BA sold out CW/PE on HND redemption – should I be worried about downgrade?
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Just checked on my CW Tokyo flights (241 reward flight booked at T-355) and BA are no longer offering either club or trav plus cash tickets on my flight (but they are for the other flight that day). The seat map only has about 8 unallocated seats left, out of the 35 seat 787-8 cabin.
Should I be concerned about being bumped backwards on the plane? (I’m assuming a reward booking is bottom of the pile here)
There’s still a few weeks before we leave – is there any action I should take closer to the time to try avoiding a downgrade? (eg. Can I call and get ourselves moved to the another BA or JAL flight?)
Should I be concerned about being bumped backwards on the plane? (I’m assuming a reward booking is bottom of the pile here)
There’s no evidence that being on a reward booking is more likely to see you downgraded than a cash fare (both happen).
There is some evidence that downgrades are done based on CIV score (an internal scoring based on status and if you are responsible for corporate travel, IIRC), subject to party size. So, if you are a lowly blue, you will be more likely to be downgraded than gold. If you are bronze, you might still have the lowest score if there are no blues in that cabin.
So, how’s your status level?
The bigger picture view – you have no idea how many seats are actually sold, if the plane will be swapped to a different model/configuration, who will not show up on the day etc etc etc – so my advice is don’t worry about it, there’s nothing realistic you could or should do until and unless it actually happens.
So, how’s your status level?
Both travellers are Bronze.
The other BA departure is 2hr 45min before ours, so unless we arrive SUPER early, switching to an empty seat on the earlier flight on arrival to T5 wouldn’t be an option. Hence I wonder if anything could be done on the phone the day before or something…
There’s still a few weeks before we leave – is there any action I should take closer to the time to try avoiding a downgrade? (eg. Can I call and get ourselves moved to the another BA or JAL flight?)
Any request for a proactive change of flight would require you to pay a change fee plus any additional taxes & fees as it would count as a voluntary change and would also require there to be avios availability on the other flight.
BA certainly wouldn’t move you onto JAL.
Even an on the day request would likely be denied unless there was an actual downgrade situation.
Even an on the day request would likely be denied unless there was an actual downgrade situation.
TBH, I’m on exactly the flight I want to be on, I don’t want to change… but I’d rather fly earlier in Club than on time in PE if I were lined up to be downgraded.
Would OP be compensated for being downgraded? How much/how?
Would OP be compensated for being downgraded? How much/how?
Yes they would – plenty of existing threads on the whys and wherefores
Thanks all for the responses… I’ll try not to worry for another few weeks at least!
Would OP be compensated for being downgraded? How much/how?
Yup… Given the flight length, UK law would be 75% of the price of that leg (excluding taxes etc.).
See https://www.headforpoints.com/2020/08/13/british-airways-first-class-downgrade/
There might then be a bun fight about whether that’s in Avios or cash, whether surcharges are included and BA might also assign zero value to the 241 voucher in order to halve the compensation it tries to give.
Should I be concerned about being bumped backwards on the plane? (I’m assuming a reward booking is bottom of the pile here)
There’s no evidence that being on a reward booking is more likely to see you downgraded than a cash fare (both happen).
There are plenty of people who say they have been downgraded using a 241 so I don’t think you can say there is no evidence, it is unlikely though. I would say the time to panic is if you can’t check in on-line. If that happens, then I would be on the phone to BA and if they can’t help, make sure you are there in time for the early flight (if it looks like there are seats available).
There are also plenty of people who get downgraded who are not using a 241, so that proves nothing. The relevant statistics would be the numbers of downgrades vs total number of tickets for each type, which of course will never be available.
Someone did post recently the priority order for selecting downgrade victims, sorry candidates, which seemed entirely sensible.
At the end of the day when downgrades become necessary, it’s common sense to pick the ‘least valuable’ customers. That would put 241’s with no status near the top of the list, because by implication they haven’t spent much money recently and so may not in future either.
One answer to the original question is that there isn’t really much point worrying about what may happen if you can’t change it.
I had this worry when flying LHR to SYD back in November. Was my first reward flight and Club was all sold out, I hadn’t even got one of the guaranteed reward seats booked, more availability had been released later in the year which I had nabbed. All was fine though and I didn’t even think twice about the return which was fully booked as well. I have no BA status and two of us were traveling. So I imagine it will all be fine
There are plenty of people who say they have been downgraded using a 241 so I don’t think you can say there is no evidence
That’s not what I said. I said –
There’s no evidence that being on a reward booking is more likely to see you downgraded than a cash fare (both happen).
There is a nuanced difference, as @AndrewT says.
Highly probable you won’t be downgraded, nothing you can do beforehand. However look at time tables. Get to airport in time to ask for and catch an alternative if there is one
I had this worry when flying LHR to SYD back in November. Was my first reward flight and Club was all sold out, I hadn’t even got one of the guaranteed reward seats booked, more availability had been released later in the year which I had nabbed. All was fine though and I didn’t even think twice about the return which was fully booked as well. I have no BA status and two of us were traveling. So I imagine it will all be fine
Highly probable you won’t be downgraded, nothing you can do beforehand. However look at time tables. Get to airport in time to ask for and catch an alternative if there is one
Thanks both for putting my mind at ease!
There are plenty of people who say they have been downgraded using a 241 so I don’t think you can say there is no evidence
That’s not what I said. I said –
There’s no evidence that being on a reward booking is more likely to see you downgraded than a cash fare (both happen).
There is a nuanced difference, as @AndrewT says.
offloading criteria was referenced in a previous thread – https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/amex-241-flight-downgraded-from-club-world-to-wtp-at-checkin/page/4/ – assuming it is genuine (originated from flyertalk), all other things being equal reward tickets are prioritised for offload/downgrade vs cash booking. Though silver and above status is considered ahead of booking class.
Just for completeness (for anyone with similar concerns in the future) I can happily report we did NOT get downgraded!
BA stopped selling any tickets at all on our flight a month or so before departure. They pretty much stopped on the earlier flight of the day too. And then the Heathrow power outage happened the day before our flight, meaning they also had a 787-9 worth of passengers from the previous day’s cancellation to find capacity for.
However we still had our rewards seats in club no problem and, despite the mess, we even left on time!
I’ve never watched a flight so closely in my life, but I guess I had no reason to worry in the end.
Glad it worked out well for you ☺️
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