Why is BA award availability so good? - CLINIC THREAD
 

Anecdotal evidence perhaps, but this year I've been able to redeem flights pretty much on the preferred dates.

Probably around 10 avios seats in ET (with multiple PAX on bookings).
5-6 avios CE seats.
Multiple F avios seats solo or as a couple to popular destinations.

Judging by the lack of moaning in here compared to the last years it would appear there indeed is better reward availability. Credit is due I suppose to BAEC for staying true to their promise of releasing more seats.

I'd agree that for short haul RFS there is usually not a problem, and in some cases I've been able to save a considerable amount of money compared to paying with cash.

Long haul, I have no experience.

You are probably taking advantage of the extra gold availability on the s/h

LHR- IAH on the B787-9 no seats seem to be there in F ?

LAX, MIA on the A380 no F seats

The only time I've seen reasonable availability to South Africa is when the c**ked up and released seats on the network when the LGW flights came online

Still can't GPR on Cityflyer routes ....

There were three F seats to MIA on the A380 on the dates we needed, and several other days around it.

NYC is looking good in CW/F compared to previous years.

I managed to get 2 A380 F seats both ways on the LAX route over the Easter holidays too, chuffed with that.

I don't think this was a c*** up? Surely when a new route is released there is the release also of 2 Y and 2 J seats on every flight?

I've been looking at MIA in F for a while, but can't ever find any! We'd need two, so maybe I've just forgotten about seeing the odd one.

EDIT: Just had another look. There's availability on 28 August and 2 September, but then nothing until 29 April (unless I'm doing something wrong!). This was searching for 1 seat.

I would agree that generally it's pretty good, especially to places like JFK.

I got two F to MIA on A380 in a couple of weeks. There were spaces most days when I booked (which was a while ago to be fair) and often 3/4 available.

Being flexible on dates, like OP I've had huge success with grabbing award seats this year.

I too have had good success this year so far, especially on RFS (if you are flexible on time) then you can achieve good results.

For longhaul, I've not been travelling BA as much as other carriers (e.g QR and CX) as the product is better. That being said, I got a return booking to DEL and KUL/HKG UUA'd which I was happy with.

I cannot help thinking that the reduction of Avios earning for some tiers is in fact helping here - less Avios in circulation with the same (or more) overall seats available on aircraft - certainly more J seats with Super Hi-J - is giving more J availability. So it may not be BA giving access to more award seats per se, but demand has dropped and capacity where we want it has increased.

Certainly award availability has seemed far better than on Virgin, the only other scheme I've got any real experience on.

I must say that I have seen no difference on my searches/needs. Y shorthaul has been as easy as always, F has seen me with the same difficulties as always, possibly slightly worse on some of my typical routes.

I suspect that CW has become a bit easier simply because UUA from WT+ used to be so much cheaper than it is now whilst CW sales from the UK, Ireland, and Scandinavia have been priced lower than usual, so that it is usually not worth it any more to buy WT+ and upgrade to CW and pay surcharge difference if you can effectively book a CW sale ticket which would typically require similarly advanced planning.

Probably because a lot of people have decided that spending 100k Avios and £550 in tax isn't such a great deal when you can book a cash ticket on the exact dates you want for sub-£1k ex-DUB.

I haven't had much of a problem with flights to MIA and also HKG with reward availability.

One thing which is bugging me is the lack of the availability map. Is this is conscious effort by BA to reduce the visibility of flights?

Now there's a glass-half-full post if I ever saw one! :) People have probably stopped moaning about poor availability.

It really does depend on the route you want and the dates you can fly. Even with a wide spread of dates, there is rarely a pair of F/CW seats to Cape Town, for example. I'm finding generally OK RFS availability, possibly helped by my Gold status.That too. Our next to CPT is via DOH. It takes longer but still earns TPs and Avios.

I concur, although getting to DUB has costs, as does the probable overnight stop.