bman99

Hi FlyerTalkers,

It's been quite awhile since my last post but alas I am desperate so hoping you experts out there might be able help me...

My wife and I are hoping to fly to Japan in Apr/May 2025. I've managed to successfully book 2 one-way business class seats from LHR to HND on the 20th of April and am now trying to book the return flight roughly 2 weeks later. For the last 2 nights, I've been religiously logging into to the BA website just before midnight in the hope of nabbing 2 business class seats when they become available at 12:01am GMT but have had absolutely zero luck so far.

Not a single seat on any direct BA flight in any class has appeared. There has been some indirect availability but I want/need to use my Amex voucher so it has to be a BA operated flight. Does anyone know why absolutely nothing is showing up? Could it be that BA simply haven't released the seats yet (as per the usual 355 days in advance rule) or is there some other explanation? I do recall reading something in the past about a 'hack' whereby UK exec club members call BA in the US and get an agent to book it manually at the stroke of midnight as they somehow have quicker access than BA.com. But I was hoping that this was an urban myth...

Anyway any advice or guidance you guys can provide would be most appreciated as usual...

Many thanks
Bman99

FlyingCruiser

It is a very popular route and you must call, not use the website. Give it 10 minutes or so to go through security and tell them what you want - don't call too early either or they will tell you to call back.

You will be competing against many callers when looking for online availabilty and the agents on the phone can secure the seats quicker than you can online (I beleive online seats aren't secured until payment is made). I managed to secure LHR-HND and HND-LHR seats last year, we leave in a week or so and come back early-mid June. Called for both legs and had no issue getting the exact dates needed - but would not want to rely on booking online.

Conversely, say LAX is a route with lots of availability, I comfortably booked online at 9am T-355. HND is in demand in premium cabins and capacity slightly less than e.g. LAX so it will always be a challenge.

GumshoeW12

Remember the T-355 reward seats become available at 1am UK time at the moment, not midnight.

mikeyfly

Indeed, a call is the only way to secure sought after seats. I’d suggest calling around 00.40, but I’ve had mixed success even calling on these busy routes. Gave up on voucher for return leg and used a wedge of Avios on Qatar

noFODplease

Unfortunately you are looking at the wrong time - the seats come on at 1am during BST.

Earthman

you could also think outside of the box and look for ICN availability back,its only a short hop from HND if you wanted to tack a regional flight onto the end of your trip in Y or something ?

XFEL

also JAL HND-ITN flights are not bad

Kgmm77

Having done exactly this route previously when I was unable to get direct flights in one direction, it is worth noting that if you want to keep it all on Avios, JL only serve HND from Gimpo so a short train journey is required from ICN which is a bit of a faff.

bman99

Hi All,

Many thanks to everyone for your help and suggestions. I am definitely going to try the US BAExec line around 12:40am for the next few nights to see if I can nab 2 of those coveted business-class reward seats. Fingers crossed I get a helpful/speed agent to assist and they don't pull the "we only help North American customers on this line". One small advantage is that I have a Canadian accent (but have lived in the UK for the last 30 years) so maybe they won't realise until it's too late

As a side note, I did look at the possibility of going via ICN / Korea (in fact we quite fancy a mini-visit to Seoul) but unless I am being super-thick, BA doesn't seem to be flying to/from Korea at the moment (at least not direct).

Thanks again everyone -- you guys are brilliant!

Cheers,
Bman99 (long time Flyertalk fan/lurker)

DeathSlam

You will get through to the Indian call centre when calling the US line anyway, so they will not care.
Good luck with your searches.
Not sure what the advice is here about whether to tell them in advance if you are trying to use the return part of an Amex voucher or just letting them reserve the seats first and sorting it out during the 'payment' stage.

BA or bust

IME the best thing is to start with securing the seats, then tell them about the Amex. I even (politely) check during the transaction that the seats are secured by explaining that a few years ago I ‘lost’ them during the wait for the payment to process. Requested politely this invariably ensures the seats are secured and (more important) does not make the agent feel like I don't trust them to do their job properly.

higham44

Amex 2-4-1 flights are extremely difficult to secure. There are, however, flights currently available with Finnair on 4 May 2025 from HND to LHR via HEL using Avios, depending on your Avios balance and willingness to use. Good luck.

GoNorth

I'm assuming that as you're looking to book in business with an Amex 2-4-1 voucher its a Premium Plus card voucher. One of the major benefits with this voucher is the additional business availability it opens up. What might be happening is that as you have, I assume, used the voucher for the outbound flights it no longer appears and therefore no longer shows the additional availability online. Have you rung up BA during the day and explained what you want to do and see if they can advise you whether there are seats in the 'additional availability' booking class which I believe broadly aligns with the I class?

Luckily when I booked I left it long enough to book out and return online and there was a reasonably amount of availability but I may just have been lucky I guess.

skysh4rk

I don't think the additional availability afforded by the voucher is usually accessible when seats are released, so OP wouldn't be able to make use of this if looking to book at T-355. This could be something to keep in mind in a few months' time though.

bman99

I am happy to say that I have just got off the phone with BA and everything is booked (preferred date and flight too!). In the end, I had to call BA in Japan at 1:15am BST and spoke to a very helpful chap who managed to reserve the seats for me despite the systemwide maintenance outage that was going on at the time.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.

Time for a nap methinks!

Best Regards
Bman99