You can now use Avios points to pay for British Airways seat reservations – is it a good deal?

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• Liz says:

  9 May9 May 16:56

  Enjoying our first experience of the Concord Room at T5 waiting for our flight to SIN and then on to Oz in a few days time. Looking forward to our first FIRST experience with BA – we are not frequent flyers so this is a real treat for us. Won’t be paying cash or Avios for our CW seats on the way back from SYD. Fingers crossed we get a seat together at T24hrz. Cheers! ✈️????

  • New Card says:

    9 May9 May 17:29

    Fantastic – enjoy!

  • Darren says:

    9 May9 May 18:36

    Sounds like a lovely trip Liz, hope you have a great time.

  • Tilly says:

    9 May9 May 22:27

    Hope you enjoy it Liz! We had our first First yesterday and loved it. Happy travels!

• Mark says:

  9 May9 May 18:04

  I have to say now that we no longer have status certain Virgin UC redemptions are looking attractive over an Avios CW 2for1 / PE->CW upgrade.

  The slightly higher Tesco rate, regular Tesco conversion bonuses, lower redemption rates on some routes compared to CW, not needing to earn a voucher and free seat selection all adds up.

  With a 2for1 and no status it makes a BA F redemption rather more attractive on certain aircraft. I wouldn’t bother on the 8 seat 787-9 F cabin though as we like window seats, and you can’t get two window seats on the same side of the aircraft unless you’re gold or are very lucky at T-24. Worse, if you are able to select 1A or 1K they’re then liable to snatch it away from you close to departure leaving you potentially separated with no choice, which happened to us (as Silver status holders).

• Keith C says:

  9 May9 May 18:45

  O/T but BA – I booked flights LHR to MIA for early next year on the BA website, B1526 (actually AA57) Business Class to MIA, and Premium on BA back to LHR. I’ve just received an e-mail saying that BA1526 is cancelled, and I’m now booked on a less suitable (actual BA) flight 3.5 hours later.

  AA57 is not cancelled. It is, at the least, disingenuous, to claim that BA1526 is cancelled. It is the code share arrangement that appears to have gone.

  Is this a common occurrence? I’m wondering whether it is worth my while trying to get BA to book me on to AA39 instead if that code share arrangement might also disappear.

  • Anna says:

    9 May9 May 21:39

    I can’t understand why the codeshare agreement would be terminated. BA do have a habit of cancelling flights though, but if you call them they are usually quite accommodating about putting you on an alternative if there are seats available.

    • Anna says:

      9 May9 May 21:41

      A One World alternative, that is!

    • Keith C says:

      10 May10 May 11:35

      Regarding BA1526 being ‘cancelled’. I have rung BA, they are adamant that BA1526 (actual AA57) is cancelled, and that AA have confirmed this. Hence I got myself booked onto BA1528 (actual AA39) instead.

      However, on the AA website, I’m now flying twice on the same day – on AA39 at 1105 hours, and on AA57 at 1235 hours, both LHR to MIA. The 2nd flight is shown as a return. Further, BA have, without telling me, reserved a seat on AA39, which I can change on the AA website, but ‘Manage My Booking’ won’t reflect this.

      I’m a leisure traveller, don’t fly often, and only booked Business from LHR to experience what is like on AA (since it is often spoken about favourably) and there were ‘cheap’ prices available. I booked this on the BA website since the return is with BA, and I could redeem and earn points. I really don’t want this hassle.

• Rtid says:

  9 May9 May 20:11

  I have just used 2x 2-4-1 for us as a family of 4 from LHR to SIN

  I am BA blue. Seat selection on the upper deck is £100 each. I’d have to pay £800 in seat selections for the upper deck on a return trip!

  • Mark says:

    9 May9 May 22:20

    Which gets very close to the point where it would be cheaper to fly somewhere, e.g. on a Qatar business sale fare, to get enough tier points for Silver than pay the seat selection fees!

    • Polly says:

      10 May10 May 10:33

      Agree completely. One reason we cancelled a BA F 241 KUL a while back to buy EX EU CPH J QR Sale. Gave us our silver once we flew our 4 x BA sectors. If you can be flexible that us.

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