Sep 14, 2017, 7:20 am
Last edit by: Flame3601
Information on Load requests
The number of seats for sale for a flight are available via ExpertFlyer.com, a subscription-based service with a 5-day free trial. A subscription is $9.99/month and can be enabled and disabled any time. It is encouraged to subscribe rather than post repeatedly in this thread.
NB: Op-up changes or overselling of a flight cannot be determined with certainty from this information, only inferred to be more or less probable.
For a once-off load request please follow these guidelines:
Flight loads >7 days out are not very useful, as the airline could still sell many seats, unless availability of a specific fare bucket (e.g. Business Saver upgrade) is requested. If you wish to know the general flight load please don't post >7 days before departure.
When requesting a load please provide the following information:
- Date of flight (departure date)
- Flight Number
- Origin
- Destination
These four fields are mandatory in searching on ExpertFlyer (see screenshot below) and it isn't fair to except those who pay for their subscriptions to also have to go look up which cities a specific flight number is from and to (also some flight numbers are onward flights (5th freedom routes, e.g. CMB-MLE) and loads will differ significantly depending on which sector of the flight is checked.
The number of seats for sale for a flight are available via ExpertFlyer.com, a subscription-based service with a 5-day free trial. A subscription is $9.99/month and can be enabled and disabled any time. It is encouraged to subscribe rather than post repeatedly in this thread.
NB: Op-up changes or overselling of a flight cannot be determined with certainty from this information, only inferred to be more or less probable.
For a once-off load request please follow these guidelines:
Flight loads >7 days out are not very useful, as the airline could still sell many seats, unless availability of a specific fare bucket (e.g. Business Saver upgrade) is requested. If you wish to know the general flight load please don't post >7 days before departure.
When requesting a load please provide the following information:
- Date of flight (departure date)
- Flight Number
- Origin
- Destination
These four fields are mandatory in searching on ExpertFlyer (see screenshot below) and it isn't fair to except those who pay for their subscriptions to also have to go look up which cities a specific flight number is from and to (also some flight numbers are onward flights (5th freedom routes, e.g. CMB-MLE) and loads will differ significantly depending on which sector of the flight is checked.
Flight Load Check request
Jul 21, 2022 | 12:55 am
#901
Ambassador, Emirates
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: LGW / AMS / CPT
Programs: SA KL BA EK
Posts: 4,836
EF will give you the number of seats the airline is prepared to sell in each fare bucket (with a maximum of 7 in Y, 7 in J and 4 in F cabins). Those numbers are in my experience quite accurate. But Y9 can be 9 seats available to sell, but also 109. And Y9 B9 does not mean 18 seats minimum, it means a minimum of 9 seats that they will sell either as Y fares or as B fares. Etc etc. There is a good amount of interpretation needed.
Jul 25, 2022 | 3:13 pm
#903
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, EK Gold, GF Silver, IC Royal Ambass, Marriott Gold, TK Elite
Posts: 910
Sep 13, 2022 | 8:32 am
#905
Ambassador, Emirates
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: LGW / AMS / CPT
Programs: SA KL BA EK
Posts: 4,836
Sep 13, 2022 | 9:15 am
#907
Join Date: May 2020
Location: DXB and JNB
Programs: EK Plat; (Happy) QR Exile
Posts: 938
In addition, I think the order of precedence for Op Ups in this case would be Platinum (irrespective of fare bucket) > Flex Plus (irrespective of status, lower than Plat) > Flex (Gold) > Flex (Silver), even if Y was oversold. It would be very fortuitous for a Silver on a Flex to get an Op Up.
Sep 23, 2022 | 5:18 am
#909
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: AU, UG, NG, ET, others
Programs: EK (plat), ET, VA, QF
Posts: 607
First is completely full for that flight. No chance for upgrade
Sep 23, 2022 | 8:40 am
#911
Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: AU, UG, NG, ET, others
Programs: EK (plat), ET, VA, QF
Posts: 607
As of right now, there are 7 First seats unoccupied on EK003 on 1st October. Seats 1E, 1F, 2E, 2F, 3K, 4A and 4K
With the full cabin on 26/9 there is a very small chance that some of the passengers in F seats may change flights, releasing their seats for people in your situation, but it is rare so close to the departure date. And you would really need to proactively secure one of them by calling CS incessantly, with low chance of success unless you're platinum or iO and at the head of the queue for upgrade.
