Thoughts about the British Airways ’14 Avios seats’ guarantee and your Avios strategy

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• Mouse says:

  29 May29 May 05:34

  Could also mean fewer seats released between D-354 and D-0, putting the pressure on people to book at exactly D-355?

  • Yuff says:

    29 May29 May 06:21

    That has always been the case for school holidays and popular destinations, can’t see this changes that and just makes it much easier for families.
    240k Avios and £2.5k in fees to middle east isn’t the great deal it used to be. Unless you’re silver, or higher, and want to sit together it’s even more.
    London to Dubai, via Auh, on Etihad next week was £5k for a family of 4

  • Rich says:

    29 May29 May 07:32

    Exactly, whilst this is good news for those who book at t-355 and especially families, for all the fanfare about the guarantee there is nothing to say that the total average Avios seats released per flight will increase because of this move. And no complete assessment of the commercial reasoning behind this decision can be made without knowing that. As Rob says, it certainly helps with the cash position and helps improve the brand perception but beyond that only time will tell.

• Callum says:

  29 May29 May 06:30

  Did BA tell you there’s a “huge surge” at 1am? It sounds like one of those things that seems obvious until you realise that HfP doesn’t represent the typical user. When people are doing this are they being kept on hold for a significant amount of time?

  I’m not sure many new families are going to be doing this either.

  • Phillip says:

    29 May29 May 06:45

    My one and only attempt at calling an overseas office at 01:00 was that they outright refused to “service my booking” because they only serviced bookings from members based in the respective country. And despite being an “overseas office”, the agent was based in the U.K. call centre!

• pauldb says:

  29 May29 May 06:30

  Amadeus may open the flight up at midnight T-355, but there’s no reason for BA to load the avios seats at launch. Just like flights often first appear with only the expensive seats available (J9I0).

  But then again I prefer it as it: at least you can have a certain level of hope of being able to get the seats you want, compared to it being a totally random release.

  • BJ says:

    29 May29 May 07:29

    It gets quite demoralising when you feel that hope evaporating night after night. Those like Rob who have not made a T-355 booking due to the family thing are about to come down to earth PDQ when they try. Trying online they are already a disadvantage simply due to the extra seconds or two it takes to select the four passengers as opposed to one or two. Even when they think they have got them they will then more likely than not face the disappointment of the payment process spinning and then failing at this final hurdle because somebody else confirmed the seats they thought they had.

    • cinereus says:

      29 May29 May 11:20

      Plenty of autofill scripts to make that process instantaneous.

      • BJ says:

        29 May29 May 13:15

        Yeah, I’ve got everything optimised, nothing missing in proife to speed through it as quickly as possible and it is still a problem at times.

    • pauldb says:

      29 May29 May 11:55

      I’ve done the midnight thing maybe thirty times and have not missed out even once. Sydney, half terms and others included.

• Andrew says:

  29 May29 May 06:48

  I’ll be sticking to my strategy to burn Avios at Sainsbury’s and buy cash tickets in the bi-monthly BA sale, where seats aren’t limited to 4 per flight. Price works out the same, and you earn tier points and more Avios back for Sainsbury’s. So really don’t get why anyone would bother with Avios flights anymore, but I know people enjoy the thrill of the chase and the midnight call to book them.

  • roberto says:

    29 May29 May 07:02

    Depends on how much and when you fly. If you’re happy to pay huge flight costs for half term ski trips or to trips to Barbados over Xmas good luck to you. I prefer to save a shed load of cash myself.

    Plus I like the flexibility that (in no covid times) that avios flights give me.

    Each to their own, I fly 100 times a year often at the last moment , don’t shop in Sainsbury, do earn loads of avios from my cards and 2 x 241 vouchers – Its different strategies and do make you right or wrong , it’s what works for you.

    • roberto says:

      29 May29 May 07:03

      * don’t….

  • DT says:

    29 May29 May 07:23

    Ok

  • BJ says:

    29 May29 May 07:38

    For me it is flexibility and Xmas NY flights. We’re it not I’d be doing same as you Andrew. I’ve been pushing the point on here for years that too many people book reward flights when paying for them makes more sense. Fortunately the exEU fashion of recent years has made many people more astute in this respect but there remains a problem with avios delusion, especially amongst newbies.

    • Polly says:

      29 May29 May 16:20

      Yep, with you on that point. Now tho we may not have the flexibility of those wonderful ex eu J flights in the future. Avios offer us full flexibility. Even today, hadn’t been able to get a CX J to HKT, next day from the HKG flight we booked yesterday. Was able to book a Cx J flight and just changed it to the date after we arrive in HKG. Point being, no J seats available on avios, they must have given us 2cash seats. These are currently selling for 100’s in Y let alone J. Was amazed by that flexibility for starters. So def works for us as opposed to Nectar.
      Still hope to do one ex eu Asia J deal every 2 years to keep silver.

