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I’m planning to flee to warmer climes shortly after Xmas this year, so was just idly looking at Boxing Day availability (the latest date to be released) to gauge demand in the next few days. Nearly every seat on the popular sunshine routes has been snapped up (e.g. BGI, DXB, MLE, MRU), across all cabins.
Is this the start of BAEC members draining their avios stashes to enjoy their final months of status before (I speculate), taking their business elsewhere, as so many have been threatening this past week?
*Also, could this be why ba.com is so busy right now?!
It may be people using up all the avios they’ve saved to book BA award seats at current rates as soon as they can. Before the value of the avios they’ve saved gets taken away from them by BA announcing dynamic award seat pricing.
Which would complete the utter demolition of the British Airways Loyalty Program.
Maybe, though I doubt that many keep abreast of developments to the extent they’re wondering about dynamic pricing. Have one last blow out at a time when cash tickets are very expensive and drain the lounges dry!
*Actually maybe we’ll go a bit later when the everyone’s gone home for the start of term 🙈😂
2nd set of data points. At 3 minutes past midnight, 7 of the 8 CW seats to BGI had gone. People must be calling BA to book these.
At 00:05, only 3 of the 12 CW seats to DXB were left.
At 00:07, all seats to MLE have gone, apart from 2 in Y.
At 00:08, all CW to CUN gone.
At 00:09, all CW and Y to MRU gone.
00:10 – still 4 in CW to HND – what are you lot waiting for?!
00:12 – all gone to ANU apart from 1 x CW.
00:13 – 2 Y and 2 PE left to UVF.
00:14 – 2 Y and 1 PE left to PUJ.
00:15 – all J to SIN gone.
00:17 – 1 Y, 1 PE left to SYD.
00:18 – all J to NAS gone.
00:19 – all J and PE to MIA x 2 gone.
00:20 – all J to HKG gone.
00:22 – all PE and J to KUL gone.
00:23 – all PE and J to SJO gone.
I know these aren’t all the desirable destinations but I’ve never seen so many seats disappear so fast on release! Funnily enough, if you want to go to MCO, LAS or NYC, get online now!
But have you been checking for the last few years? Surely that is what is needed to see if this is related to recent developments, or simply the usual bunfight caused by people being prepared for peak holiday periods and knowing desirable routes go early, so booking at -355.
Someone definitely has too much time on her hands! 🙂
Very interesting though.
Is this the start of BAEC members draining their avios stashes to enjoy their final months of status before (I speculate), taking their business elsewhere, as so many have been threatening this past week?
It’s the same every year isn’t it?
Although we are now into “Perfect Christmas” territory, where Christmas is Thursday, Boxing Day Friday. You can fly out somewhere sunny on the Saturday, back the following Saturday, and the kids are ready to start school on the Monday.
But have you been checking for the last few years? Surely that is what is needed to see if this is related to recent developments, or simply the usual bunfight caused by people being prepared for peak holiday periods and knowing desirable routes go early, so booking at -355.
Yes, is this actually different to any other year? The travel days immediately after Christmas have always been extremely popular.
I don’t think it’s normal for even the economy seats to be disappearing this fast. It’s just an observation though.
@Andrew T, a 25-minute view of what ba.com is showing is hardly having too much time on one’s hands!What also struck me is that historically, Boxing Day has been off-peak, but this year it’s peak, and Xmas Day (when fewer people are likely to want to travel). I don’t know if this is significant.
If it’s of any interest. I have managed to get either 26th-27th flights every year for the past seven years to Dubai and Cancun. I failed last night for Dubai for 3 business seats at 12.02 and then tried for the earlier flight but that had gone by 12.05.
In fairness I was on a flight back from Dubai, about 5 mins before take off- not sure if it affected my connection!
@Andrew. It’s not really Perfect Christmas territory. The perfect is when Christmas and Boxing day fall on Saturday and Sunday which means Monday and Tuesday are holiday and then again New Years Day is on the weekend so you get extra Monday off.
Perfect Christmas Holiday will be 2027/28 when we will have 25 Dec – to 3 January with only three working days.
Japan is for some reason not popular at Christmas, though I think it’s a great time as everything is open and the decorations are out of this world. Japan also has Christmas markets to rival most European ones.
If it’s of any interest. I have managed to get either 26th-27th flights every year for the past seven years to Dubai and Cancun. I failed last night for Dubai for 3 business seats at 12.02 and then tried for the earlier flight but that had gone by 12.05.
In fairness I was on a flight back from Dubai, about 5 mins before take off- not sure if it affected my connection!
