Lots of First Class Avios availability to North America has appeared

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• jj says:

  8 Mar8 March 13:17

  If you can afford current hotel, bar and restaurant prices in the USA, you can probably also easily afford a brace of F tickets…

  More seriously, this might be an early sign of serious cracks forming in the airline industry’s aggressive post-covid pricing strategy. Let’s hope so.

  • yonasl says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:38

    Glass of wine at USD 18 … Rather fly to Europe these days.

    • jj says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:49

      Beer more than £20 per pint in my last New York hotel, and poured straight out o a can. Not rushing back until things normalise.

      • JDB says:

        8 Mar8 March 16:08

        Yes, can’t understand the obsession with going to the US, let alone people’s willingness/ability to spend what feels to us like bonkers money.

        The best high altitude Malbec or blends @ £15/bottle, (whites even cheaper) in Argentina. Top restaurants in Buenos Aires many of which are up to the standards of the best in London or New York are £50/head inc wine. In addition to that, you will find landscapes more impressive than any US National Park with very few tourists.

        Mexico City offers similar top quality dining, not as cheap as B.A. but still a total bargain and is anyway a seriously great city to visit for culture. A bit hot, potentially wet in high summer, but because of the altitude weather is very comfortable most of the year. In winter, locals are wearing coats and hats, but for us 20-25 degrees is perfect for sightseeing, eating outdoors.

        • jj says:

          8 Mar8 March 16:18

          More than 90% of my trips to the USA are for skiing, the quality of which can’t be replicated in Europe. Canada is now far cheaper though, and the quality is just as good

        • Will says:

          8 Mar8 March 17:42

          JJ, how have you found the skiing in the US recently, I went to Europe with a chap a few weeks ago who was skiing on Mammoth over new year and he said both the prices and queues for the lifts were horrendous.

        • jj says:

          8 Mar8 March 23:19

          Will – I’ve never skied in Mammoth (discouraged by tales of so-called ‘Sierra Cement’) but prices and queues in US ski resorts have escalated sharply in recent years largely due to the influence of Epic and Ikon passes. Despite that, even on bluebird powder days, I have personally never seen lift queues or crowded pistes to rival Europe’s worst, and, where queues exist, they are invariably well managed. But, to be fair, my experience may not be typical: I don’t travel all the way to the USA to ski groomed runs; I head straight for the bump fields and light, dry powder in the trees, bowls, steeps and chutes, which most skiers don’t want to touch. For sure, iconic lifts like the tram in Jackson can develop outrageous queues on powder days, but other queue-free lifts are always available.

      • Mikel says:

        9 Mar9 March 08:42

        $9 plus tax for a Diet Coke in the IHG Barclay New York – robbery. $21 PT for a glass of Sancerre

        • Rob says:

          9 Mar9 March 08:57

          I seem to remember it was £10 equivalent in Al Maha last year. The difference there is that Al Maha is in the middle of the desert whilst there is a perfectly good deli opposite the Barclay!

  • Rob says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:41

    There has been a softening of US rates vs 2022. I am taking the family to NY over Easter and buying Hyatt points only saved about 30% Vs 66%ish last year.

    Car hire has also softened a lot although above historic norms – we’re paying $300 for 4 days on a one way rental from Boston to NY.

    • The Original Nick. says:

      8 Mar8 March 17:36

      Did you not consider Amtrak Rob? Beautiful scenery on the way down along that coast.

      • Rob says:

        8 Mar8 March 19:13

        Got to visit Yale and Newport on the way!

    • Scottpat78 says:

      8 Mar8 March 17:53

      Spurred on by this…

      Miami Airport car hire for 4 weeks in summer – rebooked today for £380 less than my original booking 3 months ago. Thanks Rob!
      Naples Airport car hire for 1 week in October – currently £70 more than my original booked price, so will keep watching,

  • S says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:50

    Just returned from a work trip to California and while $300 a night for a SpringHill Suites was ludicrous, I found f&b surprisingly ok vs the horror stories I’d heard.

    We’re in Chicago next week so I may sharp change my tune!

• C says:

  8 Mar8 March 13:29

  The reward flight finder on the BA app doesn’t seem to show availability for the return flights anymore for me. Anyone else have this issue?

  • Rob says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:37

    Has been broken for a while. Works fine if you search for each leg separately.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      8 Mar8 March 13:49

      It has been ages for what seems like it would be an easy fix 🙁

  • LLLL says:

    8 Mar8 March 13:50

    Like most things involving BA and IT, it’s utterly useless and makes one want to bang their head against a wall.

