[Anonymous]

[dfcolson]

Can anyone advise on how to maximise the chance of complimentary upgrade from Premium Economy to Business and/or Business to First when traveling on BA. Is is better to check in at the airport or check in online? Other tips?

[IanFromHKG]

I don’t believe there is any definitive answer to this, but in an earlier thread the ever-knowledgeable VK suggested doinig on-line check-in, but not printing your boarding pass and collecting it at the airport instead

[RichardB]

You can normally see if they will be doing upgrades based on the seats available in each booking class. 9 Seats free in even the cheapest economy fares means no upgrades Y->W and a knock on effect for upgrades W->J. And this can vary from day to day on the same route or different flights on the same day (if they fly twice a day for example). You can even deliberately book flights you know will be busy.
I always do online check in but don’t print my boarding pass. In that way you can keep looking at the seat map and change your seat yourself (up until the BP is printed). I have seen upgrades processed about 2-3h before departure. If upgraded you will see this if you try to check-in again and you will find your cabin changed and a new seat assigned. You can then change your seat in the new class if you like (eg to upper deck on 747).
I assume you know that ordering a special meal will put your upgrade chances to 0%.

[Gold-2K]

And of course if you are a new gold card holder or have just scraped past the 1500 points, you will be down the list. There are a lot of gold cards around these days and usually preference will be given to the big spenders!

My recommendation, assume you won’t get an upgrade, prepare yourself to have a good flight in the cabin you have booked and be eternally grateful if you get moved up! Far less stressful.

Also you could pay to upgrade. On a recent flight LHR to BOS at online checking I was given the option to upgrade CW to F for £399 which i took! Prior to online checkin opening the price was over £2,500. I think in that case the flight was overbooked and The airline looked to get some additional revenue rather than just give free upgrades? Maybe this is the new approach to upgrading ……. See who will pay before you give out the freebies???

[RichardB]

I read a story a while ago about an airline in the USA and the check in machine at the airport will ask you “how much are you prepared to pay” for an upgrade. The system then makes a kind of auction and upgrades people based on their bids. You cannot change your bid later though so it’s not quite the free for all that it sounds. But US based airlines are notorious for filling up their front cabin even if the back of the plane is not full up.

[dfcolson]

Thanks for the comments. All helpful.

[ChristyJM]

I was travelling with a colleague from another company doing work in C America and travelling BA business long haul. I had just under 2,500 BA tier points and he was silver. He got bumped to 1st and I stayed in business (rather unhappily thinking I had more points!). So in response to Gold 2K; At least in this instance the fatter tier points didn’t count.

[openfly]

ChristyJM

Write to the Executive Club NOW. Use your Gold status to moan. Complain in the strongest terms. It might not recover your situation but it could help you in the future, and also the rest of us. Was it ex UK or USA? Im sure this goes on all the time, but we never know. Unless, like you, you have knowledge of the situation.

[MartynSinclair]

Complain about not being upgraded – wow – you ever know what could be marked on your records…

OU could be for a myriad of reasons and more – even down to the particular seat you are in or even the timing of when you checked in and the need for an OP..

If you want a far far worse story about an unfair OU, my friend bought 8 economy tickets for his family plus one for his sons girl friend to go to Florida last summer. They all checked in at Gatwick, together, and one OU upgrade came through, for the sons girl friend, who hadn’t even paid for her ticket. She bizarrely remained shtum, until she seated her self in club and tried to look surprised. The father who had paid for the ticket was not too pleased…..

Sorry ChristyJM, take it on the chin… and ignore…

[ImissConcorde]

MartynSinclair – I don’t think that the airline would be aware of who actually paid for the ticket. She was a booking on her own. Again I don’t think that the airline is going to upgrade a number of people from a booking of 8.

[MartynSinclair]

I don’t think it would take too much intelligence for a check in agent to realise here was a party of 8, led by 2 elderly parents. How on earth one OU goes to a 21 year old student is beyond me.

Regardless, as has always been said, don’t expect an OU and if one comes, be thankful. I guess it is not for us to reason why!!!! 🙂

[openfly]

MartynSinclair

In the world of computers, few BA folk have the capacity, or authority, to upgrade. Those days have gone. It is the load control system, and personnel monitoring this, in most cases, that does the upgrade. This could well be a hiccup in the machine.

If one feels aggrieved, then write in. BA might be grateful for the feedback. Feedback is a useful tool in business….and its free!

[SimonS1]

ChristyJM

As Martyn says it could be for many reasons. For example the person may have been silver but working for a corporate who spent a lot of money with BA overall?

Waste of time complaining, as BA will probably just say what you already know ie that upgrades are discretionary, there is no automatic entitlement etc.

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