Weebl

Hi all - I'm a new member but I've been enjoying reading posts on here for quite a while.

I'm lucky enough to be flying on BA275 LHR-LAS on 15 Nov for a special 40th birthday celebration with friends, and I'm currently in J upper deck 63A (I paid for seat allocation). At this stage I can't get 62AK or 64AK, but as far as I understand 63A is *almost* as good as you can do the "squeeze past the bulkhead" trick to avoid stepping over anyone.

The F seatmap on ExpertFlyer shows 4EF, 5EF, 5A as available, 1K as blocked - if I'm able to get an upgrade to F using Avios, is it worth doing for any of those seats? (Note that I'm travelling solo). I've only ever done F once before (SYD-SIN) which was "old" F, probably over 10 years ago.

This might all be academic of course, I've been religiously checking baredemptionfinder and nothing has come up yet. I'm not sure of the chances of UuA on this route. ExpertFlyer currently shows:

F6 A5 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E4 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M7 L4 V1 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

Is there any way to tell from the above if there is a chance of F UuA availability?

Either way, I'm very excited about the trip, it's been a few years since I've done a long haul CW flight!

mikeyfly

100% yes on that very long day flight - it's huge value for what, 25k Avios, in my opinion for an 11 hour day flight. I was on 63A (or K can't recall) in August and it's nice being able to squeeze out without doing a leg jump.

It's a late take off from T3 for a day flight; meaning you can same all lounges with your F boarding card and then leisurely eat on board before a decent 5/6 hours sleep and hit the ground running in Vegas.

Do it if you can !!

rapidex

If not an Avios upgrade, you may get offered a poug. I would certainly take either.

Weebl

Excellent, thanks Mikefly. Yes, I'm pretty much decided to take the upgrade using Avios if it becomes available - I just need to keep a lookout for availability! Anyone have any thoughts on likelihood on this route? I appreciate I may well be asking to predict something akin to winning lottery numbers... The F6 A5 give me hope

Definitas

Please could someone further educate me regarding upgrade using Avios. Does this mean that further Avios availability may become available after the initial 2 seats have been booked (and therefore that it is worthwhile checking periodically?) Many thanks

Globaliser

Yes, that's right.

Although for the sake of completeness, in the case of award availability in F (which is what the OP is after), there is no promise to release any award seats on any particular flight. The "2 seats" promise applies only to Club.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Also I would probably choose 5 A out of those choices ( then 5E or F). I am not a great fan of the EF seats in 747 F as they feel a bit more open but would pick them over a UD seat ( LAS CW does have the new bedding and service)

Probably a reasonable chance of more F seats becoming available

Regards

TBS

alexwuk

I hate to go against the wider concensus here but from what I know of LAS F award availability - with 8 out of the 14 seats in F sold, BA are highly unlikely to offer any more redemption seats in F in the next three weeks. BA a few years ago made a decision to dramatically reduce the amount of empty F/J seats to the US they offered for last minute avios use, preferring to let seats fly empty than offer them for avios (And risk cannibalising revenue)

Having said that, I would take a POUG or AUP on this route if available - it's a long flight and arriving in Vegas well rested just as the night is getting started is brilliant.

Scandinavian traveler

corporate-wage-slave

Looking at the numbers
F6 A5 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W8 E5 T0 Y9 B9 H7 K4 M2 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0
I'm not sure this is going to open up in First.

It's a WT heavy flight, with WTP also filling up nicely. CW isn't so full, so if I was in RevMgmt I would be focusing on extracting £500 notes out of WTP travellers. A UuA to First is 17.5 Avios, so probably about £80 to BA, and at this stage it isn't worth getting out of bed for that. Generally you'd need a A8 or A9 to be looking for additional First Avios availability. You may do better on a POUG (if bought via BA.com) or AUP. If a POUG does come up you best also check UuA too. My suspicion is that the 8 passengers in First are already on Avios or using some of the reduced rate First deals earlier in the year. But I could be wrong, and it's certainly worth a daily check in the UK morning times - make sure you've got everything handy if you need to call quickly (and who knows, it may be possible online if it's a BA.com booking and you haven't messed it about since the initial booking). Since it's a simple query I would use BA.com rather than BARF, the previous query should be recycled in My Executive Club so it won't take long to check. Or use the new-ish BAEC Avios App.