  • P4D says:

    29 May29 May 07:48

    Price might work out similar through a sale vs outright avios bookings without a voucher.
    But I don’t see sales matching long hall companion (or barclays upgrade) voucher costs

  • Richie says:

    29 May29 May 08:24

    Many Avios collectors like to travel at peak times and maximise additional trips around bank holidays. Flights around these times are never on sale.

• BJ says:

  29 May29 May 07:13

  I have trouble buying into the upbeat nature of this analysis. Much of the circumstances and opportunities presented are the result of covid restrictions and their easing, nothing to do with BA strategy for the long term or permanent change. What BA has done might be little more than moving their existing furniture around and window dressing. While this will bring welcome advantages to some those advantages may be more apparent than real in the practical and/or absolute sense. They may make little difference or make things even worse in the long term. We do not know if the total number of award seats released in a year will remain broadly the same or if they will increase. Perhaps in the short term they will increase as we emerge from covid, perhaps in the longer term they might actually decrease despite a guarantee on the number of seats released per flight 355 days in advance. All the excitement about four seats for ila family is overhyped, let’s face it, all but one family (if even one) is in reality going to be very disappointed one minute after midnight or 1am for the most popular destinations, or any destination at the most popular dates. This change has brought benefits but let’s not get carried away with their significance.

  • BuilBackBetter says:

    29 May29 May 07:18

    That’s still better than all families being disappointed?
    And I think this is better even if total award seats are lower. Atleast people know seat release with certainty.
    It looks like savvy travellers are disappointed that they have to slum it with families 😉

    • BJ says:

      29 May29 May 07:51

      Nope, give me the families any day. Seen more problems with adults on flights than I ever have with kids, including babies. Obviously it’s better if you get your flights but it’s soul destroying if you repeatedly fail. I imagine even more so for families trying to take their annual or aspirational holiday. The one time Y rewards can make sense is on the most desirable school vacation dates so perhaps we are overlooking the value if tge increased Y availability. Granted it isn’t premium but if you want to get a certain place on an expensive date it has to be welcome.

      • Erico1875 says:

        29 May29 May 08:39

        I’m struggling to see how anyone can see a negative in this move by BA.
        As Rob pointed out, in the near future, typical -85% load factors , and post pandemic frequency increases should ensure there are more reward seats overall.

        • BJ says:

          29 May29 May 09:10

          I’m not saying it is negative, just that it is not huge and groundbreaking as portrayed here and elsewhere. @Meta raised potential negatives yesterday; all remains to be seen and is dependent on wider award seat availability. Uf reward seats become even rarer than hens teeth within T-355 then conversely we might in time argue that this is a huge negatuve.

        • BuilBackBetter says:

          29 May29 May 09:37

          “How dare they allow more people to get better value from avios?”
          “How dare they reduce my bragging rights?”

        • Rob says:

          29 May29 May 10:37

          More importantly, with fewer high paying business passengers, the gap between ‘max price we could get selling this seat for cash’ and ‘what Avios will pay us for it’ shrinks substantially. If BA knows that no-one is going to pay £4k for a Business seat and their best hope is a leisure passenger paying £1500, it makes sense to push more out to Avios where they get a similar sum.

  • Richie says:

    29 May29 May 08:51

    What are your Avios availability hopes from November 2022?

    • BJ says:

      29 May29 May 09:14

      Mine is 2x longhaul F or J exINV to Asia per year with amex and Barclays vouchers. If I can realise that long term I’ll be more than happy.

• TimM says:

  29 May29 May 07:23

  Of least interest to solo travellers.

  • Mark says:

    29 May29 May 07:53

    Why is this the case? More guaranteed seat availability is a good thing regardless of how many of these extra seats you will need

    • Andrew says:

      29 May29 May 07:58

      And a reminder to me how lucky I am not to have kids and needing to chase a load of seats in school holidays.

      • Roger W says:

        29 May29 May 08:43

        All families I know could never contemplate Business Class seats Long Haul. Trying to refer to friends finds them all living month to month with credit card bills on minimum payments or different CC strategies. May have the aspirational jobs, cars and houses but hardly a pot to p..s in!

        However I think it is great news. Never book hols in school holidays and usually seem to get flights we wish. Can only improve.

