Jul 9, 2017, 11:09 am
Last edit by: Tobias-UK
This is community help desk which allows members to assist each other in finding out how many seats are available on any given flight.
If you wish to request availability for a specific flight, please state the date and origin/departure airport codes, not just the flight number.
Please also restrict requests to BA/oneworld flights - flights for other airlines may be removed to avoid cluttering the thread and taking it away from BAEC.
As of 15 Oct 2014 flightstats.com no longer displays flight availability.
Fare class availability can be queried in various ways*:
* Please update wiki if you know of any others.
** Origin of data concealed and probably unauthorised (so buyer beware)
What do the codes mean?
Suppose we have a result as F1 A0 J9 C7 D0 RC IC W9 E9 T4 Y9 BC HC ...
This means:
There is 1 seat in the F bucket for sale
There are 0 seats in the A and D bucket for sale, but you can join the waitlist in case seats get released later.
There are at least 9 seats in the J, W, E and Y buckets.
The R, I, B and H buckets are closed to waitlisting.
There are two important things to note about how to interpret these numbers that many people don't understand as it is very counter intuitive:
1) There is NO direct relation to the actual number of seats available on the specific flight. They only mean that the airline is willing to sell this many seats on that specific flight. The airline may intend to oversell seats or withhold seats from sale for many reasons.
2) In the example above, the results show W9 E9 T4 (which are all WT+ buckets). This does not mean that there are 9+9+4=22 seats for sale. Interpret these numbers as "there are at least 9 seats for sale in WT+". There could really be anywhere between 9 and 22 seats for sale - we just can't tell from the numbers the system gives us. Therefore, the conservative approach of assuming that there are at least 9 seats for sale is usually the best one.
What does the "C" mean?
Closed to waitlisting.
In the example above we have RC, IC, BC and HC. This is different to A0 and D0: The A and D buckets are "full" but you can apply to join their waitlists (if your fare permits waitlisting). With R, I, B and H you cannot even request a seat.
The carrier will determine how to confirm your seat if it wishes. Sometimes this may happen immediately, other times only a few minutes before the flight's departure. The order of the waitlist is determined by the carrier privately, but your Executive Club status will push you towards the front of the queue. Many cheap fares do not allow waitlisting.
Differences for non-BA airlines
If you wish to request availability for a specific flight, please state the date and origin/departure airport codes, not just the flight number.
Please also restrict requests to BA/oneworld flights - flights for other airlines may be removed to avoid cluttering the thread and taking it away from BAEC.
As of 15 Oct 2014 flightstats.com no longer displays flight availability.
Fare class availability can be queried in various ways*:
* Please update wiki if you know of any others.
** Origin of data concealed and probably unauthorised (so buyer beware)
What do the codes mean?
Suppose we have a result as F1 A0 J9 C7 D0 RC IC W9 E9 T4 Y9 BC HC ...
This means:
There is 1 seat in the F bucket for sale
There are 0 seats in the A and D bucket for sale, but you can join the waitlist in case seats get released later.
There are at least 9 seats in the J, W, E and Y buckets.
The R, I, B and H buckets are closed to waitlisting.
There are two important things to note about how to interpret these numbers that many people don't understand as it is very counter intuitive:
1) There is NO direct relation to the actual number of seats available on the specific flight. They only mean that the airline is willing to sell this many seats on that specific flight. The airline may intend to oversell seats or withhold seats from sale for many reasons.
2) In the example above, the results show W9 E9 T4 (which are all WT+ buckets). This does not mean that there are 9+9+4=22 seats for sale. Interpret these numbers as "there are at least 9 seats for sale in WT+". There could really be anywhere between 9 and 22 seats for sale - we just can't tell from the numbers the system gives us. Therefore, the conservative approach of assuming that there are at least 9 seats for sale is usually the best one.
What does the "C" mean?
Closed to waitlisting.
In the example above we have RC, IC, BC and HC. This is different to A0 and D0: The A and D buckets are "full" but you can apply to join their waitlists (if your fare permits waitlisting). With R, I, B and H you cannot even request a seat.
The carrier will determine how to confirm your seat if it wishes. Sometimes this may happen immediately, other times only a few minutes before the flight's departure. The order of the waitlist is determined by the carrier privately, but your Executive Club status will push you towards the front of the queue. Many cheap fares do not allow waitlisting.
Differences for non-BA airlines
- Some carriers (those using Sabre such as AA) only show a maximum of 7 available seats (not 9). Others only show a maximum of 5.
- Some carriers use "L" instead of "0" (e.g., CL DL YL) to indicate you may waitlist for the seat. This tends to happen when the entire flight is on a list basis.
Help to check BA seat availability and BA flight loads
Jun 13, 2018, 1:27 am
#1921
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: London / Brighton
Programs: BAEC Gold / M-Life Gold / HH Diamond
Posts: 1,634
Genuine question but are you sure they sum like that? I've always interpreted it as being (in this case) 3 club tickets available? As in for full price 3 are available but we'd sell all 3 at a bit of a discount ("c" class) or 1 at a bigger discount (D or R). SO if someone went online to buy 3 tickets they'd find them priced at the "C " bucket and if they bought them then all the numbers would be zero.
My understanding is that this is the tickets being sold at that particular time. So each time someone makes a purchase or cancels, then all of the available booking classes will be updated based on the airlines revenue algorithm which will factor in not only how many physical seats available on the plane, but how much overselling they wish to do based on chances of existing seats being cancelled etc. etc. Quite often you might see that WT+ gets oversold when CW seats are available as they will then put through some upgrades, or similarly oversell CW if there is First availability etc.
