BA - Pay for upgrade to Business

HHarry

We are flying to San Francisco in September. Flights are booked,economy out, premium economy return.

I am considering upgrading to Business either there or back (or both!)

I know it's not very MSE, but it's a special occasion, and I have the money to do it.

Does anyone have any inside info on Business fare structures. Should I phone now, nearer the time or wait until the airport to get the best price (which is in the spirit of MSE!)

Thanks,

bagand96

If you booked directly with BA then you'll be able to log in to your booking on their website and usually there'll be upgrade offers there. The prices do change based on demand/bookings etc.

Note this only works if you booked direct with them. It may also be worth signing up on the FlyerTalk BA forum and asking the question.

kipperman

Unless you are on expensive flexible economy tickets, you won't be able to upgrade these to WT+.The only way to do it is pay to upgrade your economy ticket to fully flexible and then upgrade to WT+.Very expensive.

You can however upgrade your WT+ ticket ( premium economy) to CW ( business)
Your options are
1) upgrade just by paying the difference between the two classes- often the most expensive option.
2) keep checking online for the appearance of an offer: these are known as proactive upgrades, and can appear and disappear seemingly on a random basis. They often appear just as the flight opens for check in.
3)Occasionally at the airport you can buy a cheap upgrade- either ask or sometimes there is a sign offering this for a fixed price.
4) hope that you get offered a free operational upgrade. Rare, and even rarer if you don't have some form of frequent flyer status.

budgetflyer

12.5K Avios gets a WT+ to Club upgrade, subject to availability.Thats a busy route.

There is an opportunity to earn those miles spending just £50 on game pre orders at Tesco. See headforpoints or Flyertalk BAandTesco thread.

RichandJ

bagand96 wrote: »

If you booked directly with BA then you'll be able to log in to your booking on their website and usually there'll be upgrade offers there. The prices do change based on demand/bookings etc.

Note this only works if you booked direct with them. It may also be worth signing up on the FlyerTalk BA forum and asking the question.

Best advice. BA sub-forum is here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/

Can't remember if you have to be a member to have a look as I'm permanently logged in.

Doshwaster

You just need to keep checking for WTP to Club upgrades. The Avios ones often don't open up until 2-3 days before departure and then there may only be one or two per flight so they go quickly.

12.5k (plus a small fee) for a WTP to CW upgrade on such a long flight is possibly the best uses of Avios in existence especially as you get a lot of them back with the booking so the net cost is less

pollypenny

I've just tried to register for flyer forum using this user name, but I keep getting 'your user name must only contain letters and numbers'.

Looks like we will be back to BA regulars, as US have joined them. We'd love to fly home in business class.

HHarry

Thanks Everyone,

I'll keep checking our MMB - the outbound economy flight says that it can 't be upgraded online, and to call. The inbound flight doesn't have an upgrade option, I assume because it's an American Airlines codeshare (or because we've already added WT+)

If all else fails I'll get out my winning smile (& credit card!) at the airport!