pdxasflyer

Hello everyone,
I did a search, but didn’t quite see any updated info. Even did a google search for updates from any bloggers with a similar outcome (nothing recent in the past few months).

I’ve been watching F award space on ExpertFlyer, BA’s website, and Alaska’s website for several months now, for a couple of different time frames, including the very end of the schedule when BA typically releases F award space. I’ve not seen a single seat in my searches from any US city to LHR OR from LHR back to any US city (where there is an F cabin). Has BA pulled all F space for awards?

I did read on another thread that there was an Avios sale back in Oct 2020, though that would have ostensibly only covered award space through September 2021. My searches are both later than that time frame

Any help or thoughts appreciated!

alex67500

Hi, I can see a few from JFK from Jan onwards, and very few from SFO too. LAX and ORD nothing available. You're right, that's not a lot but there are a couple out there. BA tend to remove availability when sales are on and one just finished so maybe they're not back yet. Or with smaller F cabins, BA think they can sell them for cash.

JIMCHI

Eliminating first class award seats from all west coast cities (save very few exceptions which are very close to departure date) will end my relationship with BA. If they think I'm going to pay over $3000 in fees for two business class awards they are sadly mistaken. We loved BA first class, but we can fly AA to LHR in business class for about $600 in taxes. The Chase Companion certificates are great but for the savings I can buy the miles on AA where I can frequently secure F class award space to LHR. It would seem fair that they allocate 2 F seats on most every flight from the west coast. I seriously doubt they are going to actually sell all 8 F seats.

Full Score

For many months BA have not been releasing F award seats to/from the US. Business Class, fine, but First NO. Even allowing for the withdrawal of many F aircraft and a reduction in the number of seats on others, BA are treating their most loyal customers with total disdain. BA, make SOME available. Even JFK, which used to always have availability, has virtually none. Like you, I may have to switch to AA whose product is inferior, but at least bookable and much, much cheaper.

A P Yu

The really loyal people they'll want to keep will be those paying money for those seats instead of avios.

corporate-wage-slave

Avios is still money, Avios is merely the bitcoin of IAG. But it's partly right, BA will want to see more revenue than that implied by Avios transactions, at least at the current bitcoin style exchange rate.

The other factor is that at the moment BA is not only operating a skeleton service but have mothballed a lot of the fleet, notably the A380. In the process BA have elminated about a third of First seats from the core fleet, and First is BA's least lucrative cabin. When BA returns to full operation then one can broadly assume that it will be quite difficult to redeem in First, and right now very difficult indeed given the skeleton service.

Raffles

Is it not far simpler than that?

BA has no real idea what aircraft will be on what route beyond about four weeks visibility.

If you book an Avios F ticket but the aircraft is swapped, BA owes you £1000+ in EC261 (75% of Avios used x 1.6p per Avios) PLUS a seat in Club. You can see where they are coming from.

TryingtoturnLeft

New poster and in need of some help! Please!

My Oct flights ( hopefully) are
GLA-LHR-MIA-LAX in Club rtn,

upgraded at time of booking to First on
LHR-MIA and MIA-LHR using Avios.
At the moment it’s A380 but I understand that’s probably not going to happen,

if /when I’m downgraded, do the return the Avios used, and then am I still able to apply for the EC261 after, if so, what could I get back, I’m confused because it’s Avios upgrade and only part of the itinerary, I would really appreciate any information, thank you.
It might help me make a decision to ask for a reroute or not.

JIMCHI

Whoa !!! I am entitled to some compensation ??? We had 2 seats booked in F using Avios PHX-LHR-PHX for a trip this coming December. As of now I have left the reservation alone and not accepted the downgrade yet, hoping they will at some point put an aircraft with F seats and restore us. But if they don't, are we entitled to compensation?

DYKWIA

Yes - if you fly in J, you get the EC261 compensation. See the main thread for the full details.

pdxasflyer

Much of what you all of said aligns with what I’ve suspected - that is, that BA is looking for more stability in terms of their schedules relative to the countries they fly to and the return of passengers to the skies on a consistent basis. I see 787s and 777s with F seats deployed to fairly strong/reliable markets (LAX, SFO, and JFK, but even SEA). Many of those cabins are completely empty on many dates.

It makes sense to me they wouldn’t want those filled in favor of downgrading without impact to booked F travelers. Still, not everyone traveling on BA is going to the UK, and would hope BA could see that possibility as travelers return to Europe and other onward destinations that may be opening up.

Thanks for the quick and helpful replies! Much appreciated.

Raffles

If this is a cash ticket then you have a bit of an issue because you and BA will need to decide the value of the LON-MIA legs. This won't be easy given you bought a cash ticket for the full route.

However, once you have agreed this (which may end up requiring CEDR arbitration) then the calculation is simple - you get 75% back of what you paid for the downgraded legs.

jerry a. laska

See the discussion regarding compensation (and the linked post within) here:
Equipment downgrades den and phx

Full Score

True, but BA needs to strike a better balance between keeping seats available for those companies willing to pay astronomical prices to sit at the front and those of us who also buy tickets on a regular basis (albeit further back in the aircraft) in order to preserve status. To withdraw virtually all F seat availability drastically reduces my loyalty to BA and pushes me towards using my money elsewhere.

NA-Flyer

Right now BA is flying the A351 to MIA without a First class cabin.