Upgrades on British Airways flights

pollypenny

Any advice on upgrading with points when the flight is another airline on a code share, please?

We fly Manchester to Philadelphia regularly, with a BA booking, but it's with US Airways. We tried to upgrade at the airport, but the assistant was no help.

Edit to add: the US Airways flight doesn't seem to have WT+.

Caz3121

pollypenny wrote: »

We fly Manchester to Philadelphia regularly, with a BA booking, but it's with US Airways. We tried to upgrade at the airport, but the assistant was no help.

Edit to add: the US Airways flight doesn't seem to have WT+.

I don't believe you can use Avios to upgrade on USAirways
If by chance they allow it for a codeshare (which I cannot see any evidence that they do) it is only the most expensive economy fare buckets that can be upgraded with Avios (Y,H,B)
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/spend-avios-flights-rfz/execclub/_gf/en_gb

photome

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

Wow. Does being so rude make you feel superior?

As I said in my OP, I do know of several people who have been upgraded to first from cattle class, so it DOES happen (did you get your crown yet?) - I just wanted other's experiences of upgrades on British Airways specifically, as I have not previously flown with them.

No need for you to stick your supercilious oar in.

can you tell us how the "several" people that you know got upgraded from cattle to First, thats a massive upgrade

zagfles

If you really want to fly business/first you could ask how much it'd cost to upgrade at check-in, friend of mine does this all the time, airlines sell upgrades at check-in (you have to ask) for much lower price than buying the ticket in advance.

He says the price varies massively - if it's a few hundred he'll do it, if a few thousand he won't. Personally I don't think anything over a hundred would be worth it and he's never got one that cheap!

Have a search on flyertalk ISTR there was a thread about this recently.

Doshwaster

photome wrote: »

can you tell us how the "several" people that you know got upgraded from cattle to First, thats a massive upgrade

I must have flown BA over 100 times and I have never known a cattle (world traveller) to First upgrade even for Gold card holders. I once did get a double economy to Club as a Blue card holder. No idea how that happened but it felt like wining the lottery. More recently as a Silver card member I have had the occasional WT to WTP and WTP to Club upgrade. Never yet made it to the pointy end.

richardw

People who get upgrades also seem to be the same people who catch very large fish.

bagand96

I was upgraded with BA earlier this year from World Traveller (Economy), but only to World Traveller Plus (Premium Economy).

I am a BA Executive Club member, but only have a modest amount of points, and don't fly them all that often. I was travelling on my own.

Chatting to the check in agent she said it was probably that they wanted to sit a family together or something, there were a few large groups on the flight. She also said you've got far more chance as a single traveller, and said the BA miles would have counted.

HHarry

I do know someone who had multiple upgrades from economy to business or first.
His secret was to be a gold member and be dating a BA employee.

Other than that free or cheap upgrades are rare. I did some similar research before flying to California this year - even the possibility of a cheaper paid upgrade at checkout seemed unlikely. So I ended up paying full price - and it was worth every penny!

Caz3121

I think the economy to first upgrades are more common in the US where they only have the 2 options and they do tend to like to fill the front (some of the airlines automatically upgrade their status passengers as long as there is space)
BA does not work like this for the reasons given above
I have a friend booked in WT+ going honeymoon soon and I am encouraging her to get the Avios together to upgrade to Business (there is availability). Her hubby seems to think they will get upgraded as it is their honeymoon...I know this will not happen unless WT is overbooked and WT+ is full and they need to make space to move people up...even then there could be others ahead of the queue before them (currently flights wide open for sale so likely they will be sat in the seats they paid for)

If they offer upgrades as the airport it will likely to be to WT+ only (have seen mention of LHR saying they cannot do double upgrades) and it would be around £170 each (from recent reports)

zagfles

Caz3121 wrote: »

I think the economy to first upgrades are more common in the US where they only have the 2 options and they do tend to like to fill the front (some of the airlines automatically upgrade their status passengers as long as there is space)
BA does not work like this for the reasons given above
I have a friend booked in WT+ going honeymoon soon and I am encouraging her to get the Avios together to upgrade to Business (there is availability). Her hubby seems to think they will get upgraded as it is their honeymoon...I know this will not happen unless WT is overbooked and WT+ is full and they need to make space to move people up...even then there could be others ahead of the queue before them (currently flights wide open for sale so likely they will be sat in the seats they paid for)

If they offer upgrades as the airport it will likely to be to WT+ only (have seen mention of LHR saying they cannot do double upgrades) and it would be around £170 each (from recent reports)

I tried this on ours - didn't work, but we were given freebies including a bottle of champagne and generally made a fuss of - seats in an otherwise empty row near the front (plane wasn't too full) plus an invite to the cockpit (though don't think this is allowed anymore since 9/11).