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Huge amounts of BA US First Class Avios availability released – for the next 45 days

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In our article on the Avios sale yesterday, we discussed some of the weird patterns that we had seen in Avios availability since an IT update on 1st July.

This initially led to no First Class seats being made available, anywhere.

As I said yesterday, availability had started to come back. Last night it came in a flood – but only for the next 45 days and only, I think, on US routes.

Huge amounts of BA US First Class Avios availability released

Here is a SeatSpy screenshot of First Class availability to/from New York, as at 10.30pm last night:

British Airways First Class Avios availability

There are a LOT of seats available on some flights. 6th August, for example, has 4 x First seats on one JFK flight and 5 x First seats on another, plus one or two seats on a further three flights.

Here is Boston:

British Airways First Class Avios availability

Here is Los Angeles:

British Airways First Class Avios availability

The pattern is similar on the other US routes with First Class (this is a HfP-created list, it may not be 100% accurate):

  • Atlanta
  • Boston
  • Chicago
  • Houston
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • Nashville
  • New Orleans
  • New York
  • Pittsburgh
  • Portland, Oregon
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Washington DC

However, when I used SeatSpy to look at non-US routes – Johannesburg, Dubai etc – there has been no mass opening of seats.

If this availability is still there when you read this on Friday morning, you may want to jump in if you want to give British Airways First Class a try this summer.

You can read more about British Airways First in our guide here, albeit this article is three years old. Note that the seat pictured at the top of this article is not actually flying yet!

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (91)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Luke says:
    18 Jul18 July 05:18

    Presumably you only have to buy one way?

  • Paul says:
    18 Jul18 July 05:35

    I’d just like BAs IT to work! I don’t need F seats but I would like their system to be able to add up. Spent yesterday trying to book a return domestic fligh in early August. Offered £90 ex LHR and £110 back but the total price became £225 return. Every flight and every fare mysteriously added £25.

    • haasha says:
      18 Jul18 July 05:42

      Not exactly a mystery, it’s a an intended behaviour of the 1st July update. Sometimes it will add, sometimes it will discount…

      • Paul says:
        18 Jul18 July 09:16

        What? I assume you are joking?

        • haasha says:
          18 Jul18 July 14:41

          I am not joking. If you’re looking for a roundtrip, you need to check the roundtrip price and availability. That has always been a case in some ways, but even more so now.

  • MD says:
    18 Jul18 July 06:15

    Just another knock on effect of so many fewer brits wanting to visit the US at the moment.

  • Neil says:
    18 Jul18 July 06:23

    This is crazy… we just want to know what’s going on?! IT system bug? Change in policy? But BA seems silent….

    Yes very USA focus for F released but a lot of J and some F availability now released for August for the likes of JNB/DXB/TYO… there’s even a single F seat available for SYD-LHR which you rarely see!

    5x F Seats available on 3x flights on the first Tuesday of Aug LHR-JFK …crazy!

    • JDB says:
      18 Jul18 July 07:08

      You can’t seriously expect BA to offer some sort of running commentary on its cash or reward availability! Does any other airline do this? BA hasn’t in the past and it is unlikely to do so in the future. There have been previous articles about availability dumps unrelated eg to new routes.

      • Thegasman says:
        18 Jul18 July 07:40

        I don’t think Neil is asking for BA to reveal their algorithm behind Avios availability. It’s not unreasonable for a customer to enquire as to whether the sudden swings between feast & famine are part of usual revenue management or teething problems with their new IT systems though.

      • NEIL says:
        18 Jul18 July 07:41

        I don’t think anyone is expecting BA to offer any running commentary on availability. I know i’m certainly not…

        As you say, no airline offers a running commentary on such availability. What many airlines DO however communicate is changes in reward policy, which if this is the case, I would expect BA to commutate this to me.

        Yes BA never guaranteed F availability to be released 355 days in advance, but availability was pretty easy to find 10-11 months in advance especially during low season. In the event BA are now not going to release ANY F reward seat availability more than 45 days before departure, this would be a significant change in policy and one I would expect to be communicated to me. Name me an airline that doesn’t communicate such significant changes in their reward seat policy?!

        The very fact their has been zero communication of such changes and the fact such changes seemed to have occurred during a IT upgrade suggests this is a IT bug or glitch, but until their is clarity one way or the other, there will be even more disgruntled prospective pax on the horizon.

