[Anonymous]

[Gold-2K]

i know the rule on BA tickets purchased through an agent, that you can’t pay or use avios to upgrade direct with BA. However on 2 recent US trips travelling on club tickets purchased through by company travel agent, when I checked in I was offered an upgrade to First for a few hundred pounds.

in both cases CW looked full so I was wondering if I was offered the “pay to upgrade” because BA knew they would need to move someone and they wanted to see if anyone was willing to pay before using invol upgrades as a last resort.

if this is the case, does it mean upgrades at the gate will become less common?

[ChrisBuda82]

Only been Upgraded 2 time on AA from LHR to JFK and From Gatwick to BUD on Malev. On AA the flight was empty so we all got put in 1st on Malev it was Christmas Eve and flight was full and 3 people had the same seat lucky I got the Bus Class seat. Other than never seen any one upgraded on my travels.

[FrequentTraveller]

On a BA flight in January 2012 from Heathrow to Miami I had booked and paid directly with British Airways for a World Traveller Plus seat. A few days prior to departure I received an email offering an upgrade for over £449 one-way. I did not take up the offer because at the time of making my original booking I could have paid £300 extra for business class one-way. I decided against it earlier, so I was not going to pay more with the offer.

During on line check in I was given the same offer, at the same price, which I did not take up. At the gate I received a complementary upgrade to Club class. I am a silver card holder in British Airways Executive club.

This is the first time I have received an offer to upgrade during the check in process. So I can’t draw any conclusions my myself based on a single occurrence of this happening.

[RichardB]

I don’t think the inability to upgrade travel agency tickets is relevant. They probably do that to avoid companies with business class travel policies changing it to premium economy and the traveller is expected to use the miles (which the company is paying for) to upgrade. The upgrade cost in miles is almost 1:1 (each flight can be upgraded with the miles you earn from it) and this would lead to lots of people using miles for upgrades and quite a loss of revenue from paid business class seats for BA.

I get upgrades WT+ -> club about 1/4 the time on BA, so I don’t think many people are paying for upgrades. If they did then they would not be upgrading me for free.

BA could play a game of lowering the upgrade price. since a paid upgrade is better for them than upgrading for free. But I wonder how low they would go. Even charging 10 pounds J -> F would be better than giving it for free but I doubt they would do it.

[ChrisBuda82]

I think the high cost of upgrades is due to the tax so they have to offcer that price to cover there cost, so if the upgrade is free they dont have to pay tax on it.

[STORMIN']

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have been upgraded on many / regular occasions from CW to F. However, within the last couple of years, I have never been upgraded, not even from the number of times that I have flown WT+ to CW, although on a recent round trip to Singapore where CW was booked, I was upgraded on both sectors to F. It therefore seems to be very hit-and-miss and down to good old luck.

[David]

I have held BA Gold for the past 7 years; always booking CW on my long-haul flights and paying market rates (ie. I pay with my own credit card on ba.com).

I travel on average 10 long-haul return trips per year with BA and haven’t had an upgrade since March of 2008.

I would assume that I tick all the right boxes for an ocassional upgrade- Gold member, CW flyer, paying non-discounted rates directly on BA’s website….

Either non-one’s getting upgrades these days or some other, far more random, criteria is being used to determine who gets lucky.

[TiredOldHack]

Wife and I were upgraded to Club World from WT, coming back from Singapore last July. WT was overbooked. That surprised (and pleased) me, as we were both Blue cardholders then (both Silver now).

[VintageKrug]

The advent of the ease of upgrading with Avios, as well as paid-for upgrades via Manage My Booking MMB or at check-in will inevitably diminish the need to upgrade people operationally.

We should remember that historically BA only really upgrades passengers for reasons other than operational requirements i exceptional circumstances.

Unlike other carriers, it has preferred to keep the premium cabins empty rather than pack them with upgrades from the back.

Having said that, I have had a reasonable hit rate of upgrades this year; it depends how much you fly, the routes you take and whether the day/flight you travel on is busy.

As others have attested, it’s certainly still possible to obtain the much sought after operational upgrade to F at the boarding gate, and all the more appreciated for being unexpected.

[Henkel.Trocken]

VintageKrug – 12/03/2012 14:41 GMT

“We should remember that historically BA only really upgrades passengers for reasons other than operational requirements i exceptional circumstances.”

in

“Unlike other carriers, it has preferred to keep the premium cabins empty rather than pack them with upgrades from the back.”

Absolute rubbish, BA F is full of upgrades every time I travel. If you want to see F without upgrades fly SIA.

[dfcolson]

I flew JFK LHR in January with my wife. Purchased PE; had used miles to upgrade to CW. We were both upgraded to F. Agent said they were heavily booked in CW but open in F and that’s why we were upgraded. We are both Gold Exec Club.

[BeckyBoop]

Henkel.. i thought you only ever fly EK? also how many times a year would you say you fly in BA F to be able to say F is full of upgrades. At least BA do upgrade their customers SQ form what i know are skank when it comes to upgrading even there most loyal flyers to first. the would rather see the cabin empty. Have a look on heare there used to be a thread about SQ upgrade policy x

[RichHI1]

There is a lotof semantics here. Airlines have been discounting Frist with A fares, they have been offering free upgrades to First one way on Full BUsiness Tickets and heavily discounting and upgradin preium cabins to corporations. So there is still a lot heavy discounting andupgrading but it is more systemized now (presumably to increase revenue potential).

[Henkel.Trocken]

Becky, I have never said I only fly EK, I think you are making assumptions because I do fly with them a lot. I fly BA when there isn’t a better choice available which is often enough to have a view on who is in the F cabin. I don’t like free upgrades for whatever reason and fully support the SQ policy of you get what you pay for. That way people know to expect nothing different and there is no ill will. I fly SQ often enough to know that too.

[Author]

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