We’ll have to mark this as “developing” for now, but something is going on with British Airways first class awards (thanks to OneWorldSapphire for flagging this). Is British Airways simply changing its approach to releasing award space, or is this a temporary bug that the airline is in no rush to fix?
In this post:
British Airways only releasing last minute first class awards
On July 1, 2025, British Airways made some IT updates, and ever since, the airline has seemingly changed how it releases award space. While members have noticed a decrease in award availability across the board, the most consistent theme is that British Airways now only seems to be releasing first class award space close to departure. This is true whether booking through The British Airways Club, or a partner frequent flyer program.
The exact timeline with which first class awards are released varies. All availability I’m seeing is within roughly a month of departure, with a vast majority of first class award space being released within days of departure (in some cases even the day of departure). For example, as of now I don’t see a single first class award seat on any route after August 2025.
There has been no official communication about this, not that you’d expect an airline to reveal details of an unpublished policy for restricting award availability.
My take on these British Airways award changes
Historically, British Airways has been one of the most generous airlines when it comes to making transatlantic first class award seats available:
- British Airways first class isn’t exactly a terribly exciting product, and in the past, many of us have referred to it as the world’s best business class
- British Airways has high carrier imposed surcharges on first class awards, so the airline is at least getting some significant amount of revenue when members redeem this way
- British Airways historically had big first class cabins, with 777s having up to 14 first class seats
Over time, British Airways has made its first class cabins smaller, with 777s now having only eight first class seats. British Airways also seems to think it’s more premium than in the past, and even plans to install new first class suites on A380s starting next year.
For that matter, airlines at large have gotten savvier with trying to monetize their premium cabins, and have increasingly added restrictions on first class award seats.
So I’m inclined to think that this is an intentional policy shift on the part of British Airways. Now, we’ll see if this sticks, as it’s also possible the airline is running an experiment, to see what impact this new policy has (in terms of first class revenue and load factors, loyalty program member satisfaction, etc.).
I do find the timing of this funny, though, how this has coincided with IT updates. I’m not sure if the timing is just a coincidence, or how these IT changes also caused the airline to totally change how it releases first class award space.
Bottom line
For a couple of weeks now, British Airways is only releasing first class award space closer to departure. In the past, British Airways was one of the easier airlines with which to book first class awards, so this represents a strategy shift.
It’s anyone’s guess if this new policy sticks around, if this is an experiment, or what. Either way, if you’re not seeing British Airways first class awards in advance nowadays, you’re not alone.
What do you make of this British Airways first class award trend?
In a way it is a throwback to how loyalty schemes started, as a way to "sell" the empty seats at the last minute. Having cheaper "standby" seats was the same idea.
But OMG the fees here. Look at SFO-LHR. A peak day award ticket in J is 100,000 Avios plus $475. You can get an F award ticket for this week on the same route and also for 100,000 Avios. But the fee is...
In a way it is a throwback to how loyalty schemes started, as a way to "sell" the empty seats at the last minute. Having cheaper "standby" seats was the same idea.
But OMG the fees here. Look at SFO-LHR. A peak day award ticket in J is 100,000 Avios plus $475. You can get an F award ticket for this week on the same route and also for 100,000 Avios. But the fee is nearly $1,200!
If you value Avios at 1.8 cents each, then you are basically paying $3,000 cash for a "free" award ticket.
I flew British Airways First in June, and the delightfully friendly FA made a comment to me as I was dealing with their sub-par internet service, which is right in line with one of Ben’s takes… she said to me with a wink, “you know, BA isn’t known for having excellent IT”.
I thought about the comment then, and realized that she was totally right. From bookings to check in, to their app, to...
I flew British Airways First in June, and the delightfully friendly FA made a comment to me as I was dealing with their sub-par internet service, which is right in line with one of Ben’s takes… she said to me with a wink, “you know, BA isn’t known for having excellent IT”.
I thought about the comment then, and realized that she was totally right. From bookings to check in, to their app, to their onboard Internet service, all of their IT had been so poorly done.
So Ben, you might be right that it could be a bad roll out issue here.
I think BA F is underrated in my experience. The food is excellent thanks to Do&Co, the seat very nice, the service good (in my experience) and I like the CCR. I know there are more elaborate international F experiences out there, but for most of them (e.g., in the ME), I have little need to fly to the locations flown by those airlines. It is also my experience that I can usually purchase a...
I think BA F is underrated in my experience. The food is excellent thanks to Do&Co, the seat very nice, the service good (in my experience) and I like the CCR. I know there are more elaborate international F experiences out there, but for most of them (e.g., in the ME), I have little need to fly to the locations flown by those airlines. It is also my experience that I can usually purchase a BA F upgrade at check-in for a pretty decent price, and am happy when I do so. For La Premiere - which is excellent, but not miles better than BA - on the other hand, the upgrade price is often three times the price of a BA F upgrade - in part because they don't care if they fill the cabin. I wonder if withdrawing F from awards availability may mean even more BA F available for last-minute upgrade purchases.
