Clinic Thread – Why is BA’s award availability so bad? And why are the fees so high?
 

Ahh, that old chestnut. This thread is intended for advice, help and guidance on spending BA miles when you are struggling to find what you want. It may also be a holding place for intemperate rants on the same subject. There is no answer to this as it depends on a whole raft of variables e.g. destination, season, fare class, time of booking, sale or not, special events. Some tips:

• The most challenging flights are SYD, SIN, BKK, MLE and certain Caribbean destinations in season. For these you need to book a long, long way out, often as far as 350 days when seats become available.

• It is a common misconception that seats are released on all flights on all days. They aren’t so don’t be surprised if your preferred Friday night the week before Christmas to SYD in F is never available

• Equally, once seats have gone does not mean nothing else will show up. Revenue management often release more space, even days before departure

• MFU and Award space are one and the same

• Remember than award seats are not a substitute for paying for a ticket. They part of a deal you enter into with the airline. In return for your loyalty we will give you access to premium seats for very little cash outlay. But the deal is you may have to plan ahead, and seats may be limited

• If you aren’t using a 241 voucher or GUV2, consider partners airlines. You may be surprised by availability (Iberia to Central and Southern America for example) and may even fly on a better airline than BA.

• The fees. Sadly BA charge you all the airport and passenger service fees, on top of the fuel surcharge. In addition you also pay the UK Air Passenger Duty for UK originating/stopping over itineraries. These can be substantial. Check them via a dummy booking on ba.com

• If you approach this with flexibility and sensible expectations, you can do very, very well. I’ve flown Concorde to NYC and F to every continent BA serves more than once using BA miles. It can be done!

So, questions are welcome as are any pearls of wisdom to add above.

Would be useful for those SYD/BKK/SIN/MLE J hunters, to confirm in the write-up:
A) how far in advance awards are released? Some people say 350days in advance, some say 355; are either officially stated anywhere on BA.com?
B) when they are loaded to systems? Is the 350/355 advance availability loaded at 12midnight, or some other time?

Be creative with routings within the same 'zone' and get an 'open-jaw' ticket.

For example, it's possible to fly from London to any US city and return from any other city on one miles ticket, with the ability to use a 2-4-1. I did this last month - LHR-LAS/SFO-LHR in Club for 100k miles and a 2-4-1. The connecting flight was all of $150/pax on Virgin America. We specifically flew back from SFO as there was no return availability from LAS.

Note: You will need to use BA.com to search for availability in each direction 'manually' (use a pen and paper to note down the details of the flights where you can find seats) and then call the EC to book. You might incur an offline service fee, but it's worth it if you can assemble a trip close to what you want.

Good advice. Worked for me numerous times ^

Thus the incredible usefullness of one-ways. I almost always book open jaw awards (after spending all that effort to get the miles, I'm reluctant to spend the whole trip in one place! :))

One-ways can be booked on-line no problem and, if you have to change your itinerary before you return but after the trip has started, no problem. Can't do it with a round trip.

Can always do a double open jaw, too. Fly A to B, return C to D.

Whoo-hoo!

Well I don't think that the fees are that high. I have arrived this afternnon in AKL, flying BA F as far as HKG and CX J from HKG (no F on CX to AKL). it cost me 300k miles and 559 GBP. I think that to have F & J from LHR to AKL and back for £559 is excellent value. I booked this less than a month ago, so you can get availability. Yes I am GGL, but this didn't use the joker, and Gold extra availability is only in Y

Another hint: move to a country full of exceptionally cheap people to which BA is forced to send F cabins for at least part of the year although nobody would ever pay for it.

Hello F award availability ^

:eek:Surely not a better airline - wash your mouth out sir! :D Says he who really enjoyed a flight back from HKG in F on CX ;)

I think it is good to remember bookings are flexible so it can be worth booking something close to your ideal and continue to check in case your dates become availble and then changing your original booking.

Also I have had some luck in booking 2 single flights rather than one return, but alas you cannot do this to get full benefit of a 241.

One question - how can you check partner availabilty when there are BA seats on the route, eg HKG?

Good advice but I don't think you can use a 241 both ways if you do this.

No you cannot use a 241 that way as a 241 has to start ex-UK.

You may want to write a short section the 'value' of miles. I've seen a few threads on moans about miles being worth £20 when used to buy discounted economy domestic tickets.

