[garygca]

FDOS_UK – 17/03/2016 13:48 GMT

SQ does not make their F (suite) product available for *A redemption. They value it too much and reserve it for redemption only with Kris Flyer miles. That said, if you can transfer miles to Kris Flyer, their F product is absolutely amazing….and surprisingly easy to find for awards.

[FDOS_UK]

garygca – 17/03/2016 14:19 GMT

Thanks for the explanantion – did you have any luck with finding seats last night?

[HRTraveling]

BA went from 3 daily flights (42F seats) to 2 A380 daily flights (28F seats).

[Uncledude]

Because it has the wonderful A380

[Charles-P]

‘UncleDude’ the BA interpretation of the A380 is an example of an airline listening to its customers and supplying a product that really ticks all the boxes in terms of comfort and quality.

[Shamsh1]

CP, do you really think BA has listened to its customers when configuring the 380? Have you ever flown QF, QR or EK’s 380? This is how pax want to be treated in C or F, not stacked 7 in a row in C like BA!!

[FDOS_UK]

Shamsh1 – 17/03/2016 15:16 GMT

I’ve been on EK and QR’s A380s and the layout is really good, as you say.

The bars at the rear of the upper deck tend to keep the noise away from most business class seats (unless you are in close proximity) and even the economy seats are quite pleasant for a 5-7 hour day flights, wide enough and with decent pitch.

[JJames3]

Life is seldom perfect, hence the word ‘compromise’.
I’ve repeatedly struggled to find any Avios availability in F to LAS from LHR, so I took the simple and not hard choice to find an alternate routing. Now looking forward to LHR _ SEA, followed by a shortish internal hop to LAS. OK so not my first choice, but I still get where I want to be……

[AlanOrton1]

If the OP is looking to or prepared to book the full 355 days ahead, he could look to book J, as at least 2 seats are released at midnight UK time.
F availability often gets released a few days later, and he could then look to swap in his J seats for F seats.
I only mention this as I wanted to make an Avios F booking a couple of months back, and decided to play the game of calling up at midnight, got the 2 J seats, kept an eye on BA.com and when the F seats appeared a few days later, rang BA and all worked out fine.
Perhaps not the most simple way of doing things, but perhaps a good way to secure something that you particularly want.
As mentioned before, and confirmed by the You First line, people literally line up just prior to midnight to book premium seats on the premium routes 355 days out. My suspicion is that regardless of the airline, whatever the ‘rules’ of that programme are, a number of frequent fliers will always look to avail of what they want by extreme forward planning.

[MrDooog]

From LAX the OP should look at a distance based Multi Carrier Reward. I could be wrong but my calculations would suggest you could do the following for 300k avios in F (or possibly interestingly given the carriers 200k in J) – and with relatively modest surcharges too.

LAX-HKG on CX
HKG-LHR on CX
LHR-LAX on AA (or could do LHR-JFK with BA then AA to LAX)

There are a huge number of variations possible on this, you could route through Japan instead with JAL. Or go from Asia to Europe via DOH using QR or via HEL with AY.

With 1.5m avios there could be some very interesting options to get creative with routings. As long as you can add 2 or more OW carriers other than BA the distance chart will be used.

[garygca]

MrDooog – 18/03/2016 12:16 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion MrDooog. I will give this a try. The CX product is great, no doubt. Just a shame that using AVIOS on BA in F from LAX is near to impossible. I’ll just have to spend the points elsewhere and align my future flights with someone that makes all classes of seats available from my home base. Thanks.

[TiredOldHack]

I’ve just booked for Doctor TOH and myself to have our November break in Colombia. Somewhat to my surprise, I found that I could get biz class on Avios from LHR to Medellin (MDE) for 210,000 Avios plus £1,330, routing through MAD.

Iberia flies MAD – MDE direct, so I wondered if I could book that flight on its own, and if so, how much? Answer: 170,000 Avios for the pair of us and just £58 each additional charges.

Sold!

Flying (economy) to MAD the day before departure, staying in the airport Hilton, again all on points. Amused to discover the extra charges for LHR – MAD were £117 for the two of us, or £1 pricier than the MAD – MDE biz class tickets.

Bargain, but can anyone explain the huge disparity in additional charges?

[FDOS_UK]

TiredOldHack – 18/03/2016 15:02 GMT

Presumably there are enough mugs prepared to pay £1,330?

[mkcol74]

@TiredOldHack UK APD & BA’s carrier charges etc etc

[mkcol74]

@garygca Have you ever tried https://baredemptionfinder.com?

I’ve found it good to give an overview of availability for the next year or so. Sometimes it’s not spot on by the time you get to book on either ba.com or avios.com

[Author]

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