BA is the preferred air travel supplier to the British Crown. As a Crown employee of over two decades, I have logged well over 300 BA flights as a passenger in either F or J cabins. Yes, there are alternative airlines which can offer the discerning traveler a better F or J flight experience. However, there are considerably more airlines which offer F or J seats, who are incapable of holding a candle to BA.
...BA is the preferred air travel supplier to the British Crown. As a Crown employee of over two decades, I have logged well over 300 BA flights as a passenger in either F or J cabins. Yes, there are alternative airlines which can offer the discerning traveler a better F or J flight experience. However, there are considerably more airlines which offer F or J seats, who are incapable of holding a candle to BA.
When spending my very own hard earned/saved pennies, I have often chosen flights onboard other international airlines. Preferring none stop to aircraft changes, a quality flight to economy travel, I do believe that we have experienced some of the best airline operators in the world.
Currently BA is rated by passengers as being 13th in the World Rankings. One would find it difficult to disagree with the wealth of flight experiences of others. Those who do so, I suspect, are forming their own opinions either out of total ignorance, or, with very limited experience of both BA and the other offerings. U.S. loyalty and propaganda is no match for reality.
Bring it on trolls …. :-)
Putting quality to the side, the issue is first class reward flight availability. And, it has declined significantly. BA is most convenient for my wife and I. Our paid flights have predominantly been in first class. Now, to be denied access to first class reward seat is simply wrong.
This isn't technically untrue, but it is a rather biased and extremely optimistic take.
From my perspective, the only thing that one needs to know in order to avoid BA is that its main hub had a punctuality record of just 59% in 2022 (admittedly it's been getting a bit better over the past couple of years but the point is that you can't really rely on it too much). If that isn't enough...
This isn't technically untrue, but it is a rather biased and extremely optimistic take.
From my perspective, the only thing that one needs to know in order to avoid BA is that its main hub had a punctuality record of just 59% in 2022 (admittedly it's been getting a bit better over the past couple of years but the point is that you can't really rely on it too much). If that isn't enough for you, you could also consider the fact that they have been explicitly instructing call centre staff to lie to passengers about their 261 rights (HfP is full of examples), or their all-too-regular IT and baggage meltdowns.
When you have these sort of systemic issues, it doesn't really doesn't matter whether the Do&Co food in European business class is decent or whether some of your [minimum wage, limited language skill] crew are miraculously able to offer a good service to passengers. Anyone who wants to avoid surprises should avoid that airline wherever possible.
the British government pays for its employees to fly first class?
No Y upto 5 hours anything over J but 9 times out of 10 you are operationally upgraded to the next cabin ( space available)
you and your moronic world rankings.
How about American raising business class redemption pricing. From JFK-LHR went to 75k from 57.5k. Feels like they are getting ready for the flood of ThankYou points when Citi announces whatever they are going to announce with Citi in 3Q.
Meanwhile, BA when you can find it at least still at 57.5k but the fees are getting more expensive with the weaker dollar - $733 in fees! That's over $100 more than a few months...
How about American raising business class redemption pricing. From JFK-LHR went to 75k from 57.5k. Feels like they are getting ready for the flood of ThankYou points when Citi announces whatever they are going to announce with Citi in 3Q.
Meanwhile, BA when you can find it at least still at 57.5k but the fees are getting more expensive with the weaker dollar - $733 in fees! That's over $100 more than a few months ago.
AA and BA both showing 85k now for first class but $733 with BA and $5.60 with AA.
This sucks. Lowest pricing I am seeing for AA transatlantic is 70K. Not to mention to total evaporation of award space on decent partners we’ve seen in the past 5 years, JL, CX, QF, QR. The value proposition for the program is slowly getting worse and worse and the airline isn’t good enough to make up for it yet.
Agree completely. The walled garden of valuable AA points was a great reason to interact with their loyalty program. If they are going to turn their loyalty program into Delta without copying Delta's actual customer service or quality, no reason to stay with AA. Lots of options as a NYC based flier.
Given the fully flexible first class fare between JFK and LHR is more than $10K each way, a $733 fee still feels like a bargain to me.
Ugh. Transatlantic first
redemptions are an endangered species these days. A bummer not to have the option even if it was underwhelming.
BA F won’t make my list of top 5 J products in the world.
Ok Tony …. your “Top 5 J products” are?
@Aero:
Why are you special pleading ignorance? Is all of Ben's work going for naught? Ben has created several posts reviewing first class products. IMS, he even created one ranking airlines' first class products. I don't believe BA made his top 5.
Only flew their first a handful of times but can’t say it was a memorable experience
Thats ok with me. It is a waste of point/money anyway, if you approach it with the mindset of a first class experience. I flew KUL-LHR return in first recently and it was quite terrible. The seat is not good for sleep, service was crap and felt more like a pub and the food both ways was terrible as well.
British Airways don’t offer First Class. They offer what is at best a Premium Business Class.
Ok BA! I will bite …. please justify your comment, do help the populace to understand.
Thank you.
@AeroB13a
Populace (×)
AeroB13a (a Brit who is a BA apologist, claims that "L"GW is designated London to fool the colonialists like you who know no better, and doesn't know what The Guardian is) (○)
There you go.