
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Originally Posted by gdam22
I searched extensively for January 2018 availability from 360+ days out and every day following. No spot ever opened up the entire time except for Premium Economy on Qantas. There was never any released to Alaska. I complained to Alaska, but fell on deaf ears.

Their Europe connections are just frankly subpar right now. After losing Delta/Air/France/KLM, it's not at an acceptable level. They need a legitimate European partner.(BA is OK, but massive fuel surcharges).

They do have competitive amounts available for Asia from JAL/Cathay/Korean Air/American, etc. (hopefully Singapore will be added sometime, although they've been slow here too).

All this said, I've basically switched over to Chase Sapphire for most of my reward spending, because although Alaska advertises like it's easy to get award flights, the reality is, it's not.
What you do (or at least, what I've done) is book with someone else on the outbound leg and then use AS for BA on the return with a non-UK origin.
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