corporate-wage-slave

There is certainly some truth in that, and even I've been tripped up by it occasionally - now would be one such occasion when flights are being taken off the market for reasons which are pretty obvious, and yet there are seats available, reserved in essence for those on irrops. I guess that is where this forum gets useful to get the nuances out and the complexities of FLUB versus TS and all the other jargon that is out there. Generally downgrades are fairly rare, accepting that Japan is currently a special case.

surryson

Yep. And it�s no criticism of the OP. But it�s highly irregular for a 3 class flight to be -2 in J.

Back in the 90s in T4 to Lagos, maybe, on the Jumbo it might have been -2 in F/J etc etc. but nowadays, very uncommon.

Intl359Widget

Not at all BA is willing to overbook Premium cabins further out in the booking curve and then will allow for consumer behaviour to settle that out to fully booked (and the occasional need to do operational upgrades into F, rerouting, or downgrades).

k_cheng

Thanks for everyone's reply and reassurance throughout the day! Hopefully tomorrow goes smoothly, and I will report back updates on this.

Although I do feel I'm overly anxious about this situation, I don't think my worries came from nowhere.

I generally don't trust BA as a brand. There have been too many bad experiences on the inconsistency of customer services, products etc but that's another story. Sadly I can't just walk away from BA living in the UK with an extremely limited credit card market. I have to play the Avios game to be able to fly premium cabins to the Far East, especially at the post-covid era.

There are also quite a few reports on people being downgraded, who had booked using Avios combines with the companion voucher. I know the stats on this is disproportionate, as most people who are active on forums like this are frequent flyers, so of course would be more likely to report these experiences.

Additionally, the operation of theoretical seating is really beyond me that the system still blocks all remaining seats when the system clearly know it's gonna be a full CW cabin, Flub will be used to cope with the demand, and a passenger without a preassigned seat is trying to online check in. I totally appreciate the reason of theoretical seating is to benefit gold members etc, so they can fly more comfortably when no one is next to them, or sit at a better seat. But it's rather extreme when the system does not even drip feed some available seats when passengers without an assigned seat check in online. I might not have flown with enough carriers to notice another extreme theoretical seating situation like BA. All I want is simply to be able to check in online without paying for a seat in advance or having a status in the situation of a full flight, and get a seat assigned randomly by the system prior to arriving at the airport. I do not personally think this is an excessive demand, as there are still unassigned seats, and all passengers are allowed do online check in for this flight (no online covid doc check wharsover), so why am i punished? They can surely move some "important" people to Flub already at this point (as two were already occupied even before online check in opened), but rather, BA decides to finish this job last minute.

TTmex

Where are these numerous companion voucher downgrades you're referring to? Most people fly on them every day without any problems at all. Moreover, you've already been told you can be rerouted should it happen. By worrying about something you cannot control, you're sucking any joy possible out of your trip. BAs system is a well oiled machine and they are usually very effective at getting their loads correct. Every big airline oversells and sometimes they get it wrong. But in most cases it is correct and people fly in the cabin they paid.

As for assigning a seat early, BA is not going to change its policy for you and nobody is punishing anyone. The fact those flub seats are blocked indicates Ba expects to use them so 6 of the people currently in J will be moved to them, thus freeing up the other seats.

That you don't trust BA as a brand is also of your own making. You chose to buy the tickets, so accept whatever policy they have. Sorry for the blunt response, but thought perhaps being so may make you realize that asides from having paid for a seat there is sod all you can do here until the airport. Take a deep breath and go with the flow.

Hope you have a great trip in J.

P.s. every airline finish the job in the last minutes. Misconnecting passengers, no shows, and last min seat changers are why you see staff at any airline tapping away at the desk. It's what it takes to try and get planes out 100 percent full, no more no less.
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k_cheng

Update - seems theoretical seating finally decided to complete its job and move people to Flub. All Flub are now occupied with 1K2K blocked (always been blocked even for a full CW flight on HND route I noticed, probably for crew rest i assume).

I managed to check in online and got 7JK, which have been unoccupied but blocked until just now (what's the point)

TTmex

You ended up in two of best seats on the 787-9, assuming that is the plane. They were occupied most likely by someone with status and they were moved to flub because BA now believes flub is needed. It's late on to move because BA are now confident they need Flub.

Consider the following, if BA has 8 misconnecting passengers in J tomorrow and now realize they don't need Flub seats, you'll be sitting in the JK seats that someone once bad occupied but lost due to being moved too early to the Flub section. You'll find some threads on here about people losing their originally assigned seats because of this.

The system is not against you, it's just trying to do its job

orbitmic

The point is that 7JK serve as crew rest due to additional crew needed on very long flights. In this case, it looks like they gave up the use of it to accommodate more passengers, but there very much was a point for them being blocked Incidentally, they are great seats.

TTmex

They're crew rest seats on LHR to MEX too and in the last 10 flights I've taken it has never been occupied by crew because the loads are full or there was a spare in First to be used instead.

Have a great trip

k_cheng

On a 4 cabin aircraft without First class, could the crews not use the entire first cabin for their rest anyway? Also, I assume 1K and 2K are never assigned to pax as Flub because they're for crew rest, instead of the original 7JK, which are usually used when First is also operated.

orbitmic

Yep, I think anything above 9 or 10 hours off the top of my mind would have at least 7K as additional crew rest seat. Given the travel time to Tokyo these days, both 7JK would typically be needed. It does indeed happen that they get release (though I'm not sure if it is just based on loads, there might also be an element of consent from the crew beforehand) but at any rate, it is best not to select them in advanced assignment as there is a strong chance of losing them, sometimes quite late in the game.

Sigwx

7JK are the flight crew rest seats.

orbitmic

There would be very little point in surrendering a cabin of 8 seats for crew rest if you only need 2 and are dealing with a full flight! So no, that's not how it happens .I'm not aware of 1K and 2K being used for crew rest as a matter of course in FLUB - on the 789 it is specifically 7J and K which are earmarked for that purpose (regardless of cabins needed). Of course, in this case, who knows, it is possible the two crew rest seats may have been reaccommodated elsewhere.

k_cheng

I simply wrote down my observation and thoughts, and I very much appreciate you share your thoughts and great knowledge. Being blunt or not is your personal choice, and there is no need to apologise for anything, but it's a different matter that whether everyone should align to your thoughts. Cheers

surryson

I don�t quite understand your post. If you�re suggesting that BA routinely oversell the front cabin by 2 or 3, this close to departure, you�re wrong.