Empty Flight - WTP > WT?
 

Hi,

So I have WTP booked from LHR to SFO return 5-14 November, doing a dummy booking the outbound flight (747) has a nearly full WTP cabin but only shows about 15 seats occupied in WT (Club doesn't look particularly full either!) on the return flight (A380) only the window/aisle pairs are taken in WTP but again WT and Club are practically empty.

I appreciate there are people that wont have secured a seat but at 8 weeks out it feels like the flights will be pretty empty - how woud cabin crew react if you wanted to head back into the (empty) WT cabin for a bit and stretch out/lie down on the many many empty seats?

Have you or would you do the same?

SF

BA charges for seat assignments in all cabins except First, so the seat map is not a good indication of how busy the flight is.

That said, it's hard to see the crew objecting to someone downgrading themselves

Ah yeah, I forgot they charge in WT, I thought it was WTP and club. Good point.

Flight availability of EF

Outbound BA 285LHR 10:45a → SFO 1:55p

F9 A9 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W6 E4 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K7 M4 L1 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0


Inbound BA 286SFO 7:35p → LHR 2:00p

F1 A0 J7 C0 D0 R0 I0 W2 E0 T0 Y3 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G0

Id suggest, by the time it comes to the actual flight, the planes are likely to be pretty full however, 8 weeks is a long time out for a lot of corporate bookings still.

The current loadings suggest that WT+ will indeed be very busy (only 6 seats for sale currently), though Y also looks pretty well booked 2 months in advance (G0, and only the more expensive fare buckets currently available). I expect that, on the day, WT will also be pretty packed. As others have pointed out, it's simply the fact that these passengers won't have been able to choose their seats in advance, whilst it looks like there's quite a few Silver and Golds booked in WT+ who have done so.

Given that it's a super-hi J 747, I would also think that some passengers booked in WT+ would have a reasonable chance of ending up in a more comfortable seat given the current availability across the 4 classes, though no guarantees on that front of course!

In the event there is lots of space I would just mention it to the cabin crew to stop any impression that you were self-upgrading when you returned to your original seat.

Well, goes to show what I know! Full plane it is!

In 2008 I was one of about 5 people in the back of a 747 to the USA, surreal experience compared to normal sardine conditions.

I’ll hang my hopes on the *albeit very slim* chance of an upgrade to Club...!

Next year it’s back to First curtesy of Avios and 2-4-1!

In a similar vain.... . The change of the usual 787 to 777 on the LHR-BWI services has significantly increased the number seats in both WTP and WT. However, I noticed on the last few trips WTP has been 100% full - and WT only about 50%. Although at time of booking these came up as 787s (when I booked), BA must either selling extra WTP, doing a brisk paid upgrade (probably) or free upgrades (unlikely). On my last flight I did think about heading down the back....

I don't think there will be many seats, let alone rows, left empty. BA fill a very high % of their seats over the Atlantic

Even if there are open WT seats, you can't expect to retain your WTP seat if you choose to go back to coach and grab a row to stretch out. One can't keep a seat (or more) in each cabin in order to go back and forth during the flight.

Whyever not? On an empty flight I doubt that the second you slip back to WT to grab a row and sleep, there's going to be some mad scramble for your seat in WTP.

For a start most people wouldn't necessarily relate someone coming through the curtain with that being what they were doing, and secondly most people would assume that they wouldn't be permitted to 'self upgrade'. Oh, and thirdly, on such an empty flight down the back (if it is indeed that empty), where's the serious imperative to take yourself out of a nice empty cabin and sit in a full one?

Assuming you have a discreet word with the crew working WT, I doubt it'd be a huge issue.

I have been on such a flight only once myself, booked in WT. Actually looked at AUP at check-in and the check-in lady actually showed me the cabin map and I never bothered. CC were as nice as pie and just said 'pick a row and stretch out'.

The key is not to stress too much or assume too much. Just take it if it comes....

I had exactly this situation flying BGI-LGW in WTP last year. WTP was full (as was CW); WT was almost completely empty (20-30 pax in total) with lots of empty rows of three. Most of us in WTP had dinner in that cabin and then went back to find an empty row to stretch out on. The crew were completely relaxed about it, and asked whether we wanted to go back to WTP for breakfast. When a flight is that empty in the back, you are not inconveniencing anyone by moving in order to sleep.

Any empty rows in Y will have been bagged by Y travellers spreading out long before you get through the curtain

Actually far from inconveniencing the crew, I got the impression on that flight that it was quite the opposite. I was in total demob mode as I was flying out to start almost a month of garden leave mostly scuba diving, and escaping a home that had the builders in. So I was grinning from ear to ear the whole flight and they basically treated me like F pax. Best economy flight I have had by a country mile....

How does that work if there are far fewer pax than rows...