When do last minute award seats open up?
Jan 2, 2012, 5:56 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 170
When do last minute award seats open up?
Hi all. I am flying to London on the 13th of January and am currently booked CW out of Phoenix. I would prefer to fly out of San Diego but currently there is no availability. How soon before flights does BA typically release seats for award travel? I don't have any way to check loads but when I made the booking originally and asked about San Diego they said although there were no seats available they said the load factor was very low.
Thanks for any advice!
Thanks for any advice!
Jan 2, 2012, 6:12 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: LON, RUH and DXB
Programs: BA Bronze, GF, EK, WY
Posts: 2,607
Currently as follows:
Results from ExpertFlyer.com
Revenue management is an unpredictable dark art as has been discussed here recently, but you could surmise ...
- BA are prepared to sell at least 9 seats in CW but only in J or C ex-US (so not lower buckets)
- WT+ is pretty busy, so they may expect to roll people forward
- and as T is still open, they may be actively encouraging this
Depending on how the situation develops over the next week or so, they may open up redemption seats but who knows ? Keep looking !
hth
Results from ExpertFlyer.com
Code:
Flight Availability Search
Departing SAN on 13/01/12 0:00 for LON
Flying BA
Frequency
Flight Stops Depart Arrive Aircraft Reliability Available Classes
0 Connections
BA 272 0 SAN LHR 777 Unavailable J9 C6 W2 E2 T2 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 G9
13/01/12 21:00 14/01/12 15:20 75% / 20m
- BA are prepared to sell at least 9 seats in CW but only in J or C ex-US (so not lower buckets)
- WT+ is pretty busy, so they may expect to roll people forward
- and as T is still open, they may be actively encouraging this
Depending on how the situation develops over the next week or so, they may open up redemption seats but who knows ? Keep looking !
hth
Jan 2, 2012, 7:26 pm
#3
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: ARN
Programs: Mucci Entry Level, BA Gold, EK Pleb, SK Pleb, QR Pleb
Posts: 3,585
Hi all. I am flying to London on the 13th of January and am currently booked CW out of Phoenix. I would prefer to fly out of San Diego but currently there is no availability. How soon before flights does BA typically release seats for award travel? I don't have any way to check loads but when I made the booking originally and asked about San Diego they said although there were no seats available they said the load factor was very low.
Thanks for any advice!
Thanks for any advice!
I'm pretty sure that Thursday flights will show award availability when I wake up in 7-8h
So it seems 48h before departure is when additional award seats are released.
Jan 3, 2012, 3:21 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
It depends on route. Cape Town is famous for operating as you discuss above - indeed, I am hoping to snag 5 CW seats on the direct CPT-LHR flight at the end of Jan instead of the currently booked 5 CPT-JNB-LHR. Other routes don't do the same, though.
Jan 3, 2012, 4:06 am
#5
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: ARN
Programs: Mucci Entry Level, BA Gold, EK Pleb, SK Pleb, QR Pleb
Posts: 3,585
Also on the day-flight CPT-LHR.
Jan 3, 2012, 4:18 am
#6
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Oxon, UK
Programs: Mucci des canapes, Skywards Gold, BAEC Gold, IC Plat Amb, Accor Gold
Posts: 1,948
I am looking at options for upgrading from CW to F on the LHR -CPT route. As above I have seen lots of seats opening up close to time but only on the afternoon departure fromLHR and morning from CPT. Yet to see anything on the evening flights in the past couple of months of looking.
Jan 3, 2012, 4:27 am
#7
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: ARN
Programs: Mucci Entry Level, BA Gold, EK Pleb, SK Pleb, QR Pleb
Posts: 3,585
I am looking at options for upgrading from CW to F on the LHR -CPT route. As above I have seen lots of seats opening up close to time but only on the afternoon departure fromLHR and morning from CPT. Yet to see anything on the evening flights in the past couple of months of looking.
It's not very FT-style to go direct when you can connect for the same price
Jan 3, 2012, 4:48 am
#10
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: ARN
Programs: Mucci Entry Level, BA Gold, EK Pleb, SK Pleb, QR Pleb
Posts: 3,585
True, It will depend on the flexibility of the CW ticket and possibly change fees. But for the upgrade to F it will be same amount of Avios as long as you sit in economy on the short hop JNB-CPT.
Edit: And of course it's Club on JNB-CPT as it's a paid CW ticket
Edit: And of course it's Club on JNB-CPT as it's a paid CW ticket
Last edited by Lobengula; Jan 3, 2012 at 5:15 am
Jan 3, 2012, 5:06 am
#11
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Oxon, UK
Programs: Mucci des canapes, Skywards Gold, BAEC Gold, IC Plat Amb, Accor Gold
Posts: 1,948
The nice people at BA are prepared to sell me an upgrade to F but not a price I would want to pay. I'm just interested in the big difference between upgrade availability for the earlier and later flights (I will be more than happy to keep the seats I have).
Jan 3, 2012, 6:04 am
#12
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 631
Currently as follows:
Results from ExpertFlyer.com
Revenue management is an unpredictable dark art as has been discussed here recently, but you could surmise ...
- BA are prepared to sell at least 9 seats in CW but only in J or C ex-US (so not lower buckets)
- WT+ is pretty busy, so they may expect to roll people forward
- and as T is still open, they may be actively encouraging this
Depending on how the situation develops over the next week or so, they may open up redemption seats but who knows ? Keep looking !
hth
Results from ExpertFlyer.com
Code:
Flight Availability Search
Departing SAN on 13/01/12 0:00 for LON
Flying BA
Frequency
Flight Stops Depart Arrive Aircraft Reliability Available Classes
0 Connections
BA 272 0 SAN LHR 777 Unavailable J9 C6 W2 E2 T2 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 G9
13/01/12 21:00 14/01/12 15:20 75% / 20m
- BA are prepared to sell at least 9 seats in CW but only in J or C ex-US (so not lower buckets)
- WT+ is pretty busy, so they may expect to roll people forward
- and as T is still open, they may be actively encouraging this
Depending on how the situation develops over the next week or so, they may open up redemption seats but who knows ? Keep looking !
hth
I thought Expert Flyer did not support BA award travel/upgrades?
Jan 3, 2012, 6:11 am
#13
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jan 2009
Programs: Battleaxe Alliance
Posts: 22,127
Jan 3, 2012, 6:14 am
#14
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
No, but every BAEC member can get current BA award availability from the BA website.
What may possibly help with the crystal ball gazing is knowing what cash availability looks like, which is what dunk posted.
What may possibly help with the crystal ball gazing is knowing what cash availability looks like, which is what dunk posted.