TA right or wrong?

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xsprint

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Jan 17, 2006
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Hi All,
I'm travelling on a DONE4 and the homeward bound sectors planned include LHR-JFK...

I wanted to book on to (ideally) BA177 from LHR but would quite happily travel earlier that day

Heres the status for BA177 on 9/July
F3 A1 J9 C9 D9 I0 W9 T8 Y9 B9

....and here is BA175 earlier same day
F4 A3 J9 C9 D2 I0 W9 T6 Y9 B9

TA says "booking class full for both, can't waitlist either"

Correct me if I'm wrong but the bucket for D says seats are available!?!? Could she be trying to book me into I?
 
There are several documented POS (point of sale) discrimination issues with BA on FT. I would suggest getting the BA/Amadeus PNR and calling BA in the UK with it and asking them to release a D class seat for you on the flight you want. Sometimes these inventories are protected for ex-UK POS pax.

I was trying to book BA12 SIN-LHR for mid Jan 2008 which was D0 on both AA's system, and EF (which only showed ex-SIN inventory). However a check with BA UK indicated that the flight was still open in D and they promptly booked a seat in D for me.

I wouldn't assume every single fully booked flight is a POS issue though. Sometimes it could be that BA is anticipating a heavy demand on certain dates/flights and hence blacked out D since they can sell costlier seats in J on those dates/flights.

So do check with ur TA as to whether D is really zapped, and if it is truly D0 on his/her system - there is a strong probability that POS is a factor given those figures you've pulled out. Try ur luck with BA UK in that case.

And yes unfortunately if a discount bucket is zeroed out, it is no longer possible to waitlist for BA flights.
 
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I have seen this many times with D class for bookings made from Australia for BA trans-Atlantic flights. The best option is to waitlist for the flight you want and if it has not cleared in a few days then ask your TA to contact BA in the UK, or if booking through QF then call QF in the UK, to request the waitlist be considered.

I have had the waitlists clear quickly sometimes (24-48 hours) and had them sit waitlisted for weeks at other times.

This is a POS issue where BA loads different availability for different points of sale, and the on-line systems like ExpertFlyer and KVS generally look at the systems from a North America POS and not from Australia perspective.
 
NM said:
I have seen this many times with D class for bookings made from Australia for BA trans-Atlantic flights. The best option is to waitlist for the flight you want and if it has not cleared in a few days then ask your TA to contact BA in the UK, or if booking through QF then call QF in the UK, to request the waitlist be considered.
Can't waitlist on BA anymore, unless attempting to book F/J/W/Y.

Fastest way, assuming it's POS, is to book on another BA flight that's open in D, then call BA in the UK to switch over to the flight you want.
 
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QF009 said:
Can't waitlist on BA anymore, unless attempting to book F/J/W/Y.

Does anyone know whether I can waitlist for D on CX for a DONE4? I'm looking at HKG-JFK direct and the one flight is empty in D for Saturday and Sunday departures until the end of May 2008. I plan on traveling BNE-MEL-HKG-JFK-YUL and need the direct flight to connect to YUL and not overnight.

I read on FT that CX are doubling flights to JFK but this is more a hypothetical question as I can't find anywhere about who you can and can't waitlist with on a DONE4.
 
littl_flier said:
Does anyone know whether I can waitlist for D on CX for a DONE4? I'm looking at HKG-JFK direct and the one flight is empty in D for Saturday and Sunday departures until the end of May 2008. I plan on traveling BNE-MEL-HKG-JFK-YUL and need the direct flight to connect to YUL and not overnight.
Yep waitlists are doable for CX. :)

It can be a little hard to get the direct JFK-HKG flight in D though, as they sell really well in the expensive buckets. But hopefully the increased frequencies will alleviate this somewhat.

I could be wrong but I think BA is the only ow carrier that doesn't allow waitlisting on discount fares.
 
QF009 said:
Can't waitlist on BA anymore, unless attempting to book F/J/W/Y.

Fastest way, assuming it's POS, is to book on another BA flight that's open in D, then call BA in the UK to switch over to the flight you want.
What! When did they change that? I have waitlisted BA flights for D fares in the past, but not in the last 12 months. I have just checked current DONEx rules and can't find any reference to waitlisting.
 
NM said:
What! When did they change that? I have waitlisted BA flights for D fares in the past, but not in the last 12 months. I have just checked current DONEx rules and can't find any reference to waitlisting.

It is not a ONE rule change. Just BA's own enhancement, and it applies to all discount BA fares, ie anything that's not Y/W/J/F.

I think the change is fairly recent.
 
QF009 said:
It is not a ONE rule change. Just BA's own enhancement, and it applies to all discount BA fares, ie anything that's not Y/W/J/F.

I think the change is fairly recent.
Its a good thing I now use AA for my trans-Atlantic flights then ;) . My last DONE4 had one BA flight (LHR-FRA), all the rest were QF (6), AA (7) and CX (4).
 
NM said:
What! When did they change that? I have waitlisted BA flights for D fares in the past, but not in the last 12 months. I have just checked current DONEx rules and can't find any reference to waitlisting.
Early December last year; at the same time as preventing those on the discount classes (D, A etc) from preselecting seats unless they are Sapphire or Emerald.
 
NM said:
This is a POS issue where BA loads different availability for different points of sale, and the on-line systems like ExpertFlyer and KVS generally look at the systems from a North America POS and not from Australia perspective.
Update - Since I was near LHR T4 today at the hilton I walked across to BA ticketing and asked the question. The BA staffer did indeed confirm it was a POS issue for the TA in Sydney and then proceeded to book me on to BA177 'no problems whatsoever sir'. Also confirmed that for BA once the discount booking classes are full the flight is closed to those classes and no waitlist is possible.

NM -interesting you prefer AA for Transatlantic travel, presume this is because you're an AAdvantage man? I'm keen to check out the new Club 'Plastic' World which according to FT is operating on all LHRJFK 747s... cool.

Thanks to all for the feedback, bit of a shame though that I have to continue to second guess my TA!
 
xsprint said:
NM -interesting you prefer AA for Transatlantic travel, presume this is because you're an AAdvantage man?

Also because he can avoid LHR? ;)
 
xsprint said:
NM -interesting you prefer AA for Transatlantic travel, presume this is because you're an AAdvantage man? I'm keen to check out the new Club 'Plastic' World which according to FT is operating on all LHRJFK 747s... cool.
indeed in the dim dark past when I was posting flights to QF, I had many BA trans-Atlantic flights. However, now that I have turned to the dark side and enjoy the greater earn/burn rates of the AAdvantage program, there is a disincentive to use BA for trans-Atlantic flights. I don't really want to have to route via Canada or Mexico or the Caribbean, and now try to fly west-bound and make the Trans-Atlantics day-time flights for which AA is quite reasonable.
 
QF009 said:
Also because he can avoid LHR? ;)
Well actually I didn't avoid LHR last trip since I had to be near Farnborough for work. And I did find my departure from LHR was much easier (quicker check-in and security queues and no outbound immigration queuing) than my departure from FRA the following morning. Apart from QF29 arrival ending at a remote stand and needing to bus into Terminal 4, my LHR experience was quite reasonable.

But I did note the queue for T4->T4 transfers was huge. Even that would have been quicker to go out through immigration (took me less than 5 mins) and back in through regular security queue. I was glad I was arriving and not in transit that day. Even baggage collection was fast.
 
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