Weebl

Thank you all for the helpful answers, much appreciated. I understand BA want to protect revenues by seeking full fare F tickets, I will quietly keep my hopes up for some kind of upgrade availability, but worst case I've still got an upper deck window seat which I'm sure will be great.

It was a simple online BA.com booking, I'll keep checking the website for POUG/UUA availability. Incidentally, it seems there are two ways to check - either by looking for reward flight availability, or by checking avios upgrade availability on the booking itself in MMB. I assume they amount to the same thing.

I'm also assuming that in the case of being offered a POUG/AUP from CW to F it would be around the £500 mark, or even more. I appreciate the consensus here says that it's worth it on this long flight, but I'm still trying to reconcile in my head whether it's worth the monetary upgrade from an already decent upper deck seat. For 20-25k avios I agree it's a no brainer.

corporate-wage-slave

The Avios checker for general First availability is better than MMB since MMB has been known to give false negatives. I would check that main Book Flights with Avios screen, or the My Recent Searches link on My Executive Club. When you get nearer to departure, I would also click "Find Availability with British Airways on other dates" since this will show the calendar for other First dates available - if any - and see if you are creeping near to the right place.

As to whether paying a POUG is good value or not, I would point out that you currently appear to be in a Mid J 747 (unfortunately) and though UD would be totally fine for me, on that aircraft the First cabin is significantly better on the hardware side compared to CW, whereas on the SuperJ with the new bedding and catering perhaps the gap is narrower. It's a reasonably long flight compared to East Coast destinations so you would have the time to enjoy it. On the other hand £500 would get a lot of food and drink once in LAS.

eponymous_coward

I assume it is a worthy upgrade to pay an additional 10,000 Alaska Airlines miles for F instead of some cash for an UD seat? (I have no BA/OW status so it's pay or sit in the leftovers in J).

This is on the same route, BA 275, LHR-LAS, over summer on my way home to SEA (the AS award forced an overnight in LAS, luckily when rooms are cheap.... oh dear, I guess I shall have to spend $100 on a suite with a jetted tub on my way home from Europe), so I will be expecting aged IFE hardware and no wifi, plus BA F service, and pleasantly surprised if it turns out I get wifi or newer IFE.

(It will be my first BA First, but not my first First.)

As an aside BA says 14 out of 17 enabled for wifi, but the 747 fleet size is 36. I am somewhat confused by this- do they mean the Hi-Js get WiFi and the Mid-Js do not?

Jagboi

Much of the "Is it worth it" equation is personal about what you value.

For me, I find that UD on the 747 has enough space for me, and I like the privacy of the window seat. I found the seats in F rather open, I felt somewhat exposed compared to UD. If you can manage to be in row 1, the ability to see forward from the window is a novelty, but if I wasn't in row 1 or 2, it's kind of a wash. I can't drink alcohol, so the beverage selection is basically the same in CW or F, and to me the minor food difference isn't worth £500. As CWS says, that buys a lot on the ground.

corporate-wage-slave

Yes, that's pretty much what is happening. Those mid J aircraft that entered service in 1994 or so are probably heading to their final place of rest - a plan doubtless held up by the unrelated 787 issue - and they're not spending the money on upgrading them to SuperJ or putting in WiFi. Those from 1998-1999 are going to around for sometime to come. As to whether it is worth spending the AS miles, this isn't a scheme with which I'm familiar, but the question is "what else would / could you do with them?". I also agree the "is it worth it" question is something for you to answer, it was that sort of thinking that would reduce all car production to some modern day Trabant.