      • Genghis says:

        29 May29 May 12:43

        Or unlucky? There’s more to life than travel.

      • BrianW says:

        29 May29 May 18:48

        Incredibly unlucky in my view @Andrew I’m sorry to say. Kids are a much more integral part of your life than travel will ever be. Furthermore, they grow to cherish your own love for travel and, before long, share this with you, embellishing every trip you make together.

        Avios can be redeemed for many things but kids will never be one of them. I wouldn’t change having my three girls for the world, they enhance every CW Avios trip we take together, despite the fight for seats which has just become much less of an issue.

        • Rob says:

          29 May29 May 19:32

          Come on Brian, they’re a pain in the bottom, admit it 🙂

        • Brian W says:

          29 May29 May 19:40

          On occasions I’ll agree @Rob 😏

      • TimM says:

        29 May29 May 18:52

        It is best to live in the place you would most like to be during the school holidays and travel outside of them.

    • Doug M says:

      29 May29 May 09:53

      But is it more Mark, or is it just changing when they’re released. The next 355 days looks good with a big splurge of seats released, but overtime will the usual additional releases dry up. We have to wait and see.

    • Polly says:

      29 May29 May 16:22

      Solo travellers have an even better chance now of using that Barclays upgrade ticket. Win win. The number of times, l have seen just one seat available…

• Matthias says:

  29 May29 May 07:41

  The reason the BA are doing this is that the enormous ‘carrier charges’ they add on make a redemption booking nicely profitable for them, assuming the cabin isn’t sold out.

  Club to NY, the ‘carrier charge’ is £400 return I think – not as good as someone buying the seat for £1000-2000 (or indeed £5000 as it ised to be), but much better than keeping it empty. Plus, they will have made money on the Avios being used, particularly from partners.

  In a world where demand is likely to remain subdued this makes complete sense overall.

  I would be very interested to see what the annual ‘carrier charge’ revenue for BA adds up to.

  • BJ says:

    29 May29 May 07:59

    You need to look at the big picture to reconcile yourself with the surcharges…you are getting a flexible ticket, you can create your itinerary using one way flights and different cabins if desired providing further flexibility, if you live near LHR you have direct flights to most places you might want to go, avios are very easy to earn in the UK, BA burning rates are far from the worst in the industry.

    • Doug M says:

      29 May29 May 09:58

      Agreed. I work part time and travel alone, so have a lot of flexibility. But in different circumstances the flexibility of Avios tickets is really good. I like others will offer comparisons to an ex-EU cheap business fare, but I’m always aware that whilst it works for me, its just not a like for like.

• Ian McDowall says:

  29 May29 May 08:07

  I’d say it’s all in the cooking pot and we’ll have to wait and see how it works out.
  I am a bit confused as to why people are calling at 12/1am to an overseas call centre.
  Every time I’ve booked an outbound with a companion voucher I’ve always got what I wanted. These include, johannesburg, Rio, Buenos Aires, Montreal, and on top of that I call at 6am for the return flight and always got what I want. All flight in club world.

  • Andy says:

    29 May29 May 08:22

    I’ve missed out many times at 1am often on the flight back which has led to problems! i guess it’s likely the destination and time of year though as iv’e been going for popular routes

  • BJ says:

    29 May29 May 08:24

    It’s because the CSA can hold the seats until ticketed which helps if many people are online trying to grab rhem. Until about a year and a half ago I was successful online for BKK but it has become very difficult in high season.

  • Doug M says:

    29 May29 May 10:00

    All about destination. You’ve been lucky to always get what you want.

    • Rob says:

      29 May29 May 10:21

      Only 3 routes really need a 1am call outside of Christmas and Easter – Cape Town, Maldives, Sydney.

    • BJ says:

      29 May29 May 11:02

      @Rob, that’s total nonsense. You clearly don’t know because you haven’t tried, and there is no point trying right now to prove your point since we have just been flooded with availability.

  • David S says:

    29 May29 May 10:05

    I booked the return flight from BKK via the call centre and at 5 mins past 1am the agent said she expected that the flights would have gone already, but luckily they were still there. My tip is to call a few minutes before the due time not on it or afterwards

    • BJ says:

      29 May29 May 11:08

      Good result. I tried every night to get the last week in April and failed, that is how hard it can be. I finally got two seats when this extra availability was released on Thursday.

      • Polly says:

        29 May29 May 16:25

        Well done, we should have gone to bkk instead of hkg. Thought it might still be difficult getting to hkt from bkk, if nos rise again on the mainland.

    • Memesweeper says:

      29 May29 May 12:17

      Agreed – BKK is (was) very tight for Club availability

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