Yes – people must have been calling just before midnight to get these seats reserved so quickly. Did you manage to book CUN?
@meta, all the handwringing on here about not being able to get seats to HND (and SIN/CPT), and those seats are still there!Japan is for some reason not popular at Christmas, though I think it’s a great time as everything is open and the decorations are out of this world. Japan also has Christmas markets to rival most European ones.
Thanks for mentioning that – I’d LOVE it! Have also had fab Xmas visits to Hong Kong and Singapore (despite the heat!).
Didn’t managed to get anything in the end last night. We took off at about 4.08 Dubai time!
Will try something different tonight!
I think it sounds lovely as well and I’m not normally drawn to Japan. Presumably the humidity is relatively low at this time of year (that’s the killer for me)?
@Michael – maybe the universe is telling you to book those tickets, it’s in school holidays after all! Even my grumpy teenager has shown an interest in visiting Tokyo because of all the tech.I don’t know about others, but I just booked 275,000 worth of Avios flights. 2025 – Redemption Year.
@NorthernLass it’s winter time and it’s dry. Usually Japan is like Europe with more humid summers. This year it was also quite sunny and in high 10s until mid-December. It’s still in low 10s now. Except Kyoto – it can get cold there.
I don’t know about others, but I just booked 275,000 worth of Avios flights. 2025 – Redemption Year.
@tarlton – for us now older folk, it’s been a redemption year every year since 1982! Endless silly chatter over those years re devaluations, end of various schemes as we know them etc. etc. but they keep delivering and whatever BA has in store will just open new opportunities.@NorthernLass it’s winter time and it’s dry. Usually Japan is like Europe with more humid summers. This year it was also quite sunny and in high 10s until mid-December. It’s still in low 10s now. Except Kyoto – it can get cold there.
If you like low humidity – Beijing is wonderful in the winter and Harbin very cold but totally dry so no ice on the road, no falling snow, no need to de-ice aircraft while you enjoy the Ice Festival one of the most spectacular man made events imaginable.
I think it sounds lovely as well and I’m not normally drawn to Japan. Presumably the humidity is relatively low at this time of year (that’s the killer for me)?
I went to Tokyo over Christmas 2016 – “Meri kurisumasu”, as they say! It was very pleasant – the shopping centres etc all had Christmas Trees, and there was even carol-singing in one of them. On Boxing Day, however, it all just vanished! It wasn’t like here, where the decorations are up for a week or more afterwards. Of course, Japan isn’t a Christian country, and truth be told I was surprised at just how much Christmassy stuff there was.
The weather was brilliant sunshine, around 10C, and very low humidity by UK standards. The dewpoint was well into negative territory, unlike in the UK where it’s usually not far off the air temperature in winter. The hotel had a humidifier in the room, albeit I didn’t use it, and out and about everyone was bundled up in full winter clothes, whereas I was happy enough in a polo shirt and summer jacket. Oh, they also had “moderate cooling” carriages on the Yamanote Line, which were anything but… I think the Japanese must set their aircon to 25C, as it was sweltering!
A quick check with the Met Office shows it’s much the same out there right now – Friday, for example, has a high of 8C but only 20% relative humidity, a dewpoint of -12. That dewpoint’s not dissimilar to what you’d get on the plane going out there!
Bookings seemed slightly less frenzied today, though that they have been because of glitches with the system – I got thrown back to the log in screen multiple times before I managed to get through to the avios booking page and nearly gave up. I got 2 x PE to DXB, which is fine for a 7-hour flight.
There are still a couple of PE and some Y left, ditto to BGI and 2 CW to CUN. MLE, MIA, SIN, SYD and MRU are mostly stripped bare from Boxing Day onwards. PE and Y left to HND, HKG and KUL.
I booked two of the J seats to BGI on the 27th, phoned up just before 7PM EST to catch the ticket release.
We booked a very similar time last year, and there was far more availability on the BGI route. Last year I was able to book online easily a few weeks after the seats were released (albeit a bit earlier in December, so probably not as high in demand).
However I was tracking seatspy a lot around this time last year, and the BGI route is definitely more booked up!
@northernlass I was online last night and the website didn’t seem to release the seats dead on 12am. Then wouldn’t let me select the seats till about 12.03. Happily got my 3 seats to DXB on the late flight though!
In previous years I’ve seen seats appear up to 30 mins after midnight or 1 am.
I was a bit torn between DXB and BGI, but DXB has so many more points options for hotels it seemed a safer bet. And a day flight home is also a big plus, we can manage in Y if necessary with exit row seats.
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