Miles are good for last minute domestic and short haul tickets, possibly even last minute long haul.

Is that a new one? ;)

Putting the cost of these flights at £559 would be on the basis that you value 300k miles as nothing so they don't contribute to the "cost".

Everyone values their miles differently, depending primarily on how those miles were earned or bought in the first place but to give them zero cost/value for pricing a redemption isn't (to me at least) the right comparison.

My advice would be for those of us who live in the regions.

Domestic flights are included in mileage rate your quoted leaving direct from London for straight mileage bookings (including Amex 2F1). You have to pay if it is MFU.

I often find you can get no availability for the domestic leg - or at silly hours - or into the wrong London airport only.

Find availabilty for the flights in/out of London to your destination. I then call up and make the booking over the phone but state you need the domestic connections - requesting the times you want.

I have had a 100% success rate on getting the domestic flights i have requested added on. The agent will book the long haul flight immediatly and then put a request in for the domestic flight to be released. They will call you back to confirm once released (within 2 to 24 hours in my experience).

For what it is worth I try and get a flight arriving in London 3-4 hours before the long haul to allow time in the lounges. Get the first one I possibly can on the return.

Quite! Valuing the miles at just 1p each puts this fare on a par with the current EK sale in F to Aus/NZ. QF's F saver fare LHR-AKL is £6900, so that values your miles at about 2p each which I believe is a good target to shoot for.

deleted. Answered my own question!

Why never any award availability for MIA!!
 

I never used to have a problem booking award availability to/from MIA in the past in either May or November.

I have booked WTP from LHR-SFO-MIA-LHR and MFU'ed LHR-SFO no problem but the award availability for MIA-LHR is non-existent. I have looked every day since I booked these flights (the day they came out!) and no award availabilty at all.

Any idea why?:confused:

The seats sell so why give many away - as discussed on several threads
Its untrue to say never as Ive travelled on awared seats for MIA every November for the last three years. Just check every day, and look to travel on off peak days such as Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
You may have to be more flexible and go via somewhere. JFK is often good, using JetBlue for the trip down to the sunshine

I have to agree, I've never seen availability to MIA so bad.

I eventually found something but had to completely change dates of travel, and go out on the BA209 which I hate. No availability on the 207 for 3 months that I checked.

I think somebody touched on possibility of reasons for lack of award space, though not specific to this route. BA have given out a great deal of miles lately for one reason or another, also the Chase promotion, and it appears less space is being made available. Combine those and it does appear that redemption availability has changed quite considerably on some routes.

A P Yu - like you I travel every year (often twice or three times) on award space to MIA. But it's never been as bad as this - even on the Tuesdays and Wednesdays you suggest. I was looking September through November. Seats may of course ultimately sell and of course I'll be very happy for that. But being privvy to seeing what the actual loads are on these flights I can see no logic for award space not being there.

The only thing I noticed on the last few flights from LHR-MIA was a lot more europeans in Club. Usually Club on that route was mainly British with a few Americans. I am wondering whether the mergers have affected this route and therefore award seats are more available to partner airline programs - just a thought.

Delta are starting MIA arent they which may help spread the load a little bit.

I do MIA once or twice a month and book WT+ and upgrade on miles and havent had difficulties since November. Done it the day before MIALHR time before last.

Sunrisegirl - I think it's to do with the blocking of seats to travel agents and cruise lines in this particular route. Such blocking won't be seen in the 'Numbers booked' figures you can see, but probably have to be accounted for by revenue management. Although that doesn't account for why this year is worse than previous. I find about two weeks before a sale these things loosen up.

there were quite a few mia award seats around at the start of the year, even through to april, but they have long since disappeared. what about trying Orlando (see above for creative routing ideas)?

Agree with bigmerv
Let's be honest ... thousands of people want to go to FLORIDA.
Why? Dunno, that's their choice, despite the weather this week! :eek:

However, people thinking that BAEC will find me a seat to there, then, NOW, CHEAP isn't really going to be a winner. The same applies to those appealing destinations in the Far East.

Solution? Try going somewhere near, and then either driving or flying to where you actually want to be [especially in the USA]. Does BAEC honestly have to give you a doorstep delivery, on their intense routes, as a Reward Flight?

