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Looking to book in March for Feb 2026, however just been doing some test runs and there are never any business class seats available. Are they possibly refurbing the cabin in Jan 26?
Waited up til midnight and been checking in the AM, but nothing left in business. This hasn’t been the case most of last year when there was usually the 4 seats left in the AM, 355 days ahead.
BA flights to JNB are a cash cow, I doubt they’d cancel these flights.
BA flights to JNB are a cash cow, I doubt they’d cancel these flights.
Then what’s going on? Could it be that Jan is just the peak month and they’re being snapped up? Seems strange that it had constant availability in that cabin and now nothing..
Pick a day for your searches when BA55 and BA57 are both likely to be operated.
Nothing, nada, zilch.
Very strange
Where are you looking? SeatSpy is showing plenty of returns in CW in December and January, so I think the outbound legs are just getting snapped up really fast.
There are at least 2 J seats available almost every day in March 2025 which reflects my experience that whilst the initial batch may get snapped up quickly, plenty more get released further down the line, so don’t panic if there aren’t any available initially. If you have an Amex 2-4-1 it’s even easier to get seats. Also, there are currently at least 2 seats available on the inbound, from 13-16 Jan 2026 (which is the latest date you can currently book), so I don’t think you can say that nothing is getting released.
There’s even some F availability on the return in September – 85k avios plus £294. I’m tempted to book now!!
There’s even some F availability on the return in September – 85k avios plus £294. I’m tempted to book now!!
Nice! We are travelling Feb 26′ for our honeymoon. So first hoping we can secure CW, then fingers crossed we get lucky for some first availability
I’ve not stayed up til midnight the past few nights to check (it’s way past my bedtime) but just interesting to see when checking at 6am, the LHR to JNB CW released completely taken up.
Hopefully this changes come Feb/March or I fear I’ll be in a bum fight for them
@NorthernLass are you booking those flights as a round trip or one way?
I find it is rare to find F availability for JNB.
If booked with Amex 2-4-1, should F availability become available is there the possibility to upgrade?
If so, can this be done online or would we need to call BA?
@NorthernLass are you booking those flights as a round trip or one way?
I find it is rare to find F availability for JNB.
If booked with Amex 2-4-1, should F availability become available is there the possibility to upgrade?
If so, can this be done online or would we need to call BA?
There isn’t really such a thing as ‘upgrading’ as it’s a question of cancelling the club seats and then booking the first seats, albeit within the same PNR. This can theoretically be done online if the original booking was made online but you may well find this failing at the payment stage as the system struggles to calculate the difference in charges, so it may actually be quicker to call.
Booked 5 J returns in mid December’24 for a last minute family trip outbound 1st Jan & back on 14th Jan ‘25 so very much peak season. We were using BAPP 241s so benefited from additional availability initially but we had to shuffle stuff round the week before departure & there were >5 seats available most days even without the voucher. There’s a lot of capacity to JNB with an A380 & A350 so not uncommon for there to be a few seats open up for Avios last minute.
There will never be an empty seat in W/J on departure though as it’s incredibly popular for staff/family standby. This can be no issue as it was on our inbound (albeit we were asked politely by lounge attendant if we would swap seats to get a couple together – we did & it transpired he was a BA pilot) or a big issue of crew fawning over their mates at expense of paying punters as it was on our outbound.
@NorthernLass are you booking those flights as a round trip or one way?
I find it is rare to find F availability for JNB.
If booked with Amex 2-4-1, should F availability become available is there the possibility to upgrade?
If so, can this be done online or would we need to call BA?
I did a separate thread the other day because there was some F availability in Sep and Dec this year showing on SeatSpy – this may have changed by now, of course.
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