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-   -   No Business or First for reward travel...a change at BA? (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2000960-no-business-first-reward-travel-change-ba.html)

ddschur Dec 23, 2019 6:22 am

No Business or First for reward travel...a change at BA?
 
I am planning a trip for about a year out and noticed that whatever day/date I choose the only choice available it Economy! So, I began doing some what/if's and I continue to see nothing but Economy seating as available...My question is has BA stopped offering Business and/or First using Avios? I have NEVER had this happen before when booking a year in advance so I am stunned at this. If BA won't be offering Business or First options with Avios I will have to consider other options and, I would suspect, would others.
Thank you to anyone who might have some insights on this issue.

TheFlyingCyclist Dec 23, 2019 6:26 am

Hmm... which route are you seeing this on?

alex67500 Dec 23, 2019 6:27 am

Try with SeatSpy or BAredepemptionfinder (dot com for both), it gives you a 355 days ahead schedule. The first one shows all classes in one view which is quite handy.

Krisz Dec 23, 2019 6:32 am

BA always release at least a pair of CW seats for award at 355 days ahead on every route. If you are looking a popular school holiday route then it is extremely difficult to obtain one.
BA can release Avios seats during the whole period but that mainly for revenue management purpose and most likely closer to departure.

ddschur Dec 23, 2019 6:35 am

PHL to Basel, Switzerland and the same thing happened on direct flight from PHL to LHR...perplexing! I also tried using different browsers and separate accounts (my wifes) and saw the same result....Economy only.

Cymro Dec 23, 2019 6:38 am

Looking at SeatSpy there is somewhat plentiful availability in all classes on the direct PHL-LHR, albeit by no means every day. Try selecting that you want to continue your journey with stopovers, then build in a stopover of 0 days, and you should at least be able to connect to Y for the short hop.

UKtravelbear Dec 23, 2019 6:39 am

BA only guarentee to release 4 economy and 2 club seats on every flight. There is no commitement from them to release WTP and F. Nor is there a commitment to release any more seats once the initial allocation has been taken up though of course they often do depending on the route and time of year.

Some routes are very popular and people make the effort to be ready to book bang on T-355 days when seats are first released even if that is in the small hours of the night. Ref the many posts asking what time the seats are released.

mikeyfly Dec 23, 2019 6:40 am

Nothing has changed since maybe 2015 ?

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...9-edition.html

2 x J and 4 x Y on every flight released 355 days prior to departure

T8191 Dec 23, 2019 6:44 am

I’m currently tracking a l/h destination in J, for the return sector only, which should pop in around 10 days from now. Each morning they pop up, I get the alert emails at around 0430, and by 0930 the flights have gone. I shall have to get up early when the critical date comes around!

ddschur Dec 23, 2019 6:52 am

Thank you to all who responded...you've provided some insights and some tools for use in the future...Merry Christmas!!!

ddschur Dec 23, 2019 6:55 am

Is this 0430 and 0930 British time or US?

Prospero Dec 23, 2019 6:55 am


Originally Posted by T8191 (Post 31868778)
I’m currently tracking a l/h destination in J, for the return sector only, which should pop in around 10 days from now. Each morning they pop up, I get the alert emails at around 0430, and by 0930 the flights have gone. I shall have to get up early when the critical date comes around!

From experience, fresh reward inventory is added a few hours before you are receiving these alerts. Try 00:30 to 01:00 (UK time)

ddschur Dec 23, 2019 6:56 am

to Prospero...is this British time? Opps....sorry you did indicate time zone...my bad.

corporate-wage-slave Dec 23, 2019 7:02 am


Originally Posted by ddschur (Post 31868754)
PHL to Basel, Switzerland and the same thing happened on direct flight from PHL to LHR...perplexing! I also tried using different browsers and separate accounts (my wifes) and saw the same result....Economy only.

I can see at least one PHL-LHR Club World seat for I would guess 60% of dates in the next 355 days and almost every Sunday and Monday departing PHL. In November there is only one day, 28 November, when there isn't BA availability in the PHL-LHR direction, and it's available every day LHR-PHL. As ever with connections, it's best to search separately. And use the direct search rather than the Reward Finder screen. If you add in BWI, PIT, IAD, JFK, EWR, AA then Iberia, I doubt you'll have much problem finding something suitable.

In the case of BSL, if there are not good options on LHR-BSL - and this maybe a connection related issue - also consider ZRH or even STR.

windowontheAside Dec 23, 2019 7:03 am

Strangely I was searching PHL availability about an hour ago for my own purposes and saw plenty.


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