FlyerTalk Forums - Does BA release Avios seats before a trip?

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Does BA release Avios seats before a trip?

I am flying from London to Chicago on BA 0297 on May 26th. I was told there are no current Avios seats available in Business, I have a premium economy seat.

My question is does BA release seats for upgrade with points before the trip?

Yes, sometimes.

What I can't fathom on BA is they won't let you use your Avios at the gate/airport on the day of departure to upgrade, they let the seat go empty.

It does sometimes and not other times. They of course don’t have a patten for the exact reason you demonstrate; they don’t want passengers buying WTP instead of Club

Read the spending and upgrading using Avios thread

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...l#post30593390

Is there a way to check or do I just call and ask every few days?

Do a dummy booking on BA.com book with Avios function

Dont waste time calling

And ticket has to be BA not AA/AY etc

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russell McGuire (Post 31042713)

Is there a way to check or do I just call and ask every few days?

Easiest way is to check on the app if there is reward seat available. Upgrade and reward seat availability are the same inventory bucket.

That flight is showing LHR 4:05p → ORD 6:45p
F8 A7 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N4 Q0 O0 G0

so set up an alert at baredemptionfinder.com, and hope for the best!

Quote:

Originally Posted by worldtrav (Post 31042705)

Yes, sometimes.

What I can't fathom on BA is they won't let you use your Avios at the gate/airport on the day of departure to upgrade, they let the seat go empty.

To be clear you can do it on day of departure, but through the normal channels online or via call centre if the availability is there. If you've already checked in that makes it more difficult as you'd need to get unchecked. Usually availability opens up (if it's going to) a day or two before rather than on the day itself.

Just to welcome you Russell McGuire to Flyertalk, and to the BA forum. The stickies and Dashboard will make good reading, or just following the patter in the forum, you will soon get the hang of it. If you hit jargon, there is a guide to abbreviations in the Dashboard.

Apart from the third party redemption finder site mentioned above, just keep checking via BA.com or the two BA apps, the BAEC specific app allows for a quick daily check, best to do it early morning since the main release time is midnight GMT. If you use the main BA app it's a bit cumbersome since you need to reenter passwords from time ti time. BA.com - once logged in - should keep your reccent searches listed in My Executive Club, so again that is a short cut. UuA and Redemptions come out of the same bucket so there's no real point ringing up unless you spot the availability on line. On that route I would expect redemptions to appear and disappear from day to day, so it is worth a daily check. And in particular keep an eye on the 3 or so days before departure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikeyfly (Post 31042712)

It does sometimes and not other times. They of course don’t have a patten for the exact reason you demonstrate; they don’t want passengers buying WTP instead of Club

Though of course the situation is slightly different between people waiting for last minute upgrade opportunity (I.e. BA already have the money and could make some extra avios burned) vs redemption availability (BA would not make extra money)..

Other airlines separate the upgrade and redemption buckets.

BAEC has its own app?

does BAEC have its own app ? I can only find the main Ba app

Try searching for Executive Club. I don't know if it is globally disponible.