The last time my Bro-in-law and his OH joined us in VA, they flew into Atlanta and then they hopped an internal up to DC. They wanted cheap, they put in the effort to get it. Is it that difficult to think outside the 'point to point' box?

Good advices, I would like to mention that IMO out of the Major airlines I use (LH, LX, CX) BA as probably the best award availibilty at least in F. I love my BA F US-EU!

One question on that one: if a 2-4-1 only last for a year, and the outbound must be taken within that year, how do people prepare for those 'in demand' destinations? Is it by having a Platinum BA AMEX which gives two years to organise flights?

I must confess I'm new to this redemption game (have got about 150k with a 2-4-1 to be used by 2012 and not sure where to go). Have been rather disappointed to find that most of South America is all booked up in J for the second half of the year. Not going to whinge, because I should perhaps learn the system better (and I didn't expect to get the 2-4-1 so soon - I would rather have got it later!) but it is still rather dispiriting.

In which case, thank you Swanhunter for that invaluable advice.

241's last for 2 years if you have the premium plus card. @:-)

It becomes a fine call though. Add on the fees that BA want for an award booking, plus the cost of an extra flight (especially if you want J) and the fact you're foregoing miles then you end up thinking you could pay a shade more, get a direct flight and a wadge of miles to boot (expect the miles are now seen as worthless...)

Could well be. Mind you I know of a few colleagues and a good number of friends (BA passengers) who'd love to see LGW start a FLL service. The cruise market there is now as big, if not bigger, than MIA.

I'm hoping that nearer the time things might open up a bit.

Unfortunately, its also worth noting that LH has just announced that its MIA flights are going to A380's. This means no F awards for Diamond Club members (not sure if they also restrict J), so those with BA and BMI accounts will also now be after BA's award availability.

Question regarding fuel surcharge when using miles to book award tickets.
 

Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me out with this query. I'd like to book a J class ticket from YYZ-HKG via CX with my BA miles. Why is BA adding the fuel surcharge to the price of a ticket when I'm not flying BA metal. Adding to the confusion is the fact that I can book a J class ticket with my miles (via BA site as well) from YYZ-MIA-BAI on AA metal and there is no fuel surcharge on the price.

Is the fact that i could technically fly YYZ-LHR-HKG with BA metal the reason for the fuel surcharge? Thank you.

Short answer, where the operating airline imposes a fuel surcharge on a given route, you should expect this charge to be passed on to the customer when booked as a BAEC redemption ticket. In the case of YYZ-HKG on Cathay Pacific, the fuel surcharge imposed by Cathay Pacific for a business class ticket is currently set at CAN$ 110.73 each way.

I see, when I was looking at the price breakdown on the BA site, it stated the policy in regards to flying on BA. Thanks for the clear-up.

ANY redemptions to LAS?? Time to go twice daily!!
 

Trying to get a o/w redemption to LAS and have been looking (for April) over the last couple of months

Obvious priority to J but not wanting to stopover (there is / was availability via ORD and LAX) I decided to look at Y and Y+ and there is literally NOTHING

Quite unbelievable

I know MLE and other destinations (BKK and SYD spring to mind) are tough to find in J but LAS is tough to find in ANY booking class

Can't wait for the 747 -> this route really does need not just F but also the extra capacity^

not just LAS - J availability to LAX/SFO is also very hard to get. I don't think the move to the 744 will help this. Also, with the holidays in April, people would have booked awards a long way out.

As a general rule you need to start looking 12 months out especially on the popular routes. This is even truer if you are wanting to travel in Holiday times. e.g. Easter is late April this year.

It must just come down to how far in advance the booking is made. I have booked 5 return journeys to Vegas over a 15 month period in both J & F, almost always travelling on my optimum dates. I did have to come back via LAX on one trip but all others are direct.

I presume the F ones are in the future!

J to LAS is very hard to get and always has been since the route started (as it is with VS miles also on their LAS flight).

One data point notwithstanding, but I'd no trouble getting 2xJ redemptions to SFO for the Easter-Royal wedding holidayfest period, booking around Boxing Day.

OP might consider PHX, it usually has good availability.

Blawson, as someone who also lives in your part of the world and inexperienced at MFU I find your posting very helpful and will indeed give it a shot as they say.

Thanks, Shorthaul