dilpat84

Hi all,

I booked a LRH > EWR > LHR flight last week during the current sale. I booked the outbound leg in WT+ and the return in CW for a total of about £1300.

I was hoping to upgrade the outbound leg using Avios (even though I knew the chances of availability were next to nothing).

I just logged into MMB to see if there were any upgrade offers and my booking is now showing as CW both ways. I've not upgraded myself and am somewhat confused. I clicked on 'More Flight Details' and it says I'm booked into R class on the way out and I class on the way back.

Any idea what's happened? I didn't think BA upgraded folk this early on - the flight is still a few weeks away. Or shall I just keep schtum and not ask questions?

(Also, if it helps to work out what's happening, when I click on 'select seat' it says 'Seat selection available at check in' for the outbound flight, whereas it's allowing me to select a seat for the return journey. I'm a lowly Bronze, but the outbound leg will push me over into Silver.)

Any info would be appreciated!

Confused of Islington.

Globaliser

It won't help much with the answer, but this won't have anything to do with it. If you're currently Bronze, that governs your seat pre-allocation entitlement for all sectors of all reservations even if you will change status at some stage in the future.

One thing to have a look at is this: go to classic.checkmytrip.com and call up your booking. See whether the cabin for each sector is said to be "business". Then click the e-ticket receipt tab and have a look at the fare basis for each sector. Does the outbound start with the letter T and the inbound with the letter I?

dilpat84

That makes sense, but I'd normally be shown seats that I can at least purchase in advance, as I am for the return leg. In this case it won't let me anywhere near a seat map to even see what's available, simply telling me I can select a seat at check in.

crazy8534

Are you sure you booked WT+ ??

If you were flying in 2 days time I would say you have been OP-UP'd. At a few weeks out it sounds like a bug, maybe equipment change?

nux

I would check whether an eticket has been issued as noted above, as that can prevent the seat map being displayed.

Did you call to try to upgrade at any point?

Globaliser

In all seriousness, though, the quoted fare sounds right for T class out, I class back - the current price is about £1377.

And IME a pre-OLCI op-up gets you re-booked into U not R.

dilpat84

I enquired on Twitter about the cost to upgrade using cash and if there was any Avios availability. I was told no Avios availability and £2012 to upgrade my WTP+ to CW. Had I already been booked into CW I wouldn't have been given the option to upgrade as the outbound flight is supposed to be a 787

dilpat84

And I definitely booked WT+ out. I have the conformation email.

Also, no record of a T Class booking anywhere. Currently R out (what was supposed to be the WT+) and I back.

dilpat84

Checkmytrip.com is showing an e-ticket number.

It gets curiouser and curiouser.

Globaliser

An e-ticket number is not enough for us to guess what might have happened. What happens when you click the e-ticket tab on classic.checkmytrip.com? (Don't use the dumbed-down "standard" version for this.)

There are several possibilities, including (but not limited to):-

• [*]
• [*]

If I were to guess, I'd say you have the middle option. The reason being that when you asked about the price to upgrade with cash, the change was part made in order to give you a price, and things have not been restored to how they were.

BenSenise

my experience is that i have been able to see and reserve seats without having an e-ticket issued.

Globaliser

If you're entitled to pre-allocation for free, that's correct.

If you have to pay to pre-allocate, it seems that normally you can't do that unless you have a valid e-ticket for that sector.

This has been reported quite a lot where people have UuAd and the reservation has been correctly made in the higher class, but there has been a long and frustrating wait for the ticket to be reissued so that they can pay to pre-allocate a seat. Where there is a long wait for reissue, some will see that (with some justification) as piling insult onto injury when they're actually prepared to pay to pre-allocate.

revan

I've had this in the scenario that Globaliser describes:
Called to price up upgrade but not going ahead, MMB then shows in upgraded cabin and able to pick seat in that cabin, however will be unable to OLCI, and upon arriving at airport told no e-ticket issued as payment hadn't been received for the upgrade.
Best to call up and confirm.

nux

Did you post your PNR on twitter?

Anyway, As Globaliser has summarised I think the most likely thing that happened is when pricing your upgrade the agent left your booking in the upgrades class but unpaid for. A £2k change fee seems correct go from T to R.

If this is the case and you do nothing, you will not be able to checkin as there is no valid eticket. I would call to have it fixed now though.

dilpat84

I Direct Messaged them my Booking Ref and Surname to allow them to look into it for me.

Your explanation sounds the most likely.

Out of interest: What would happen if I turned up to the airport and they couldn't check me in as no ticket had been issued? Would I be forced to wait for the next available flight whilst they figured out what went wrong? Or would they be able to resolve it relatively quickly there and then? Given that the error wasn't mine, presumably I wouldn't be left out on the cold with no flight whatsoever?