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NorthernLass wrote:

Have a practice at booking this route and you’ll see the different cash/avios options, although I am seeing absolutely nothing above economy on SeatSpy at the moment. Using your CV for a dummy booking might throw up some extra availability, but it will be very hit and miss as you won’t know which exact dates to search for!

There’s a business class sale on at the moment and that always seems to heavily reduce the amount of Club seats available for redemption on the Japan route (and I suspect other routes too). The only surefire seats are the 4 (or 8) guaranteed to be released each day for T+355, depending on whether BA 5/6 is operating that day.

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Essexgirl wrote:

Please can anyone help. I am having a very tired holiday!

Use the desktop version of the site, log in a few minutes before midnight GMT, search for the day before you want, then refresh the search results page every minute, with the final refresh one second after midnight. Then hope you’re fast enough to beat any telephone agents who may be lurking – as they too have to refresh their page to see the newly-released seats.

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Garethgerry wrote:

I do believe it is becoming a victim of own success.

When avios (airmiles) were launched in 1988, it was a simple way for BA to utilise empty seats to reward frequent flyers and for years it worked like that. Avios seats cost BA almost nothing .Avios was liabilities on books but no problem, in an era of lower load factors.

My dad took my mum and me on a trip to Brussels in 1989 – using his airmiles to book us flights on BA, a scheduled flight as he so proudly said. (I was 9 and a bit nonplussed).

My dad got at least some of the miles from his NatWest credit card, 1 airmile per £20 spent, IIRC – or 0.5 Avios per pound in modern terms, as an airmile converted to 10 Avios.

Right from the word go there were non-flying ways of getting them, but nowhere near as many as now!

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It’s only worth it if a) you want to boost them and b) you don’t have any other Avios available to boost.

It used to be 1170 Avios for £10, or 2350 for £20, which was undoubtedly better value.

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nd97 wrote:

I didn’t advise JAL as OP needs 3 pax – I haven’t ever seen 3 Js or Fs released at once and OP was also looking for next year, so I assume at EOS which means booking likely 1 F seat at T-355 if it’s still available and not taken by someone with JMB 5 days earlier. Provided OP secures that then he still has 2 more seats to go, and he has to chance that on 2 Js opening up closer to departure which isn’t guaranteed – hence my reasoning.

I was lucky enough to fly JAL F to Tokyo with my friend last year. 12 days out 3 seats appeared on the day we’d have been flying with BA, so I nabbed two of them. Afterwards, still on an adrenaline high, I checked again – there were 4 on the day before our flight too.

This was checking at 3AM in the morning, but I’ve a feeling JAL release seats at 3PM GMT – as that’s midnight in Japan.

JAL also seem to release 2 business class seats on their flights each day too, but IME they’re more likely to be snapped up by members of JAL’s loyalty scheme first – the single F seat, which also appears on the Tokyo to London flight, is more likely to linger for the 5 days or so until us BA scheme members get to see it.

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I don’t trust phoning up at midnight, too risky – you might not get through in time, the agent might not want to wait, etc, etc.

I’ve snagged seats instead by being online at 11:50PM (or 12:50AM in summer), using a desktop or laptop computer. It’s always “fun” as I’m usually fast asleep by then – as I’m a lark, not an owl. I’ve made sure earlier in the day that I’ve synced the clock on my computer, and I’ll turn on seconds too (on Windows, there’s an option in the time/date settings to show seconds on the clock – very useful, as we’ll see).

In my case, after waking up (and being a bit bleary-eyed), I’ll log into the BA site, checking for flights for the furthest date I can (which will be the day before the one I want). When the screen with results appears, the one with a tab for each day, I’ll start watching the clock. Every minute I’ll press F5 – this refreshes the page, but more importantly keeps the session and search results active… as the last thing you want is to be logged out, or to have to search from scratch when the time comes.

At one second past midnight (or 1AM), one final press of F5 refreshes the page, and the new day’s tab will appear – it usually takes a little longer to load the page. It’s then a case of clicking the newly added day’s tab, choosing the flight and zipping through as quick as you can. The key to this is having your search already sorted, in effect: even call centre agents will have to refresh their screen at midnight, and hopefully they’ll faff around a bit doing it, giving you time to sneak in and grab the seats first.

It’s worked for me every time when booking flights to Tokyo (and I’ve had 4 trips there, plus a few cancelled during Covid), and most recently this worked last month, both for the outbound and return flights.

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ATN1981 wrote:

Thank you both, thats really useful.

Will investigate the Boost and do some maths to see which is better
Thanks again

The boost option should be better, but I’d wager it’ll be better still in a week or so – as for the last two years they’ve had a “boost all your unboosted Avios from last year” promotion at the end of January. Last year’s allowed you to boost to 4x, there was a random 5x promotion in October, so I’d bet this year it’ll be a “boost all your unboosted 2025 Avios by 5x” offer. We’ll see what happens in a week’s time!

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Another data point – for the first time I ended up booking an inbound flight at midnight, then had to phone to get it tacked on to my outbound. (The irony is I needn’t have bothered at midnight, which meant setting an alarm as I’m a lark, not an owl, as there were still 4 back from Tokyo an hour ago! It’s always a gamble.) I had enough Avios to pay the full cost.

Anyway – knowing that the call centres’ hold times can be hit or miss, the strategy was to do it online. I made sure my laptop’s clock was synched, logged in a few minutes before midnight and searched for the flight – on the 12th Jan, as of course the 13th Jan wasn’t yet available. Once a minute I pressed F5 to refresh the page, keeping my session alive, then at one second past midnight pressed refresh again – it took a couple of seconds longer to load, but the tab for the 13th was there and, of course, as I’d already entered my search info earlier it remembered the destination and number of seats. A few clicks later and it was done.

I then phoned BA at a more reasonable hour for the refund, and it took just over 10 minutes to get through on the blue line. Another 15 minutes or so later and I have my 110000 Avios back.

With the inflation in Avios costs those companion vouchers are more useful than ever!

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Sandy M wrote:

Has anyone seen F redemptions on BA to/from TYO since the pandemic? JAL yes (last minute), but BA – I’ve not seen any. They used to be common off peak. I had a choice of dates in F back in 2018. But much has changed.

Yes.

There were a couple of F seats back from Tokyo in a couple of days’ time when I checked over the weekend, and what’s more the availability was F2 A2 at the time, so they’ve changed things a bit since last year (when it was either A4 or A5 required for them to appear).

I flew back in First from Tokyo in early February last year, 4 F seats opened up a few weeks before the flight and I swiftly cancelled my J seats, waited for the Avios and CV to return, then booked two of the F seats. In retrospect I should have just phoned You First, but it was 3AM and I was full of adrenaline from the excitement of it all!

There were also 3 F seats available for the previous day’s flight.

Pre-Covid it was different as they often released F seats for Tuesday and Thursday flights at 355 – but that stopped once the F cabin shrunk from 14 to 8 seats.

In short: check daily from at least 4 weeks out, at midnight or just after, and you may get lucky. Keep an eye on availability (Expertflyer offers a free trial for every email address you can come up with) and as long as there are some A seats available you’re in with a chance.

EDIT: JAL also release a single F seat every day in both directions when their flights go online, but it’s a bit complicated – JAL seats appear on their site a few days before BA, so you only see them appear at 355 on BA’s site if nobody’s nabbed them from the JAL side first!

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Not quite the same, but I earned two vouchers and then downgraded (via the app) to the free version of the card.

I then used them several months later and used an Amex to pay – no problem whatsoever.

I strongly suspect (but can’t confirm) that you will keep the vouchers and will be able to use them if you cancel, as unlike the Amex companion voucher there’s no term to say you have to pay using a branded credit card.

(If you’ve not cancelled yet you could always see if you can downgrade to the free card in the app – no need to talk to anyone, it just works!)

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Join the club! I’ve now had two sets of 750 Avios post (under “BAPP Consumer Avios Bonus4”, the generic bonus Avios description) but they’ve not appeared as tier points on my BA account yet – it’s been 5 weeks since the first chunk was transferred over.

I’m not overly bothered (as a lowly blue who just flies BA using Avios – indeed, the 750 Avios chunks are boostable as any other Avios are), but it does seem a bit odd!

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Misty wrote:

Hi All, does anyone know if you boost a BA E-store purchase and they are subsequently revoked by the company/BAC what happens? Do the extra boosted points stick, or have you wasted your money ?

I can confirm that boosted points stay even if the original transaction is reversed – it happened to me with Sainsbury’s, who decided that two large orders I’d placed and had delivered didn’t qualify – they took the points back months afterwards. Boost early, boost often!

I was, FWIW, also able to boost the 750 Avios awarded as part of the BAPP tier points promotion – they still haven’t converted to tier points, a few weeks on – most odd!

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VioVet can be added to the speedy award list too – only took three days for points to post from them.

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comeocome wrote:

Actually, how do you Bouke JAL? I thought they don’t use Avios?

Also, do you book JAL on BA’s own redemption website?

JAL flights show up as long as you’re not using an Amex companion voucher – and you book them just like BA flights. More often you’ll see connecting flights offered, perhaps via Paris, but sometimes you’ll see the direct JL42 or JL44 offered, or the return flights from Tokyo.

Just bear in mind, though, that each airline sets its prices differently, so in JAL’s case you’ll be paying more in total. As it’s JAL, though, it’s worth every single Avios… and then some!

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From another thread, Currys and Lenovo offer speedy awards.

In addition to those already mentioned, I can vouch for Cardfactory, Moonpig and – very surprisingly – Argos!

Argos surprised me as they make you wait 30 days or more for Nectar points to be posted, but the Avios for a phone I bought on Friday have already posted, even though I won’t get the phone until Monday. No complaints here!

The points from Vax have finally posted, 33 days after purchase.

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travelmonkey wrote:

I’m half expecting both sets of points to be removed when they release my purchase didn’t meet the required criteria (it was a click and collect which is excluded from being an eligible transaction with that retailer). But at least I can answer your question for you!

Boost ’em before they’re taken back in that case!

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Having checked old emails, the following used to give speedy rewards. We know Sainsbury’s still does, Fortnum’s no longer tracks for me (so takes ages to get points). I’ve not used the others for a couple of years, but I’d wager they still award quickly:

Sainsbury’s
Fortnum & Mason
Bloom and Wild
Dunelm
CAT Footwear
John Lewis & Partners

EDIT: And Halfords has tracked now, but doesn’t seem to be a speedy award (as in they took payment a few days ago, but points are showing as pending still).

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Sainsbury’s is the only one I’ve found recently.

Vax has been pending for a week, and Fortnum’s and Halfords didn’t even track – wonderful, not.

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mikey0 wrote:

I can see a cash sale fare of £1800 return in biz – do you think they’ve renoved the reward flights because of that sale fare or is it the usual “glitch” in the BA systems ? Anyone else had a similar experience lately ?

Yes, aside from the guaranteed seats each day, availability often goes down the pan when they have one of their luxury / business class sales, and that applies to the extra availability via the BAPP voucher too.

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phantomchickenz wrote:

How did you manage to find Avios seats in First on JAL? Genuinely interested in the strategy!

They often release a single seat 355 days out, then more around 14 to 12 days out if there are any unsold seats. Bear in mind there are only 6 seats in JAL’s First cabin.

JAL seems to release any unsold first tickets for redemption, whereas BA only seems to do it if there are 5 A class unsold seats.

I picked up 2 JAL First seats to Tokyo 12 days out earlier this year (4 were released), as well as 2 BA First seats coming back (3 were released 4 weeks out).

In short – check to see if the cabin is fully booked or not (F0 A0 on Expertflyer would show it to be fully booked). If there are any seats available on JAL, check multiple times a day from 14 days out. And for BA, look for A5 or higher and, if that’s available, look from 4 weeks out.

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I used a voucher for a HND-LHR flight in February – the cash element was under £300:

BA0008
British Airways | First | Confirmed
…
Avios points debited 102000
Voucher Type BA American Express Premium Plus Companion Voucher
Payment Total GBP 296.40

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Tom wrote:

I would have thought BA charge for the data. They must have to provide a data feed for sites such as SeatSpy rather than SeatSpy manually searching each and every route every 5 mins.

Admittedly, this is just my assumption rather than any specific knowledge I have.

They don’t provide the data, so there’s nothing to charge for. You can see this in the likes of ExpertFlyer – BA simply don’t make the redemption buckets visible to any APIs, so they can’t provide award data (unlike with many other airlines).

All these various companies are doing is using burner accounts and a selection of scripts to send automated queries to BA’s website – you can do it easily enough in Python or PHP, parsing the page that’s returned, stuffing the values into a database and then rendering it nicely for their paying customers. You can tell they’re using burner accounts as none of them dare use a real account with a companion voucher – which would be genuinely useful, as it would show the extra I bucket seats available for redemption.

As I said, I’m amazed BA haven’t clamped down on it (by imposing search limits), or monetise it themselves.

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Albatross wrote:

Is it worth upgrading to Seat Spy First Class from Premium?

Depends entirely on how much time you have.

I’d not consider it worthwhile, or any of the scraper sites for that matter, as they won’t be as up-to-date as just checking on BA’s site.

My last First flights, earlier this year, were found by simply searching on BA’s site a few times a day; as it happens both flights had availability at half three in the morning, as I checked when I got up. My previous First flights in the years running up to Covid were found the same way, or by logging on at midnight/1 AM.

Incidentally I’m surprised that BA allow the scraper sites to do what they do – as they will be using accounts to repeatedly check every date for every flight, on a repeating cycle. If there’s money to be made from it you’d have thought BA would have offered the option for cash (perhaps delaying by 15 minutes or so for alerts), or maybe restrict the number of searches per account to a certain number per day (or per hour, per minute etc).

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Travel Strong wrote:

stevemack wrote:

Does RFF use it’s own data source now, I stopped using RFF when it was caught using seatspy’s data in 2021

Same here. After seeing that they were scraping data from Seatspy I have just used seatspy since.

AFAIK all of them just scrape from BA’s site (as they don’t provide an API to access reward info), and none will be immediate as they can’t scan all routes and all days instantly.

If you’ve a specific date and route in mind IMO you can’t beat just checking several times a day – it’s how I found my last 4 bookings for Tokyo.

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I did it from Club to First earlier this year, but it was a gamble: the choice was to phone, wait in a queue for a while and hope the seats were still there when I got through, or to cancel online, wait for the Avios and 2-4-1 voucher to return, then rebook.

I chose the latter, but suffice to say it was a *very* long three minutes or so until the voucher was returned. I fairly raced through the booking screens!

In the cold light of day, I really should have phoned You First instead: they would have answered almost instantly. That only works if you’re going to upgrade to First, mind you!