British Airways has announced an increase in the minimum number of seats available for reward redemptions on all of its flights.
The carrier said that it had doubled the guaranteed minimum number of reward seats in short and long-haul economy and business class cabins, as well as adding a minimum guaranteed availability in World Traveller Plus (premium economy) for the first time.
The extra availability takes effect for flights from July 28 (bookings available from today), and sees the minimum number of seats in Club Europe and Club World increase from two to four, and in Euro and World Traveller cabins from four to eight seats.
In World Traveller Plus there will now be a minimum of two seats available for reward bookings. The full list of changes can be seen in the table below, with BA stating that over 250,000 additional reward seats have been added to the carrier’s booking system.
Last month fellow IAG member carrier Iberia made similar changes to its reward seat availability, which it said had on average doubled the minimum number of seats in its Tourist cabins for flights from July 1.
Commenting on the news Tom Stevens, director of brand and customer experience at British Airways, said:
“Our Members appreciate the benefits their Executive Club membership brings, but the feedback we hear is that people would like us to make it easier to book flights using Avios.
“We have listened and acted on this, and today’s announcement directly addresses this feedback, opening up six extra reward seats on a short-haul flight, and eight on a long-haul flight.
“We hope this means that a family holiday, or that big friendship group trip away, will be much easier to book using Avios.”
The changes follow two promotions currently running with British Airways Holidays, offering double tier points and lounge access:
Summary of changes to British Airways' reward seat availability
| Cabin | Change | Current guaranteed reward seat availability per flight (flights pre 28 July) | New guaranteed reward seat availability per flight (flights 28 July onwards) |
| Euro Traveller (short-haul economy) | Doubling | 4 | 8 |
| Club Europe (short-haul business class) | Doubling | 2 | 4 |
| World Traveller (long-haul economy) | Doubling | 4 | 8 |
| World Traveller Plus (long-haul premium economy) | New guaranteed availability | 0 | 2 |
| Club World (long-haul business class) | Doubling | 2 | 4 |
