Originally Posted by makin'miles

Now that F will be restricted to eight seats on all but the 388, perhaps BA are moving to limit the maximum available that are displayed to six - essentially giving competitors less of a clear view as to how many seats are sold at any given time.

When we take a look at J9, W9 or Y9 buckets months out, we all know that there are almost certainly more than nine seats in each of these cabins available for sale. No reason an F6 couldn't meant the same - it'd just be a shift from the way many of us currently read the inventory.

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

No - not completely wrong - F6A4 indicates that at this instant, 6 x F can be purchased and that 4 x A can be purchased

If 1 or more A tickets are purchased, the inventory of A may deplete by the same amount, it may deplete by a larger or smaller amount - the inventory of F may or may not be impacted
If 1 or more F tickets are purchased, the inventory of F may deplete by the same amount, it may deplete by a larger or smaller amount - the inventory of A may or may not be impacted

The only thing that the F6 actually indicates is that a single regular booking is limited to a maximum of 6 passengers - what the inventory will be after a purchase will be dependent upon what the airline wishes to do

It does not indicate that the airline is only prepared to sell 6 seats - just that the max purchase size is 6

Of course, for group bookings, it is a different situation again

If the starting state is F6A4, if 1 x A is purchased , it is not definite what the resulting availability will be - it does not mean that the new state will be F5A3 or F5A4 - it may well be F6A3 or even stay F6A4

As an actual example, have had situation where 2 discounted seats in 1st class was available - wanted to book for 2 passengers separately due to slightly different itineraries - booked the 1st person and availability dropped to zero. Had to cancel , at which point 2 became available again and then hold a booking for 2 people and then split the record to make the necessary changes to one of the passengers

Originally Posted by Abstract1

Ok yes agreed. But seeing as up until now all 789s and refurbed 777s have shown F8, it's obviously very odd that it's now F6. I don't think that anyone can argue with that fact!

Originally Posted by jerry a. laska

I would disagree that F8 was the prior default for all “789s and refurbed 777s”. In my experience F6 was more common when availability would open up in the smaller F cabins and I would only find F8 in the larger F cabins.

Originally Posted by fly747first

It's unfortunate that you have no knowledge of airline revenue management and several others have already pointed out such embarrassing mistake. Just because you keep saying that F6 A4 means there are 10 seats available due to your alleged experience doesn't actually make it true; not to mention that a subjective experience isn't an airline revenue management system. I suggest you google some articles on airline revenue optimization systems before further commenting.

Originally Posted by Abstract1

Sorry this is all wrong.

F6A4 does not mean 10 seats available!
F6A4 does mean that the max purchase size is 6.

The only exception I believe could be (unless they are planning to reduce to 6 seat cabins obviously), is if they are now required to hold back 2 free seats in every cabin for some reason or other like pilot rest, or for last minute VIPs, or something to do with the pandemic.

Originally Posted by Will100

But, there could only be 5 seats (eg overselling)

Originally Posted by Dave Noble

What I wrote in that post and what I was meaning/thinking when I wrote were different and corrected it in the latter post

F6A4 means that at an instant in time 6F can be purchased - it also means that at the same instant 4A can be purchased
This means that a single transaction can purchase a maximum of 6 seats - since you cannot have a single booking where some are in F and some are in A
When a booking is made for a number of seats, it does NOT however mean that inventory will deplete exactly based on number of seats booked

That it says F6 does not mean that only 6 x F are going to be sold, only that a maximum purchase is for 6

Originally Posted by fly747first

...

Asian airlines often choose to display a maximum of 4 seats in their booking classes to make it harder for competitors to know their real inventory levels.

Originally Posted by fly747first

Asian airlines often choose to display a maximum of 4 seats in their booking classes to make it harder for competitors to know their real inventory levels.

Originally Posted by TPJ

To close the discussion I tested on my Corpo Booking tool:

Original availability:

BA 117 F6 A4 J9 C9 D9 R9 LHRJFK
I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9

Booked 4 F seats (just for a few seconds, without creating a PNR), availability went to this:

BA 117 F2 A2 J9 C9 D9 R9 LHRJFK
I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9

Reverted the booking, availability went to this:

BA 117 F6 A4 J9 C9 D9 R9 LHRJFK
I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9

Seat map shows 8 F seats.

So indeed BA wants to sell maximum 6 First seats.

Originally Posted by Abstract1

Yes have indeed seen this. But why would BA be doing this to every single destination in USA but nowhere else in the world!? BNA for example where there is no competition.

Originally Posted by Foofighter69

I still have an inkling, following a chat with a BA insider, that this is a precursor to an equipment change to a new 777 layout with 6F. With a new F suite with a door with a similar width to the 388 F suite.

Hence on a narrower 777 it would be two rows of 1-1-1 = 6F