All in all, I think these numbers can be a useful indicator but they are really a 'point in time' indication as no one knows what is going to happen next... who might cancel, who might buy more seats, what the airline might oversell etc. etc.
All in all, I think these numbers can be a useful indicator but they are really a 'point in time' indication as no one knows what is going to happen next... who might cancel, who might buy more seats, what the airline might oversell etc. etc.
Jun 13, 2018, 2:46 am
#1922
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 10,143
deleted, wrong thread
Last edited by PETER01; Jun 13, 2018 at 2:47 am Reason: deleted, wrong thread
Jun 13, 2018, 8:55 am
#1923
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: LHR
Programs: BA GGL, HH Diamond, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 375
Afternoon, Grateful if i could get the numbers for the BA458 LHR-MAD and the BA461 MAD-LHR both for this Saturday 16th June. Wandering if its worth paying for the CE upgrade on the way out or FLUB on the way back.
TIA!
TIA!
Jun 13, 2018, 9:36 am
#1924
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 732
BA461 J9 C6 D3 R9 I0 Y9 B9 H9 K8 M6 L3 V0 N0 Q0 O0 S0 G3
Club looks quite empty on the 777 seatmap too. I don't expect they will use FLUB.
Jun 14, 2018, 2:07 am
#1925
Join Date: Dec 2017
Posts: 4
Newbie Question
If the flight load show all classes have “0” for a flight does it indicate it will be a full flight? We have 8 people traveling and wonder if it’s better just to select our seats now. I have never flown BA before. Would it be difficult to get 4 seats together as soon as the 24 hour window opens?
Last edited by Janette107; Jun 14, 2018 at 2:08 am Reason: Correction
Jun 14, 2018, 3:22 am
#1926
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: London
Programs: Many. Too many. I came here to cut them down. I failed.
Posts: 2,999
If the flight load show all classes have “0” for a flight does it indicate it will be a full flight? We have 8 people traveling and wonder if it’s better just to select our seats now. I have never flown BA before. Would it be difficult to get 4 seats together as soon as the 24 hour window opens?
As to the possibly's - If you want to guarantee you are sitting together, and don't mind paying BA's seat selection fee (which i'd never pay) then do it. However, BA is not 'ryanair-esque' in using algorythm's to try and deliberately sit you in separate seats across the plane to 'encourage' you to pay up in advance. They WILL try and seat you together, it just may not be possible due to amount of people on flight that have prebooked seats / card holders that get free seat allocation.
Personally i'd be logging in at 24 hours + 5 minutes before the flight to prebook - and you may end up in 3 different groups or so, but fairly confident that everyone would be sitting with someone they know.
Jun 14, 2018, 12:24 pm
#1927
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 40
Could someone tell me about seat availabilty for BA 2225 from LCY to JSI on Monday 25 June,please. Also, I have no experience of the cityflier service .....is it worth paying for Club Europe? Many thanks.
Jun 14, 2018, 5:54 pm
#1928
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: London
Programs: BAEC : GGL; HHonors : Diamond
Posts: 181
J1 C1 D0 R0 I0 Y1 B1 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 N0 O0 Q0 S0 G0
WRT Club Europe, depends on how much more the ticket is! The seat is same but you get food and drink. Plus a J seat would earn you 80 TP and more miles if that is important to you.
Jun 14, 2018, 11:52 pm
#1929
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 40
Thank you timcjp - I appreciate your time and advice.
Jun 15, 2018, 5:36 pm
#1930
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: ABZ
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Gold
Posts: 204
Can anyone check if the aircraft configuration has changed from the 52W MCO-LGW (BA2036) on Saturday 16th June?
We UUA from Y and can't check-in on-line. Might we be lucky and end up in J?
Thanks.
We UUA from Y and can't check-in on-line. Might we be lucky and end up in J?
Thanks.
Jun 15, 2018, 6:03 pm
#1931
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: TPA/ABZ
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold. GGL/CCR.
Posts: 13,248
J4 C4 D4 R2 I0 W8 E8 T6 Y9 B9 H9 K9M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O9 G9
Jun 16, 2018, 4:06 am
#1932
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: ABZ
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Gold
Posts: 204
Jun 16, 2018, 5:55 am
#1933
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 92
Could anyone help with BA112 on 20 June? In particular the UD. Thanks
Jun 17, 2018, 3:13 pm
#1934
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Silver, Priority Club Gold, Herts Pres Circle
Posts: 492
Evening All,
Any assistance would be appreciated,
Friend had a Flybe flight cancelled this evening.
Could someone kindly check BA availability from GLA to LCY (BA8271) or GLA-LHR (BA1145) on the 18/06/18?
Ta
Mwtt
Any assistance would be appreciated,
Friend had a Flybe flight cancelled this evening.
Could someone kindly check BA availability from GLA to LCY (BA8271) or GLA-LHR (BA1145) on the 18/06/18?
Ta
Mwtt
Jun 17, 2018, 10:43 pm
#1935
Join Date: May 2013
Programs: BA Gold, HHonors Silver, Accor Silver, FB Ivory, Miles&More
Posts: 12
Would one of you be kind enough to give me the current loads of BA32 & BA28 (HKG > LHR) this Thursday June 21? Much appreciated