col747uk

Hi

Usally when requesting seats via a space release, the request is usually confirmed quickly. When i requested a date change for a flight the agent said she was sending it to Revenue Management but that it might take up to 24 hours.\

Is this because they are so busy or short staffed?. There are only 2 seats left and I want to secure them asap.

wanderingjock

Did she say she would hold the 2 seats? Can you see them being taken in ExpFlyer? It shouldnt take as long as 24hrs imho, so you should get confirmation (hopefully) quite soon. YMMV

Rubecula

Pre pandemic I did not always get an immediate confirmation of a GGL space release. However it always came through in the end. With only 2 seats available I understand the concern, but also I am not surprised at the delay.

col747uk

Spoke with a lovely lady this afternoon who explained that for a new booking space is usually confirmed very quickly but not if you are changing an existing booking as I am ( date change as space became available on the date I actually want to travel).

Will check again tomorrow morning.

VSLover

they have always been able to confirm the space release at the time of booking or change of booking when im on the phone with them...but i seem to recall even pre-covid there would be times (presumably when i was making a change) where it all may not have been re-issued instantly.

but since then, yes, each change i make to an existing ticket has seem to result in things being sent away and it takes a wide range of time for things to be re-issued, however the agent on the phone has always been able to pull the inventory and hold it until things get reissued, and it has been reflected on expertflyer when i have occasionally checked after hanging up.

carrotjuice

Managed to make a date change without needing space release, due to flight cancellation. The CSO did say it's "a lot easier" when there's a cancellation, whereas a space release would require "checking with another department before it can be confirmed".

I always thought space release was as simple a referring to a spreadsheet how many jokers a GGL has left, and striking it out from there.

flyingnomad

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Cancellations i.e invol changes, are always easier because they can be booked into any available fare bucket, including higher revenue fare buckets. It essentially removes any requirement to check for reward inventory, or availability in same fare bucket as original booking etc etc.


Even if there are D/A bucket seats available, I believe the tricky part here is checking how many seats have been released on the same flight by other GGLs (only up to 5 can be released on any one flight).

carrotjuice

Indeed. And you get full Avios and TPs too if rebooked under revenue class!

carrotjuice

Don't believe this is the tricky part. Because every time, the CSO is able to tell me how many seats remain available (not booked by other GGLs) at the time of booking.

Splotly

Interesting. Just to add my further recent experience. I had an existing booking (1-way on a 2-4-1 booking) where after months BA just added an extra flight so there was availability in “A” (flight wide open initially in all classes) to add the return leg.

Called GGL (late evening so spoke to someone really good in India). They confirmed plenty of A available and no other GGLs had stolen anything yet. So all good, but he needed to send to revenue (for approval/action?). He told me to wait on the phone because he was sending them a message and expected they’d respond within a minute or maybe 2. After several minutes of chatting with me he said he was surprised they’d not responded yet but they must just be busy and rather than wait further I should just call back to complete the tax payments etc the following day - and he’d hold the seats and push it forward internally for me.

He emailed me an update later to say it was talking longer than expected but there was no problems he was aware of.

Meantime I checked on ExpertFlyer and there were still all 8 seats available in F.

I replied to his email to check everything really was ok and he assured me it was. He said space releases for changes have to be sent to a human to look at whereas new ones are pretty automatic (minutes).

Subsequently the return leg appeared in the booking on the App, with text “for information only” (where “confirmed” would normally appear).

And now ExpertFlyer is showing 2 less seats available in F.

And now I’ve also noticed the App shows the flights as confirmed.

I’ve still not called back to pay the taxes etc.

Feels like I might have been a little bit exposed in that period when ExpertFlyer was still showing all 8 as available. But I don’t know.

RichieMc

New for me re space release. Obviously one needs A class to ensure a booking. But I always understood that one could send a request to revenue management if there was only F class left. Of course this may well be rejected. Just finished with an agent who told me that it's not even possible to make such a request. Is this correct? Is this a new thing? Worth trying again with a different agent?

Lefly

I was told more or less the same a couple of weeks ago, after having politely enquired if anything could be done regarding using a GUF on a leg with only F available.

Pilot37

I think they can make the request (and have done so on a few occasion for me), but the normal response is no sadly. I was on with the GGL line yesterday trying to get an extra D class seat opened on a very popular route (there was 1D seat available) and despite the flight being empty and only C & J inventory being on sale, Revenue Mgt have denied my request for the extra D seat - so I've just put an EF alert on it!

Pilot37

MrSimonR

This is correct. A new booking is confirmed by a robotic in seconds. An amendment to an existing booking where there is no standard avios availability and which requires space release (whether it is using your annual allowance or as a GGL4L) requires confirmation by RevMan. The GGL team can check there is the necessary A/D class available and available "jokers" in the cabin, but it still goes to RevMan to confirm. Always. It usually gets confirmed overnight, regardless of when you request the change.

If you want instant confirmation, you can always cancel what you have and rebook as a new booking as you will get instant confirmation.

nufnuf77

JOKER (space release) is automated when creating a new booking. when changing a booking there is no way for agent to just confirm the seats and rev man has to manually release them for you. been through this many time and usually done within 6 hours or so