golfmad

ASA - Advertising Standards Authority
BA - British Airways
OFT - The Office of Fair Trading

Steve in Olympia

Thank you. But where is the law that says "BA is obligated by law to release one seat in each cabin for each flight" (post 617)?

golfmad

No idea. I was just answering the easy part of your post

golfmad

I've read post 617 now.

BA have stipulated that they will make at least one redemption ticket available in each cabin for each flight. If someone has evidence that this is not the case then this can be reported to the ASA or the OFT and appropriate action will be taken.

There will not be a specific law on the statute books that directly relates to the airline's frequent flyer programme.

Steve in Olympia

In fact, BA has only stipulated that they will make an award seat available each week, not for every flight and not for every cabin. The Terms & Conditions are very clear:

"As a minimum, British Airways makes some seats available for Reward bookings on all routes operated by British Airways on some flights in each direction for each week of operation throughout the year. The total number of seats available for Reward bookings will vary from route to route and from week to week depending on commercial demand. Reward bookings on an Airline Partner are subject to the availability determined by the Airline Partner. Members are advised to make Reward bookings well in advance of the date of travel however British Airways cannot guarantee that a Member will be able to make an Reward booking on any specific flight regardless of the time of booking."

HarryHolden68

For the IHG Autumn promotion, I would like to travel London - North America
I have a ten day window in early November 13 from 2nd to 12th
I have a choice of 10 locations including JFK, ORD, YVR, SEA, LAX, DEN, MEX, IAD, SFO, MIA
I want a minimum of 4 nights in resort
I want to travel F or at worst J
I am using an Amex 241
Availability on BA awards within parameters is zero. Finding this out wasted 4 hours of my 600,000 life.

I officially give up with Awards

Virgin (paid) 1 v BA 0

golfmad

There are 3 J seats LHR-JFK on 2nd November and 5 J seats on the return a week later on the 9th.

Finding this out took me about 2 minutes. What method are you using?

710 77345

That's not right Steve - BA sent out a mailshot earlier this year saying that it would make an award seat available in every cabin on every flight.

Also, the onus is on BA to prove that this is the case if someone complained to the ASA - as a consumer you don't need to find a smoking gun; the ASA will ask BA to provide copies of their policies that ensure this promise is kept.

Steve in Olympia

I do not claim to have a perfect memory, but I certainly do not recall seeing such an announcement in the recent past (and I receive e-mails from BA on behalf of all four members of my Household Account, so I would have had four chances of seeing it).

Also, I think that news would have received extensive discussion on this board, which I follow quite religiously. (Perhaps I was travelling that week!)

If anyone has the particulars on this announcement, I would love to see it.

(Since the Terms & Conditions only promise to release award seats on "some flights" every week -- not every cabin on every flight every day -- I suspect that the e-mail announcement probably only stated a "goal" or "aspiration" -- and not an enforceable requirement.)

Anyone have more details? Thanks!

jerry a. laska

See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t+every+flight

Also was discussed in this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...t+every+flight

angatol

.....

Swiss Tony

I haven't been through all 44 pages of this thread but one observation I've made is that - at least in recent weeks - AA have had NO premium award availability at the sAAver levels on USA->UK flights.

So only those AA members flush with points will be booking onto AA at the x2 levels, leaving the rest of them fighting with all the BA members (plus whoever else) for the increasingly scarce award availability on BA.

This doesn't seem like much of an alliance to me...

DG55

Great! Cheers.

And a further question to that; since it is a connecting trip, am I permitted to use the lounge at MIA? Bearing in mind the leg on AA metal will be economy and only the second leg on BA will be club.

Possibly a long shot.

rumbataz

The last time I was able to use my BA miles/Avios for a flight was around 5 years ago. Since then I have not been able to find any availability whatsoever to any destination that I would like to travel to.

My latest example is trying to get my friend and her daughter from LED to LHR for a 3-night short holiday in November this year. Trying to get one adult and one child on a paid flight is around 1,200 GBP!

There is nothing available in any class.

Very, very disappointed. I have loads of worthless Avios. I never had this kind of problem on (the former) BMI, Virgin Atlantic or Emirates. Why does BA appear to do its best to discourage loyalty?

Rant over.

jerry a. laska

Checking random dates in November I've found availability for 1 adult and 1 child on a number of dates. Some involve a connection (usually through TXL with AB) others are rfs flights from LHR-LED. Some are ET others are CE.
For example,

Dep 08:0515 NovLED Arr 07:2515 NovTXL airberlin LED - TXL AB8487
Dep 11:1515 NovTXL Arr 12:1515 NovLHR British Airways TXL - LHR BA0991

Dep 09:3018 NovLHR Arr 17:0018 NovLED British AirwaysBA0878