fulan_flyer

Dear all,

Firstly, sorry if I have posted in the worng next section, had originally posted on information desk but I think this section is a better fit.

Basically I'm trying to get my head around BA staff travel seat availabilities, I've read a few articles but they seem geared towards US carriers.

I have put an example below, can anyone help me decipher the code?? (the flight is for Sept 11 2019 SCL-LHR). For me understanding the code is the important part, so I don't have to keep pestering people.

Many, many thanks !

F1 A0 J9 C7 D4 R0 I0 W6 E1 T0 Y7 B3 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

cgtechuk

Here are the codes as I interpret them, However I am not sure what class Staff Travel would book into, once you have that you should be able to use the below list, 9 mines wide open and 0 means no seats

F - Full Fare First
A - Discounted First
Z - Redemption First

J - Full Fare Business
C - Semi Flex Business
D - Semi Flex Business
R - Semi Flex Business
I - Discounted Business
U - Redemption Business

W - Full Fare Premium Economy
E - Semi Flex Premium Economy
T - Discounted / Sale Premium Economy

Y - Full Fare Economy
B - Semi Flex Economy
H - Semi Flex Economy
K - Semi Flex Economy (Short Haul Prem Eco Feeder too)
M - Semi Flex Economy
L - Discounted Economy
V - Discounted Economy
S - Discounted Economy
N - Discounted Economy (Lowest Class for Avios Upgrade)

Q - Discounted Economy (Lowest Flex and lower Avios and TP)
O - Discounted Economy (Lowest Flex and lower Avios and TP)
G - Discounted Economy (Lowest Flex and lower Avios and TP)
X - Economy Redemption

Cymro

Can't put this into a staff travel context but as a general rule we can take that list of fare buckets and break it down as follows - those on the left hand side are more flexible than those on the right.

F1 A0

OK, not good: BA is usually willing to oversell First class by one seat only. In other words, it looks like the cabin is full but probably someone will cancel/miss their flight so they'd squeeze one person in for the cost of a full flex seat and worry about the consequences later if it doesn't work out.

J9 C7 D4 R0 I0

This is business class. Looking slightly quieter: they'll sell 9 full flex tickets, 7 at a C fare, 4 at a D fare, but none at the cheaper R/I fares. So it looks like they're expecting a pretty full cabin (at least after operational upgrades) and even allowing for missed connections and cancellations.

W6 E1 T0

This is premium economy. They'll sell another six fully flex premium economy seats, and even 1 mid-priced E fare - suggest that means that the cabin is nearly full but there may be the odd seat knocking around before, and maybe after op-ups.

Y7 B3 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

Pretty full. By the time BA is willing to sell only Y/B there are unlikely to be any physical seats left in the cabin and they'll make room by rolling forward. Of course, everything I've said depends on what happens on the day, on the route, commercial considerations, and all kinds of proprietary information I don't have - and those who do have it aren't allowed to share.

Given that we're a month out, I'd expect at least 7 people to buy seats on this flight, even at those high prices - reducing the stock of available seats further down to zero and possibly beyond, so that BA would be reliant on no-shows to avoid bumping. At that point, if travelling on standby, you're hoping and praying that a big group misses a connecting flight to free up seats for you; otherwise, I'd say your chances of a standby seat are pretty low!

fulan_flyer

Thanks so much for the explanation & time!

I really appreciate it, as I´m short on holiday days and want make the best use of them.

Cheers!

xxxxx

fulan_flyer

Thanks for the link, but I haven't bought my ticket yet.

fulan_flyer

The flight on the Sept 10th is looking a little better, following the logic above:F1 A0 J8 C6 D4 R0 I0 W4 E0 T0 / Y9 B9 H9 K5 M2 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0
The Economy section looks like they are willing to sell: 34 seats? (why would M be highlighted on my staff travel selection?)

Am i looking at it correctly?

Thanks!

Geordie405

I don't think it's cumulative. So, for business, there would be a maximum of 8 seats available. If I am correct and BA sold four fully flexible business class tickets it would then show J4 C2 D0. Someone more knowledgeable should be able to confirm.

Cymro

Absolutely not cumulative.

9 means at least 9 seats available in the fare bucket (so could be 34) but equally could be 9. Also, with only 12 economy fare buckets × 9 you can only get to 108...

In the case of the fare bucket, you're right that if they sold four of the J8, it'd reduce to J4 but they could immediately decide to open up more. Similarly, someone could buy 4 of the W seats as well, sell out W, reducing the number of J seats by 4 as well (because BA expects all of those W passengers either to be upgraded or to cause someone else to be). The same goes for any of the cheaper business fares and in each case, BA could decide to open up more seats if they now expect more cancellations (selling fully flex), can afford to downgrade, or for any other reason in response to changing conditions.

Willingness to sell doesn't necessarily mean a seat on board, either - it means willingness to take (a lot of) someone's money and offload and compensate someone else if needed (for much less)!

PETER01

Nothing much to add as Geordie405 and Cymro have kindly posted as above so just to say welcome to Flyertalk and the BA Forum fulan_flyer.

It's always nice to see new members joining and if your not aware you are limited to 5 posts for the first day but I am sure you will find the information posted helpful.

For many BA and oneworld related topics I would recommend a read of the BA Forum Dashboard and of course the BA Forum is just one part of Flyertalk, a fantastic resource for all travellers and flyers, so fill your boots as the old saying goes!



Pete

Jagboi

Also important to note this is the number of seats BA is willing to sell. It has absolutely no correlation to the actual number of seats available on the plane. They will probably sell a high fare bucket when no seats physically exist and rely on no shows/missed connections.

Usually revenue management gets it right to oversell by a particular margin, and yet can still send a plane out with empty seats.

golfmad

I agree with the essence of what you're trying to say but there is of course a correlation between the number of tickets the airline is prepared to sell and the number of seats available on the aircraft. It's just not a direct one-to-one correlation and not much can be inferred by us punters without more information. The airline does have access to that information as part of their revenue management function.

Oaxaca

Deltus

You can get Gs on straightforward flight only bookings too. Most notably for the LHR day trip fares, but I think I had one recently on a normal return trip.

Mwenenzi

Do you work for BA or hoping for a buddy pass type flight?
If (new) BA staff your colleagues will know more.
If on a buddy pass ask you BA employee sponsor.
And always have a credit card, as you are last on the list of people to board a flight. You may need to buy a walk up fare to get home.

Old threads, but not uncommon
Stuck in Europe for 6 days on Buddy Pass
Help! My friend is stuck in Chile on a buddy pass and needs to return to the U.S.

Edit
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/sear...y=staff-travel Query does not stick
Advanced search on "staff travel"