BABoy84

Just wondering if anyone knows if BA oversell First. I am booked on what seems a fully loaded F on BA287 3/5/18.

I am booked revenue but as a solo traveler.

Many thanks in anticipation.

ringingup

Yes, the do oversell F, although it’s rare that it’ll lead to being denied boarding or being downgraded. Not impossible though.

corporate-wage-slave

Generally they will only overbook by 1 seat in First, and that overbooking gets removed closer to the travel date. Your A380 flight to SFO (for the benefit of those people including myself who are still working on memorising the entire BA timetable) is indeed showing:
F0 A0 J9 C0 D0 R0 I0 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N9 Q9 O1 G9

but there is one untaken seat, 1K at the moment. So I don't see much of a problem here. It only gets sticky and lead to an oversale in particular circumstances. Equipment change obviously, though going from an A380 to a 787-9 is hopefully not going to happen. Also defective seats and irrops from other services. I remember one case where overbooking did cause problems and that was due to Formula 1 being at the destination: people don't change their minds / travel plans in that context.

Dave_C

Yes, they do, by up to one. Also, as a bit of OT-ish trivia, AA never used to oversell J (or F). It was only at the start of the JBA that they did so at BA's behest.

Can I help you

I have seen more than that on certain high no show routes, SFO isn't one of them.

Gorcat

We have a similar concern.
My wife and I are in F on BA287 on the 2nd July.
On Seat Alerts it shows that the only untaken seats are 1A & 1K & 2F with over two months to go.
Does this mean that BA would be willing to sell four more seats for this cabin?

Cap'n Benj

It’s highly unlikely you’ll be bumped. Worst case you’ll get a J seat and some nice compensation

smokie36

i'd only consider the compensation to be "nice" if the seat I flew in CW was cheaper than if bought a few months earlier.

Would it be?

corporate-wage-slave

Not at this stage since with indeed three seats currently untaken the fare buckets are as follows:
F3 A2 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E7 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L8 V7 S2 N0 Q0 O0 G0

And this is a flight several months off. So please don't buy into this fear of downgrade mindset that some people seem to foster. A number of us labour on at this, quite a fair bit, but there are times when I question the point of doing so if it has so little effect.

V10

I take your point about the very low probability of this happening, this is of course correct. Not everyone is on yet another F flight, however - in some cases we could be talking about people on a very infrequent F flight that was only made possible after a lot of Avios collecting and card spending. It's easy to see why people may be concerned in that situation, justifiably or otherwise.

Jimmie76

Don't worry about the special meal they're the same in F and J.

corporate-wage-slave

You make a fair point, and I'm not trying to have (much) of a go at Gorcat here. The issue is that some people and some websites have irresponsibly set a mood music about this, and yes FT has some clear examples of where downgrades have happened. Now I (and others) can give reassurance, I guess, but am I feeding the beast, or indeed feeding the troll? While we ponder that, here is the good news thread to go alongside:
No problems with a 2-4-1
(and any recent updates to this would of course be good).

t4wine

I’ve been involuntarily downgraded a few times on the LHR—DXB-LHR route as a GGL. Very annoying but I was well looked after in Club with First wines etc as well as £500 and the fare difference refunded.

Note though that if you partially pay with Avios then these don’t get partially refunded!

KARFA

as these were involuntary downgrades did you apply for and receive the 75% refund of the flight cost?

V10

I'll leave one final bit of food for thought on this - let's suppose that we do end up with a situation where someone draws the short straw and ends up dropping down a cabin. As illustrated by t4wine above, it still is within BA's power to deal with this in satisfactory way. Maybe a few more reports of "well it happened, but BA dealt with it brilliantly and I don't feel disadvantaged afterwards" would go a long way to alleviating any concerns that there are out there. And if other actors feel that these don't need to be reported in the interests of balance, then we can quite rightly call them out on it.