Upgrading after purchase on BA flights

lewt

I am looking at booking some flights to USA next year, I have found some decent prices on ebookers, they are actually cheaper than the BA site.

However when I looked on the BA site, they offer to upgrade the entire trip to premium economy for £600 which on the whole works out cheaper (if I combine the ebookers flights an the BA upgrade) than booking the seats through one company.

SO the question is can I get the best of both worlds?

becominganobsessivesaver

Is the price much cheaper with ebookers - the only reason I ask is it is often cheaper to buy directly from the airline. BA also offer a price promise http://www.britishairways.com/travel/pricepromise/public/en_gb?link=main_nav&gsLink=searchResults

The biggest advantage to booking WTP with BA is that if you have any BA miles (or spare clubcard vouchers which you can convert to miles) you can upgrade to club. You can't do this if you've booked through an agent (and you may not be able to if you have purchased the upgrade to WTP after the original purchase)

malkie76

I'm reasonably sure if you book a BA flight through an agent you cannot upgrade with cash or miles.
BA booked direct also offer cheap proactive upgrades after you book your seats. Log into BA.com after buying tickets and click on upgrade with cash.

As the above poster suggests you'd be better booking the WTP tickets then seeing what the cheap upgrade cost is (often£400), or consider mileage upgrades from 12.5k pp per sector.

WTP isn't a huge leap from economy, please take that into consideration.

James1715

As malkie76 says, tickets purchased through an agent (i.e not with BA.com) are ineligble for upgrades, so your booking with ebookers will not give the option of a proactive upgrade.

Strictly speaking, at T-24 (i.e. 24 hours before the flight when online checkin opens) even tickets booked via an agent are 'handed over' to the BA ticketing system. At this point you may be offered a proactive upgrade through manage my booking. If the flight is particularly busy it is not uncommon, I had been offered 150 GBP for an upgrade from WT to WT+ on an outward leg of an expedia booking from LHR-BOS. However it is hit and miss...

budgetflyer

roughly how many BA miles per person would it be to upgrade London to Mumbai RTN from WTP to Club ?

lewt

Thanks for all the feedback. I will book through BA. I got upgraded for nothing last time-both ways. And although WTP is not so different to WT, the seat space is imo.

I am happy to pay this time, of course i'll try and get up'd from there but I want to travel in at least WTP really as its an 8 hour flight and I have just come back from a 6 hour one in WT and I didnt like it at all.

rpstdavids

budgetflyer wrote: »

roughly how many BA miles per person would it be to upgrade London to Mumbai RTN from WTP to Club ?

It's 25,000 miles per person to upgrade for each return flight.

Doshwaster

rpstdavids wrote: »

It's 25,000 miles per person to upgrade for each return flight.

I did that last year and it's the best bargain ever. Especially as a Silver card holder I get bonus miles when flying so got about 20,000 back so the return upgrade only cost about 5,000 miles. Once you have been in Club World, especially upstairs on a 747, it's really hard to go back to cattle class.

budgetflyer

rpstdavids wrote: »

It's 25,000 miles per person to upgrade for each return flight.

Really? thats good.
Im thinking of getting an Amex Platinum card. Its £300 (less £60 quidco cashback) per yr.
You get 42000 miles( points) + lounge access for 2( platinum) cards + worldwide travel insurance for up to 4 extra (green) card holders, so that alone is prob worth the £240.

Pricing next Easter hols. WTP for 2 is £1870. Club is £4K !
Are these upgrades really that easy to get?

rpstdavids

budgetflyer wrote: »

Pricing next Easter hols. WTP for 2 is £1870. Club is £4K !
Are these upgrades really that easy to get?

It varies from route to route and season to season.
If you log on to your account on the BA site you can do some dummy bookings to see what the availability is like or you could give them a ring, I've always found them quite helpful the couple of times I've called.

As you are planning to travel around Easter time, that could be difficult, so I would act quickly if I was you.

Doshwaster

rpstdavids wrote: »

It varies from route to route and season to season.
If you log on to your account on the BA site you can do some dummy bookings to see what the availability is like or you could give them a ring, I've always found them quite helpful the couple of times I've called.

As you are planning to travel around Easter time, that could be difficult, so I would act quickly if I was you.

Yes, the availability miles upgrades can be virtually non-existent on some routes but fairly decent on others. The Indian routes are usually reasonable. I did a work trip to India last November, company policy only allows WTP so I used my miles to upgrade to Club both ways. 9 hours on flat bed. Lovely.

If there is no upgrade availability at booking time then it sometimes opens up closer to the travel date or discounted cash upgrades may be available.