What's the deal with BA and D-class availability?
 

I'm looking to book a RTW and I've noticed that BA seems to have no D class availability on any long haul flights I've checked. Plenty of D class on other oneworld flights with the same city pairs whether codeshared or operated by the airlines. Seems very suspicious. Can it be that everyone is booking BA or have they severely restricted the inventory of D class...

Is this just me or has anyone else noticed this?

(I prefer to book BA where possible to get my 4 BA qualifying segments)

Not sure which routes you are talking about, but i always have the same problem with BA for A class on RTWs between LHR and BKK/SIN/HKG and return. I usually never have a problem with A class on BA on the trans-atlantic routes.

BA zeroed out D on LHR-SEA (Friday) 9 months in advance. D9 for days either side.

QF also seem to zero out QF2 LHR-SYD on Fridays too (in D). A very popular day to fly to SYD because of the Sunday arrival. Blame yield management that seems to maximise revenue.

Og is spot on. Flights are running fuller for the past year, and several airlines have reacted by zeroing out certain days of the week on certain routes for the entire schedule. Often they will release seats closer to the travel date (but rarely more than 14 days ahead). It is a big problem on some routes. High status with the specific airline sometimes helps in getting seats released on request.

D can be tough on certain days, but there is still plenty there is you book 1/2 months in advance. I am sat on a few D class bookings for Feb/March made at the end of December.

I never fly BA in A to HKG and on - CX, is much better IMHO.

I had the same problem with zero D seats nine months in advance (PVG, TLV, DEL) on certain days of the week. In two cases seats opened up about 45 days in advance.

BTW, I was waitlisted for D both times. When the flight went to D9, BA did not automatically put me in D. I had to call to make the change. The waitlist (I think they have stopped waitlisting) was useless.

You can always set up a Flight Alert in expertflyer for BA-D or any OW RTW class on any OW airline. It will email you when it finds inventory available.

OT a little, but BA seems to be getting more and more passenger-unfriendly, unless your name is Willy and/or you're riding in paid F. So I just booked a DONE4 that I am quite proud to say is BA-free (at least for now.) More importantly, it's LHR-free. I'll miss Molton Brown and (certain) Terraces/First lounges, but it's a small price to pay.

The APD of GBP 80 makes for a nice reward to be LHR-free. And the chaos at LHR for the past 3 months keeps getting worse, it is close to being disfunctional as an airport. Oneworld needs a bunch more flights at BUD and use that as a hub. Meanwhile HEL and MAD are OK alternatives to LHR sometimes (but often not). Oneworld needs to fix this, Star is looking a lot more attractive now because of the LHR mess.

Funny you should mention being BA-free (and it perhaps deserves its own thread). I have been tinkering around with my next RTW itinerary, and it is a consideration that definitely passed my mind. But it's hard to do, especially if you want to maximize mileage. The longest non-BA segment within Europe is BCN-LEN at 2958, which is a whole lot less than 3628 on LHR-MCT. This is quite aside from my utter lack of interest of going to LEN, although the Middle East also has limited appeal. At least I don't need a visa to go there.

It gets worse as I have been thinking of doing an AONE4 this time, which makes the long-haul BA Europe segments even more attractive. My current tentative Europe itinerary is HKG-FRA, LHR-IST-LHR-MCT-LHR, FRA-SCL. If I do the second LHR visit as a transit, I can avoid getting hit twice.

I do share the general sentiment though that BA is becoming ever less attractive. Draconian luggage restrictions, the general awfulness of LHR, strikes looming, insane taxes... minimizing BA and LHR is likely to become a popular pastime here, I suspect.

The extra miles are not worth it.

I am leaning that way too, but I'm not there yet. Give it another month or two of BA idiocy. :D

A bit confoosed here - LEN is Leon, which is a lot less than 2958 miles. Longest IB Europe segment I can find is MAD-TLV at 2207, then MAD-DME at 2140. Still, without the LHR-long Europe restriction, a couple of RTs to TLV or CAI/DME can get you within 1500 mi or so of LHR-MCT-LHR-IST-LHR. Not that European J on IB is all that swell, but IMO not a deal breaker.

Of course the Biggest problem is that 97% of OneWorld European First Class flights all use LHR.

CX only have First to CDG and FRA
AA DFW-FRA all their other European flights are 2 Class 767
IB/AY and QF[Other Than LHR] are 2 Class with no First

Of the 3 New Members JL/MA/RG only JL into LHR will have First Class Suites, hopefully some JL European flights will eventually upgrade to Solo.

Meanwhile if you want to fly OneWorld First its very difficult to avoid LHR.:mad: