Comments on: British Airways Is Conspiring to Keep Me Out of First Class

By: Lorenzo

Lorenzo — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:13:17 +0000

Great post, found it looking up a flight review for British Airways CW LHR-YYC as I am travelling on this route next week, wish F was available but then again I probably couldnt afford it as there are 4 of us travelling.

happy holidays

By: lhoang

lhoang — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:13:58 +0000

Would you mind sharing your routing ?

By: Mikeef

Mikeef — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:20:52 +0000

Gary,

When are you traveling?

By: PeterQ

PeterQ — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:26:34 +0000

AFAIK, YouFirst is only for customers who already hold a BA First booking.

Also, Gary’s stated that he is trying to book this itinerary with AA miles. SO he is working with the AAdvantage partner desk, not with any BA entity.

Part of the problem is that BA does withhold some of its availability to top-tier oneWorld flyers. One example: when I was booking the YYZ-LHR routing in 2008, there was no F availability showing on ba.com for the date that I wanted (I have no BA elite status).

But when I called the ExPlat desk, lo and behold, seats were available and I booked immediately before they changed their minds.

The only consolation is that, by waiting, you may get to try the new First product (whenever BA gets around to actually introducing it).

By: BingoBob

BingoBob — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:36:14 +0000

Have you tried speaking to BA’s YouFirst? They’re normally very good – especially when a First passenger has been inconvenienced. Tell them you specifically would like to try First – you never know they may make an exception (or forget the rules) and put you on a US routing.

Depending on your final destination you could try being re-routed through somewhere like Barbados or Mexico. Even if there’s no award buckets open they may at least try to request some.

By: AS

AS — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:37:07 +0000

The lack of antitrust immunity for BA and AA in the US-UK market (and with IB, to create a US-Europe immunity zone) was supposed to be revisited and is supposedly due any day now (of course, that was also rumored 3 months ago too).

The inability to codeshare and coordinate schedules, share revenue, etc has been a problem for BA and AA, benefiting the other alliances. But you have to assume it will end soon.

On the other hand, the lack of ATI probably saved AA’s AAdvantage program a lot of money since BA metal was so restricted. When the ATI is granted, AA miles will suddenly become worth more, and AAdvantage will probably take a financial hit, at least for a while, with the wave of BA redemptions.

By: David

David — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:20:29 +0000

I know what you mean about BA having excellent availability between UK and Canada. I often monitor the non-stop London – Calgary flight and it’s almost always available, any day of the week, for months out at a time. I flew it recently (my first BA long haul experience) and was immensely pleased at the comfort and value for my AA miles. Now, I live in Canada so this isn’t a big deal for me, but even if I were American, I’d be going out of my way to use BA using the Canada transit option you’ve suggested.