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Anyone had the situation, where the company has paid for your ticket (lets say full flex fare economy long-haul) on BA and they have refused to upgrade you to prem economy (WTP) using miles stating that you can only use BA miles to upgrade, if you personally paid for ticket in first place.
Apparently this a new rule introduced 1st Jan this year ?
I don't know about new rule, but it does make sense... If your company pays for your ticket, you may or may not get a discount on fully flex economy (we do, but only on certain routes), but regardless the company will receive a whopping great big kickback at the end of the year - many millions in our case. For this reason, we never get to benefit from promos like free limo or buy-club-get-oneway-first, etc (even though of course we charge back our clients at full whack...)
Probably not the answer you want to hear, but quite understandable not to allow upgrades from BA's point of view (or any other airline, for that matter)
If you have an issue with it, you ought to take it up with your company's travel department - betcha they wouldn't be happy if you paid for the ticket personally and then charged back - that is certainly 100% verboten in our place... (even if we can find ticket prices that are much, much, much cheaper)
To be clear BA has no "refused" to upgrade using miles; it is following the stated policy that Miles for Upgrade ("MFU") is not valid on TA/Corporate bookings.
This is not a "new rule" as it has always been the case, so you were misinformed there.
It can be frustrating, but I suppose it exists to stop firms always plumping for less expensive fare classes, or booking using a corp discount fare, and then upgrading "for free" using the employee's personal miles; a trend neither BA nor employees would be keen to see happen.
Same as was the case for sale fares.
However, it is highly possible this corporate/TA restriction will be lifted shortly. Highly possible.
Interesting thread.
On the same general theme (restrictions using corporate discounts);
A number of years ago the company for whom I worked received discounted corporate rates from British Airways. During a period of about a year (always flying Club Europe, Club World or FIRST) I earned 180,000 BA miles. I then received a letter from BA saying that during a routine Executive Club audit they discovered that since I was flying on discounted corporate tickets, I was not eligible for miles and they zapped my full account (but allowed me to retain my Gold Card status).
I understood the reasoning behind the decision but did not agree that absolutely no miles could be awarded (after all, I thought some mileage credit was due given the 10s of 000s of GBP that was still being spent with the airline). My grievance fell on deaf ears and I spent the next 2 years of working with that company flying a myriad of other airlines where I could earn mileage.
Now that I (my company) pay full whack for airline tickets, I earn full miles on BA (including class of travel and Gold Club bonuses).
How extraordinary. BAEC exists to promote loyalty from the individual - we all have a choice of carrier, even within corp policies.
It is 100% the normal thing to earn miles as the person flying, not the person paying.
Could I ask just how many years ago? It may have been part of the T&Cs of the corporate deal, or some dodgy bookings on the part of your corp TA, but I have never heard of miles being confiscated except in case of fraud or repeated manipulation (eg not flying final sector of exEU tickets).
Hi VK,
This was in effect between early 2005 and late 2007.
The 'confiscation' actually happened twice, albeit with far less painful consequences the second time around...
Certainly agreed, my understanding of BAEC (or any other loyalty programme) is to promote loyalty from the end-consumer.
Hmm. Well, I can't comment on the specific circumstance, but I find that extraordinary.
Had that happened to me, I would certainly have complained most vociferously as from the facts you have set out, there is no way your miles should have been confiscated, unless possibly there was government travel involved. None.
I worked for indeed a 100% for-profit concern (i.e not government travel...)!
I pushed as hard as I could with both the BAEC and our own internal travel desk but unfortunately was unable to get anywhere. I guess 2005/2006 were the good-times and with planes flying full (and BA making a profit) no one felt the need to have to make exceptions...
Hmm. Even on discounted fares you should have earned some miles; I could perhaps have understood them making an error and crediting you with too many miles (eg perhaps mistaking the fare class), but not so systematically.
Must have a been a quirk of the corporate deal; some firms (and govts.) do not allow individuals to earn personal miles on "corporate" travel, but I have never heard of an incident where BA confiscates personal miles in totality, except in case of fraud (which I am sure was not the issue in your case).
Probably too long ago to do anything about it now, but highly irregular.
Certainly agree, VK; I wish I could go back and get at least part of the 200K + miles 'lost.'
As you say, must have been a condition of the specific deal between BA and my company however I was never privy to the contractual details.
As an aside, I had 2 other colleagues who also had their miles zapped.
Here's to paying full-fare!
Re: no miles for corporate bookings. I can't comment for BA, but the bmi Friends and Family scheme may give a clue as to how things work... Basically we are given a special code to access cheap fares on bmi. They are not as cheap as publicly available "sale fares", but they sometimes have better availability, so are worth considering every now and then. I think they are priced similar to our corporate route deals, but they earn little or no mileage (25% max)
So maybe BA is not wrong for limiting mileage earned from corporate tickets after all?
Remember some of these corporate discounts can be ludicrous. I do have one data point that a certain now-defunct bank used to pay c.£750 for a fully flexible return business class ticket LHR-JFK on a certain US airline (that was only about 5 years ago)
As for the Gold Card, basically the most senior peeps at my company get them as a matter of course, or so I'm told, regardless of whether/what they travel. Such are the perks of being a one of BA's top 10 corporate customers...
Wow cityprofessional, £750 return to JFK in business - that is indeed very,v ery low.
We had some great rates however they were all market driven (i.e. no fixed rates based on destination). I seem to remember my average J class ticket (return) costing in the region of 1,750 GBP.
I think that certainly 3-5 years ago was the high point for the Business Class only airlines - Silverjet, MaxJet and (although more F in its pitch) EOS.
I paid £699 rtn all in for SilverJet, I think in late 2007, as a lead in fare; once AA jumped on the bandwagon with the MaxJet busting Stansted-New York service, it was difficult for these carriers to build their following and raise prices; there were some crazy deals being offered at the time in response to these fares.
I had a similar experience recently when booking a long Asia trip. My company mandates corporate bookings through a corporate travel provider and BA refused to allow a sector upgrade using miles (I have more than i know what to do with) from LHR-SYD.
One thing i never understand is tier points - my current trip is LHR-LAX-SYD-Sing-Tokyo-LHR - all in club i think i get something like 600 tier points. However as it's a RTW ticket (hence the LAX leg - what a killer to save the company money!!), it only cost 6.3k GBP. Thats the same as my last LHR-SFP round trip yet i only got 120 tier points each way. how does that work?? !!
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