LHR> LAX frequent travellers - which flight tends to have best CW availability?
 

Hi frequent LHR>LAX travelers -

I'm going to buy a fully flexible WT+ ticket to travel this weekend; and then hope for a good offer on a same day cash upgrade to CW at the airport (which I have done in the past). Anyone have any idea which of the flights tend to have the most open seats in CW?

My guess would be flight 281 at 12:45 which is on the older 747 plane? but maybe that is not correct
versus flight 269 at 15:25 which is on an A380?

thanks!

Worth doing a dummy booking in club for the flights for the day you want to travel before you book the WT+.

Currently BA283 has 17 J remaining, BA281 has 31, and BA269 has 44 on Saturday.

Can you clarify what day you mean by this or are you flexible Friday through to Sunday?

thanks
I am able to travel either Friday, Sat or Sunday, and to me doesn't really matter what time I leave or arrive between the 3 flight options

My assessment, which is only slightly better than crystal ball gazing is that BA281 on Friday is - on balance - your best bet. It's not sufficient to look at just one cabin, you have to consider where BA will put all the passengers bearing in mind rolling upgrades are available to the airline. As it happens I don't think any of the flights are that full.

AUPs are not guaranteed, BA is quite happy to leave seats empty and money untouched.

Where have you got these figures from?

AFAIK, there is no public access to actual load figures (although insiders occasionally post them here). Public availability displays only go up to 9, and seat maps are not a good way of judging booking levels - even if you ignore the fallacy in looking at one cabin in isolation from the remainder of the flight.

Saturdays would normally be the quieter day for Club travel on a business heavy routes (which I think LAX is). Friday is people heading home, Sunday is people heading out for the start of the week

Those are the seats available on a dummy booking, which should be a reasonable idea of numbers for J 3 or so days out from the flight, since most people pick their seats at the time of booking. OK they're not going to be 100% accurate, but they do give a good idea of the seats available. If we were talking WT or WT+, then it would not be anywhere near accurate. I however have found this a relatively good guide to seat availability in the past for J or F. YMMV

I don't believe you'll find that this is true for BA.

More generally, even for airlines that don't charge anyone for seat reservations, seat maps are really not as helpful as you might think when it comes to estimating loads.

This is not from a dummy booking or seat map, it may help you. Don't ask me to reveal my secrets please!

Sunday is definitely the busiest day. Note none of this takes into account op-ups and I didn't have time to look at other cabins. The bigger plane looks to have the most seats left for sale (the 380 has nearly 100 seats in Club)
For Club:

Fri
BA283 18
BA281 17
BA269 34

Sat
BA283 13
BA281 23
BA269 25

Sun
BA283 6
BA281 5
BA269 15

Thanks. I have gone ahead with WT + on the Saturday BA269. Even if I don’t get a Same day UP offer that I like, I’ll be happy enough with WT+ on the A380 since it’s the westbound travel