    My approach is, unfortunately, trial and error for some cities and dates that I’d like. Which is ridiculously cumbersome.

• Andrew says:

  8 Mar8 March 14:47

  Thanks, Rhys, just grabbed some return tickets in August, into BOS and out of EWR. Bring on the Grand Siecle!

• Richie says:

  8 Mar8 March 16:21

  Great news for the avios rich, thanks for the heads up.

  • Jacob says:

    8 Mar8 March 18:24

    Great news for avios poor too. I’ve just upgraded my existing booking from Club to First and was refunded 56k Avios.

    • Rob says:

      8 Mar8 March 19:05

      🙂

• Jonathan says:

  8 Mar8 March 16:53

  Why doesn’t the BA app show first availability, it only shows WT, WTP, CW/CS

  I’ve put in dates that shows availability, so it’d be unlikely they’ve already been snapped up

  • Andrew J says:

    8 Mar8 March 18:00

    Select your cabin as WT+ minimum as the app only shows 3 cabins so if you just leave the search as WT it will only show WT, WT+ and CW (CS isn’t something different, CW is the product, CS just happens to be one of the seat types available for the CW product).

• Robert says:

  8 Mar8 March 19:02

  Thanks this is useful. Also worth noting that the First cabins on the 787-9 aircraft going to Japan and India are being given to CW pax based on loyalty/status hence why you can’t book first on those routes even though the plane has it. The f&b service in the First cabins is business, much nicer seat and tv screen though, for those 8 pax selected!

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Mar8 March 19:32

    Yup it’s known as Flub

  • Rob M says:

    8 Mar8 March 19:53

    Someone in the forums said this is know as “Flub” they can’t “sell” it as first class via avios or tickets as it won’t have first food/ service I believe.

    • Rob says:

      8 Mar8 March 22:19

      You need to be careful with Flub. I know a reader who booked himself there (as Gold) but then – as often happens – a low load meant BA decided to close F entirely so his seat allocation was removed. By the time this happened, all the decent J seats had gone.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        8 Mar8 March 22:33

        Yup always the watch out

      • Will says:

        9 Mar9 March 09:19

        He was FLUBAR’d

  • Thegasman says:

    8 Mar8 March 21:18

    Worth noting that they will move passengers out of the First cabin right up until boarding if they can possibly fit them all in CW. That applies even if it means a couple being separated so there’s risk attached to selecting F seats if you could otherwise secure decent CW seats.

  • Robert F says:

    9 Mar9 March 05:35

    And TLV

    • DeB2020 says:

      9 Mar9 March 15:48

      On my most recent flight to BOM on 5th March, after a long hiatus, I was surprised to find that the aircraft was a B777-300ER. However, F was cordoned off. The in-flight manager told me it has been that way for a long time and they don’t have enough cabin crew to serve passengers in F, even if FLUB were to be used.

      So I was slumming it in J 😅 although I would happily have upgraded to F with Avios or cash. The ying-yang seating is truly awful, this particular aircraft hasn’t had the Club Suite installed yet (registration G-STBI, if anyone wondered).

      Food was mixed, in that there was a good starter, cheese selection and dessert, but a vile main course and equally vile afternoon tea! Service was excellent.

• Vit says:

  8 Mar8 March 21:16

  Not sure if it is just a coincidence but managed to grab 2 x First from INV to SCL for 119k avios + less than £700 tax and surcharge one-way using amex voucher in late Feb 2024, arriving on my birthday. 🙂

• cmcp says:

  8 Mar8 March 21:51

  Done 5 or 6 F redemptions over the years (thanks to HfP for the inspiration!). Last year did F return with 18 month baby, which won’t be happening again in a hurry! 😂

  What struck me, was walking past the shiny new CW suites then into a tatty, tired F hard product. Few months later, we did a paid CW suites return to Vegas which cemented our view that we’re just gonna do CW suites from hereon.

  With this new availability appearing though, it’s temping… the soft product service is lovely, and CCR worth it IMO.

  Does anyone know which aircraft have the *new* F hard product?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Mar8 March 22:34

    There’s a thread on flyertalk but equipment gets swapped you just never know until closer in what you’ll really get.

  • Rhys says:

    9 Mar9 March 09:07

    Only a handful of the newly delivered Boeing 777s – no reliable way to guarantee it, I don’t think.

  • Richie says:

    9 Mar9 March 09:34

    A ‘new’ F product is planned for the B777Xs, if the B777X deliveries are significantly delayed, might this F product appear on re-fitted A380s?

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