zaf

I have a few flights planned for the upcoming week on CW and looked at First to see if I can upgrade. There are flights with at least 8 empty seats but yet no seats available for avios.
From FFs experiences do you think BA would open up some 1 or 2 days prior to the fight if they remain empty?

corporate-wage-slave

Trying to work that out would be akin to crystal ball glazing, witchcraft and the best endeavours of GCHQ. It is deliberately unknowable. If the question was "will BA deliberately keep the First cabin completely empty when redemption passengers are anxiously hammering away on their keyboards?" the answer is certainly yes. They have also been known to offer redemptions when there is just one empty seat left, even though that takes out revenue options for the airline. It's also the case that BA will overbook Club World, cheerfully putting a subset of passengers into First - again the logic as to who is selected is unknowable.

So the best answer I can give is "maybe". But First availability can and does show up on the day of travel, so if you're actually OK with your CW seat, there may be an argument not to check-in until after midnight GMT on the day of travel.

Rubecula

BA's policy is to make it impossible to work out what it is. BA want late bookers to have to pay for tickets at eyewatering prices. As such they will let flights leave with empty seats.

In other words, what may be best for an individual flight is not best for the airline long term.

Edit: as expected CWS beat me to it.