British Airways Unauthorised Charge to Credit Card

BritLivingAbroad

Yes, it was $275 for upgrades in both directions.  I've checked for upgrade costs on the website before and the first place is on the scrolling offers page.  If it looks reasonable then I'll progress with it - if it had shown that the upgrade was almost $3500 I would have closed the website.  BA had 4 opportunities to let me know that the upgrade was going to cost almost $3500 and it never showed.  I can't afford to throw around that sort of money on upgrades (or flights for that matter!) - this isn't a case of me stupidly paying almost $3500 and regretting it, I never authorised the payment.  

It wasn't for extra legroom or choosing a seat either - if $3500 had shown anywhere along the way I simply wouldn't have proceeded.  

Caz3121

a couple of data points from FlyerTalk
Pro-Active Online Upgrade cost LHR-JFK WT to WT+ £279 one-way (Feb 2020)  
Airport Upgrade cost JFK-LHR: WT to WT+ $350 one-way (November 2019)

$275 is the change fee amount

Time/date changes permitted at any time before each flight departure for a change fee of USD 275 or an upgrade fee of USD 275 plus any difference in fare. All sectors may be repriced. Changes subject to availability. Fees apply per ticket"

OP - can you clarify what you mean by "it showed that I could upgrade both flights" was this an email offer you received?

stoneman

Westin said:

Was that an airport upgrade though?  £250 = $320 - oneway ex US so no APD.

OP mentions $275 for upgrades for both directions so two upgrades from what was a cheap fare class in Y to WT+ at £107.50 each way. Just seems very cheap to me.

No it was offered to me about 3 months before flying. I had actually forgotten about it and was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded my boarding passes. 

BritLivingAbroad

Hi there, it's either an email offer or on the flight reservation page on BA as per below, which has scrolling messages about ESTAs etc - I followed this link (this is the one if I want to upgrade to club world).  The breakdown of what's included in this cost is on the 3rd time of confirming the amount, even then it doesn't add anything to the fee.  The total amount includes the fee to change, it's just broken down on the 3rd page.  At no point on any of the 4 screens did it say ~$3500 otherwise I'd have just closed the website and gone and made a cup of tea. 

BritLivingAbroad

This is what the email version looks like - if the default cost of changing a ticket costs $275 then BA's paying me to upgrade!!  This was the flight the other week and these 2 emails were received within 2 days of each other.  Unfortunately BA's website had a fault and wouldn't let me upgrade online by clicking on the links, either on a phone or computer so I ended up paying £200 at Gatwick.  But BA tells me there's nothing wrong with their online upgrade systems so it must have been my fault this time....

On the post above, I realise that the offer there was for 1 way.  On screen 2 it didn't give me the pricing option for the other leg but page 3 and 4 very clearly informed me that the total upgrade to club world would be over $7000 so I closed the website and went and made a cup of tea.