After the covid lockdowns, the bouyant purchasing of F seats has meant that EK knows it has a good chance of filling every F seat with paying passengers and is mostly not interested in keeping any seats for those wanting F awards or F upgrades. I can certainly see their point of view. Cash is everything!
I have had 3 F trips to Africa since the beginning of this year and each time I have noticed that I need to book a lot earlier for there to be any spare F seats on my chosen days, let alone secure my preferred seats! My flights out of Australia rarely have any spare F seats at all. If there are any, they are quickly snapped up by on-board upgraders. I imagine you would have the same scenario on your LHR-DXB-LHR flights. A popular route, apparently with lots of higher status passengers!
I do wish you good luck!
Sep 23, 2022 | 9:41 am
#912
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 110
Thank you.
As of right now, there are 7 First seats unoccupied on EK003 on 1st October. Seats 1E, 1F, 2E, 2F, 3K, 4A and 4K
With the full cabin on 26/9 there is a very small chance that some of the passengers in F seats may change flights, releasing their seats for people in your situation, but it is rare so close to the departure date. And you would really need to proactively secure one of them by calling CS incessantly, with low chance of success unless you're platinum or iO and at the head of the queue for upgrade.
After the covid lockdowns, the bouyant purchasing of F seats has meant that EK knows it has a good chance of filling every F seat with paying passengers and is mostly not interested in keeping any seats for those wanting F awards or F upgrades. I can certainly see their point of view. Cash is everything!
I have had 3 F trips to Africa since the beginning of this year and each time I have noticed that I need to book a lot earlier for there to be any spare F seats on my chosen days, let alone secure my preferred seats! My flights out of Australia rarely have any spare F seats at all. If there are any, they are quickly snapped up by on-board upgraders. I imagine you would have the same scenario on your LHR-DXB-LHR flights. A popular route, apparently with lots of higher status passengers!
I do wish you good luck!
As of right now, there are 7 First seats unoccupied on EK003 on 1st October. Seats 1E, 1F, 2E, 2F, 3K, 4A and 4K
With the full cabin on 26/9 there is a very small chance that some of the passengers in F seats may change flights, releasing their seats for people in your situation, but it is rare so close to the departure date. And you would really need to proactively secure one of them by calling CS incessantly, with low chance of success unless you're platinum or iO and at the head of the queue for upgrade.
After the covid lockdowns, the bouyant purchasing of F seats has meant that EK knows it has a good chance of filling every F seat with paying passengers and is mostly not interested in keeping any seats for those wanting F awards or F upgrades. I can certainly see their point of view. Cash is everything!
I have had 3 F trips to Africa since the beginning of this year and each time I have noticed that I need to book a lot earlier for there to be any spare F seats on my chosen days, let alone secure my preferred seats! My flights out of Australia rarely have any spare F seats at all. If there are any, they are quickly snapped up by on-board upgraders. I imagine you would have the same scenario on your LHR-DXB-LHR flights. A popular route, apparently with lots of higher status passengers!
I do wish you good luck!
Sep 23, 2022 | 1:55 pm
#913
Ambassador, Emirates
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: LGW / AMS / CPT
Programs: SA KL BA EK
Posts: 4,836
Something to bear in mind for future fights is that J to F upgrades on the DXB/LGW routing are significantly easier to get than on the LHR flights. I have been successful twice this year and third time I was proactively offered a miles upgrade when entering the A J lounge at DXB. Was not very flush on miles at that time and was happy with my 23K seat so declined the offer (to stress, this was not an op-up). So if you dont have a good reason to fly to LHR, consider LGW instead.
Sep 24, 2022 | 9:02 am
#914
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 110
Something to bear in mind for future fights is that J to F upgrades on the DXB/LGW routing are significantly easier to get than on the LHR flights. I have been successful twice this year and third time I was proactively offered a miles upgrade when entering the A J lounge at DXB. Was not very flush on miles at that time and was happy with my 23K seat so declined the offer (to stress, this was not an op-up). So if you dont have a good reason to fly to LHR, consider LGW instead.
Dec 28, 2022 | 4:45 am
#915
Join Date: Jun 2022
Programs: BAEC GGL
Posts: 76
Are you sure this is true, only because DBX-STN operated the gamechanger I mean, doesn't that limit the opportunity (increase the demand) quite a bit? (I hope i'm wrong to assume so, but if so does anyone have any specific examples to encourage optimism for those who want to try their luck?)