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?
Continue reading: Where Have All The British Airways First Class Awards Gone?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
British Airways don’t offer First Class. They offer what is at best a Premium Business Class.
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.
Only flew their first a handful of times but can’t say it was a memorable experience
Ugh. Transatlantic first
redemptions are an endangered species these days. A bummer not to have the option even if it was underwhelming.
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.
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 …. 🙂
Ok BA! I will bite …. please justify your comment, do help the populace to understand.
Thank you.
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.
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.
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 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.
No Y upto 5 hours anything over J but 9 times out of 10 you are operationally upgraded to the next cabin ( space available)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
@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.
Absolutely right. Their website remains dreadful, has been dreadful for years, and trying to book rewards flights with Avios is just a hair-pulling experience.
Perhaps if BA would actually be more premium then people might not spit out their beer when the airline makes such a ludicrous assertion that truly are a premium airline. Unfortunately that seems the opposite direction the airline has been taking for many years now. Remember when BA introduced lie flat business class seats, leading the way amongst all airlines? Now passengers are happy when Brunchgate policies are rescinded.
Its far more likely to be due to incompetence than intent.
Theres basically little difference between BA first and business (not including the outdated old style business) so holding back availability doesnt make sense
Now wide open for US routes for the next 45 days (see today's Head for Points article), so looks like the usual rubbish BA IT!
Justin, “Ignorance”? …. 🙂
Surely you are well aware that it is very rude, ignorant even, to assume that one is “Special pleading ignorance”, why would you think such a thing? As you are so apt at assuming things about others, perhaps you might like to assume what Tony’s top 5 J products are. After all it was to Tony who I addressed my question and not you, yes?
Justin, “Ignorance”? …. 🙂
Surely you are well aware that it is very rude, ignorant even, to assume that one is “Special pleading ignorance”, why would you think such a thing? As you are so apt at assuming things about others, perhaps you might like to assume what Tony’s top 5 J products are. After all it was to Tony who I addressed my question and not you, yes?
AI …. please read my post again, if you still do not understand the content then do come back to me.
John, can one assume that you are unaware of the existence of the likes of SkyTrax and CNT? As their “Moronic world rankings” are as a result of collecting real passengers feedback, there must be thousands of passengers who would take exception to be addressed as “Moronic” by the likes of you old boy!
Mason, your lightening wit is far less in evidence than your appalling repartee. In the event that you ever read my posts then you would definitely note that I do not apologise for BA. I simply point out well publicised facts about BA and other airlines, yes?
You are such a gullible troll that you gobble up my sprats in the belief that one day they might turn into mackerel. If I didn’t offer the likes of you and your clan the troll bait, what fun would there be in reading your gibberish posts?
As for your attempt to belittle my knowledge of British news and viewspapers; you show a complete lack of understanding if you believe that the loony, leftist, Guardian, could ever be taken seriously by discerning newspaper readers.
No Mason, I cast my well baited fishing line and the trolls like you snap up the bait.
Thank you for the entertainment old bean …. :—)
I queried the lack of 1st class availability on a call to BA back in March or April. We were booking a flight between New York and London then on to Dubai. Couldn't find a single first class seat from JFK for any date in the next 3 months.
The guy I spoke with said "it's because you're using the companion voucher and they only allow up to business class."
They haven't got a clue!
How ridiculous that the crown employees are flying F or J class!! A rather outdated and arrogant message here. … Just another reason why England is so over taxed and lacking basic customer service levels.
A week or so ago I was able to book FC in BA SFO-LHR through AA, granted, for 85k miles/points and $700 "fees."
Lost earlier comment -- booked on AA with 85k miles plus "fees" FC on BA from SFO-LHR Jan 2026.
Is BA reducing award flights availability as a whole? I’m searching for next summer and award flights for JNB back to the states through LHR disappears after June. Was hoping to score 4 Business Class seats through AA or Alaska but seeing nothing. Not even for 2 and not even through BA directly.