First availability to NYC in November
 

Looking at 4 of us going to NYC in November , in First, as according to the reward flight finder there is plenty of availability. (Would prefer December but less date options)
However, when you then actually search for it , to book, there is absolutely no availability in First, even for one person, on any of the supposedly “available” dates.
What’s going on??

Are you looking at just point to point LHR-JFK? Or XXX-LHR-JFK? If the latter try searching just for the former as there's a recognised issue in the award flight search engine struggling with "complex" searches

It’s actually going to be Glasgow to NYC, so don’t want another stop on top of that.
im just searching as ‘London-all” to “New York-all”.
Still nothing in F.

Are you looking for 4 award seats in F on the same flight? Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in but I just did a search for you on EF and didn't get any days (across some random dates) with 4 seats in Z. CW there are quite a few Glasgow > JFK.

Not sure how often 4 seats would open up together in F.

Ah, had a play around. I get F availability from LHR instead of Glas. Could it be no flights with F coming out of Glasgow which breaks the search?

Very strange! It's not just you as I can replicate the issue.

Must be a glitch in the matrix...

With the cabins reducing to 8F (not 747) there’s going to be fewer F rewards than ever even on route like JFK

I think the issue is 2 separate things. I checked a few dates/months for these but what I saw was:

- There are are no award seats in any class GLA > LHR
- There are very few LHR > JFK flights with 1 F award seat let alone multiple

There are some LHR > JFK flights with 4 biz seats available however.

I’ve been searching London - New York. Not Glasgow and not just JFK.

the reward flight fmnder says there are plenty of 4 F seats in November but when actually search to book there is nothing.

Reward Flight Finder is nothing to do with BA. Only place for correct / accurate reward availability is BA.com

4 x F redemption seats?! BA are going to give away 1/3 of their F cabin on a flight for Avios?! Jeez.

Sorry, I meant BA’s own reward flight search tool.
That’s why I don’t get what’s going on.

Phone the call centre and ask them to look for you

The booking engine is really the only reliable method of getting availability numbers online (and even then it's not infallible). A close second is ExpertFlyer, which does real-time searches. All of the other shortcuts are prone to give unreliable results.

Sometimes there is just no alternative to putting in the hard work, and it sometimes is hard work.

Four awards in F might be over ambitious. Can you divide it into two persons per flight or two in F and two CW?

how excitable. In fact a GGL can, subject to A class availability and no one else having done this on that flight, request space release for up to 5 seats. So, yes it can happen. And 5/8 is more than 1/3.