        • JDB says:
          18 Jul18 July 08:03

          @Neil – there was never any communication about previous F release and it’s not even a policy properly so called, so again why would they start communicating now unless there is an actual benefit change (eg restriction to Gold or higher).

          In terms of availability, there were only a limited number of routes that regularly had availability but that was disappearing as such routes were more and more publicised.

          As someone who has been booking F redemptions for more than 25 years the pattern of availability hasn’t really changed much in that time.

          It’s certainly very modern to expect everything to be spoon fed!

          • nwoody2001 says:
            18 Jul18 July 08:19

            Where has anyone asked for BA to communicate about F Releases?

            Any can you stop being so damn condescending. Yes you may have been in the game for 25 years, which is 10 years longer than me, but when even the author of this site talks about the “…weird patterns that we had seen in Avios availability since an IT update on 1st July.” it’s clear something has changed.

            I have been tracking availability on BA F Seat for years myself. With your vast experience, maybe you can tell me of a single time in those 25 years when there has NOT BEEN A SINGLE First Class Redemption available to book anywhere on the BA network beyond the next 45 days… because I’ve not known one in the last 15 years!

          • JDB says:
            18 Jul18 July 08:31

            @nwoody2001 – people in forum and in comments above referring to BA remaining silent. There have certainly been very erratic or weird patterns of reward availability many times in the past with feast and famine alike. Your comment re 45 days isn’t correct; maybe you are relying on SeatSpy.

          • John33 says:
            18 Jul18 July 09:53

            “As someone who has been booking F redemptions for more than 25 years the pattern of availability hasn’t really changed much in that time.”

            Can you please write WHEN in these 25 years of your booking experience was there FIFTEEN seats available in First in August?

            I can’t stand these blind defenders of BA shenanigans.

          • camille55 says:
            18 Jul18 July 09:56

            “It’s certainly very modern to expect everything to be spoon fed!”

            Lovin’ this😂

            Spot on.

          • patrick says:
            18 Jul18 July 15:02

            Oh dear.

        • meta says:
          18 Jul18 July 14:49

          ANA, JAL, Etihad, etc never communicate. It’s pretty standard. Just because there is article on HfP or some blog, it does not mean that the airlines have communicated it. It’s usually detective work by the said sites or users.

          • meta says:
            18 Jul18 July 14:58

            @John33 When I booked F to Tokyo in 2018 during peak cherry blossom season about 9 months out there were more than 9 seats (no vouchers or Seatspys to alert then) available for pretty much any date in the period of 2-3 weeks. Just because you haven’t come across this sudden surge in availabilities, does not mean it does not or did not happen.

            I have seen sudden brief dumps that were not even reported here. It’s like that with every airline. Availability can even change within a space of an hour or two.

  • Mark says:
    18 Jul18 July 07:09

    What’s the latest with rfs and using a 241 voucher? I have a return in club to NY with a 241 leaving Tuesday and can’t remember if it’s still a ‘bad’ deal to upgrade one leg or not

    • James C says:
      18 Jul18 July 07:30

      Yes it is still a bad deal to do this as you’ll pay more overall for one J and one F than if you did F both ways.

      • Mark says:
        18 Jul18 July 08:17

        Thanks, checked and we can’t get first for 4 of us (2 companion tickets) anyway!

    • Rob says:
      18 Jul18 July 08:42

      Bad deal because it strips RFS from both legs.

  • Ross says:
    18 Jul18 July 07:39

    It would be useful to list the Avios required for these redemptions.

  • RC says:
    18 Jul18 July 07:43

    Is this an IT glitch or a signal that US demand isn’t as strong as BA have claimed for them due to market weakness or loss of market share?

    • Ben says:
      18 Jul18 July 08:19

      It’s summer. As is the case every year, fewer bizz people flying TATL, until September.

  • LittleNick says:
    18 Jul18 July 08:51

    Shame it doesn’t include September as would be nice to upgrade a reward flight up to F.

    • JDB says:
      18 Jul18 July 10:43

      @LittleNick – re Sep, Matthew 7:7-8 applies.

      • Richie says:
        18 Jul18 July 11:34

        BTW Matthew 7:7-8 reads: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

        • JDB says:
          18 Jul18 July 12:28

          I prefer the King James Bible version and actually verse 7 would have been sufficient to convey the message!

          “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you”

          • sayling says:
            18 Jul18 July 22:43

            Can’t be true – people are continuously saying how bad BA IT is and keep knocking it, but still finding the app won’t open

            😉

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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