-
I’ve been tracking flights to a variety of European destinations for July/August, and since the system updates July 1st a 45-day rolling blackout has all but eliminated availability. Has anyone heard anything concrete from BA as to when this will be resolved? Or is this the new norm for close-in bookings? I’m surprised there hasn’t been an article covering this as it surely has mucked up summer plans for many!
Reappeared for me (for my route anyways) at around 7pm’ish today
There is definitely a rolling removal of all Avios availability at T-45 days from date of departure. If this is a new policy – which I think it might be as over at The Other Place there is a quote from BA saying that this issue had been resolved and things are back to normal ( which they clearly aren’t) – then I think this should be communicated by BA. It is a significant downgrade to the programme – perhaps the biggest yet – since one of the main pluses of Avios was the availability to book redemptions at relatively short notice.
Reappeared for me (for my route anyways) at around 7pm’ish today
Which route might that be? I’ve been looking at LHR-BUD; pre-July 1 there was essentially wide open availability in Y/J on almost every single day in July. Now, there’s only four dates (3 of which were added today) and only the late night flights. There’s very obviously a rolling 45-day period that keeps getting extended into August. It can’t be a full blackout as there are some flights, but clearly not the ‘norm’. If it’s a silent devaluation, this would be awful. If it’s a tech issue, the fact that it’s still ongoing 10 days later is concerning and would be great to get clarity on.
Reappeared for me (for my route anyways) at around 7pm’ish today
Which route might that be? I’ve been looking at LHR-BUD; pre-July 1 there was essentially wide open availability in Y/J on almost every single day in July. Now, there’s only four dates (3 of which were added today) and only the late night flights. There’s very obviously a rolling 45-day period that keeps getting extended into August. It can’t be a full blackout as there are some flights, but clearly not the ‘norm’. If it’s a silent devaluation, this would be awful. If it’s a tech issue, the fact that it’s still ongoing 10 days later is concerning and would be great to get clarity on.
The lack of clarity is strange. Also the lack of any article from this site and others is rather bizarre.
There’s avios availability LHR-NCE flying on sunday 13th July, so no black-out on this route.
My theory is that there is a switch at T-45 into some revenue based release of Avios seats. This is linked to the fare classes and availability. This has either been turned off or broken as a result of the changes to point of commencement vs point of sale management of inventory
BA doesn’t want this turned off, they’re tempting you into redeeming Avios into seats at this point their algo is saying are going to run empty. So I am quite sure it is a short term issue. Very unfortunate timing as there is real value in redeeming for these last minute “drops” over the peak summer period
Just speculating of course, but I seem to recall Rob mentioning recently that he wouldn’t be surprised if BA made avios flights non-refundable within a certain period prior to travel. Would this require such an IT tweak? 45 days would be sort of logical!
Rob mentioned elsewhere this is to do with a point of sale change
It’s all to do with the removal of Point of Sale rules on fares, which requires every single BA fare combination (which will be millions) to be refiled.
The first attempt to do this over 24th June had to be adandoned part-way through. The attempt on 1st July was the 2nd go.
As usual, it seems that there are a lot of unforseen knock-ons.I’m seeing availability? What routes are you specifically looking at?
I’ve just booked a week in Malaga at the end of August for the end of the suumer holidays. There was zero availability on any flight on any day until August 24th, after which there was availability on every day.
August 24th is 45 days from today.
Something is going on.
I’ve just booked a week in Malaga at the end of August for the end of the suumer holidays. There was zero availability on any flight on any day until August 24th, after which there was availability on every day.
August 24th is 45 days from today.
Something is going on.
CE class flights are available outbound to AGP from 13 Aug and economy and CE inbound flights from 12 July, on NCE there are seats available from 13 July and lots of other routes have seats available in July – I don’t think there is a 45 day issue, it’s just a busy time of year when there aren’t many reward seats.
F on the other hand, there is definitely something going on there.
I’ve just booked a week in Malaga at the end of August for the end of the suumer holidays. There was zero availability on any flight on any day until August 24th, after which there was availability on every day.
August 24th is 45 days from today.
Something is going on.
CE class flights are available outbound to AGP from 13 Aug and economy and CE inbound flights from 12 July, on NCE there are seats available from 13 July and lots of other routes have seats available in July – I don’t think there is a 45 day issue, it’s just a busy time of year when there aren’t many reward seats.
F on the other hand, there is definitely something going on there.
No – one day to the next between June and the update on July 1st, every single date for July – mid August lost all seats. Then, a very limited number were added back (I assume “new inventory”, rather than what was originally there). For LHR-BUD, literally every single day had either Y/J (most had both), and then went to 0 with now a limited number of close-in dates dropping new availability in the last couple of days. There’s something systemic going on that hasn’t been covered or addressed by BA.
Perhaps they are pulling all the remaining guaranteed seats at 45 days. Then as someone upthread suggested avios seats are then available according to some algorithm on revenue seat pricing?
The route LGW-QSR, which BA launched this summer, has gone from plenty of availability in September/October (on many days 6 economy seats plus 4 business seats available) to essentially no availability at all. Also the standard fares have gone up from 70£ one way to 170£ across many dates.
What is also bizarre is that a return flight for 1-15 Sep comes in at 140 euros, cheaper than the one way LGW-QSR which I am trying to book which sells on its own for £170.Let’s hope they fix this mess… Possibly if the blog covers it maybe they’ll notice?
Something is going on with avios award availability the last week or so?
I’m seeing no availability to NYC in CW any dates in March. Many months have only a few days open for CW. Zero first class tickets for the whole year to NYC. There was always something available.
Appreciate we are into the summer holiday season and they may be restricting availability.
Or everyone,like myself, is burning through their Avios stockpile before losing status, instead of paying for flights as not now chasing status.
Either that or something is going on at BA?Something is going on with avios award availability the last week or so?
I’m seeing no availability to NYC in CW any dates in March. Many months have only a few days open for CW. Zero first class tickets for the whole year to NYC. There was always something available.
Appreciate we are into the summer holiday season and they may be restricting availability.
Or everyone,like myself, is burning through their Avios stockpile before losing status, instead of paying for flights as not now chasing status.
Either that or something is going on at BA?Plenty of J availability as per Seatspy. No F availability I agree.
I am currently unable to cancel LHR-NCE return avios flights.
I couldn’t see anything for Dublin next weekend. Other routes I’ve been looking at for late August have nothing for 45 days. Something odd going on, I may need to force a seat with double avois, I can then rebook an ordinary reward flight should one come available, but it means being organised to book 30 days ahead. And wasting £35/ £50 to cancel.
Plenty of availability seems to be coming back for me now (more so than last week when it started to re-appear)
Are people still having issues?
Plenty of availability seems to be coming back for me now (more so than last week when it started to re-appear)
Are people still having issues?
Still not a single First seat from LHR to JNB
F availability still seems to be last minute only, although randomly, there are 2 seats back from Atlanta next July, they’re the only seats I’ve seen beyond August.
Plenty of availability seems to be coming back for me now (more so than last week when it started to re-appear)
Are people still having issues?
Coming back for me on BA although Seatspy not showing the correct availability
Haha the entire first class cabin is available to book as reward seats from ATL-LHR on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2026 as of writing this message…
Obviously a glitch but proof things are still a work in progress….
Right, to start with I thought this was a glitch (and it may still be to some extent) but given that none of the news sites or blogs that have a relationship with BA have even the slightest bit of coverage on it and it’s now been 2 weeks makes me think BA must have a press embargo in place on a change (that may have gone a bit wrong and hence the delay on the embargo being lifted). The question is, how much of what we are seeing is a glitch and how much is new policy?
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
