OliviaL

I knew it would hit me sooner or later. I travel a lot for business and our policy restricts us to Premium or Economy flights so on occasion I pay for upgrades our of pocket at the airport.

This morning as I attempted the same I was told that I would not be able to purchase the promotion based on my ticket fare class. While I was surprised I didn't make a fuss just headed on my merry way.

Once at the Galleries lounge at B gates I did inquire with guest services exactly what ticket classes (other than Avios purchases) were prohibited from Airport promotions as it had never happened to me. Turns out I had actually hit my promotions cap, which was the reason I couldn't go ahead with the promotion purchase.

All good and fair, I knew I was going to hit the cap sooner or later. I must say however I'm disappointed at the lack of honesty and transparency by staff at checkin.

Seems staff at checkin didn't know how to 'break it to me' not that they were very forthcoming or helpful regardless but I do think honesty works better. Is there some sort of guidance from BA that the caps on promotions shouldn't be public knowledge? Just curious really.

angatol

.....

OliviaL

I wish

msm2000uk

First I've ever heard of it and I don't recall a posting on here about the matter either.

I wonder if this is linked to an old thread about Revenue Management and stating that POUG's, for example, will now be limited as BA now watch what we do more closely...

OliviaL

I think it was. I remember reading it here as that's how I found out about it. Will have a search through and see if I can find the posts.

windowontheAside

There's been a lot of discussion on here about proposed limits on AUPs. Not so many reports of people actually confirming this is the case, but I guess most people are told there's no availability as the easy answer.

OliviaL

First!

Unfortunately.

I must say I appreciated the honesty much more, being fed some BS when I know it's wrong leaves me with a bitter taste.

littlefish

Hmm
Commiserations OliviaL, but thanks for being the first (I think) with a datapoint.
Any idea whether your cap is related just to Airport Upgrades? (as opposed to POUGs)

Be interesting to know how many upgrades are allowed before hitting the cap, and when/if BAEC reset the score to zero.

I've been studiously avoiding POUG offers on my short-haul flights while this plays out (even before the new enhanced CE started rolling out) ... but remain happy in principle to u/g from my own pocket as long as I don't hit my cap (and hence get stuck in WT on a long-haul).

OliviaL

I'm 80% issue t's related to airport upgrades only but hard to say. Tried to get more info at guest services but I don't think they knew.

I was a bit surprised as the last Airport upgrade I did was back in March so I suspect the limit lasts a year. It's definitely not related to exec membership year as that reset right after that last AUP.

Paralytic

There was a thread a month or so back when a few people shared that they had been told they were not allowed to upgrade at the airport due to their previous upgrade history. I recall someone with apparent inside information actually confirmed this was a new policy by BA but did not come back with more info when asked.

I'd not assume its restricted to the last year.

carrotjuice

Did BA say whether OP's cap is due to the number of times you've taken up AUP, if so how many did you take during current membership year? (Would be good as additional data point.)

Sixth Freedom

I would certainly mention this to your employers and try to negotiate an appropriate settlement to accommodate conditions in the new operating environment.

aceman

Sounds like zero, so a bit odd. Will be interesting if the op keeps trying and sees what the results are...

windowontheAside

What do you mean by this? I also AUP from my own pocket at times and mentioning any changes to BA's policy on this would be met with a quizzical "what does this have to do with us?" kind of look, I think.

corporate-wage-slave

POUGs are not, as far as I can tell, being restricted by passenger or class of ticket. It's purely whether there are seats available plus some randomizing element so you never know for sure whether it will be offered. It will only be offered 48 hours after purchase up until OLCI.

AUPs - only available at the airport on the day of travel - appear to be restricted so that they can't be relied on. Before the recent restrictions airports other than LHR and LGW had quite a bit of freedom to offer this facility, but I'm told it was getting out of hand. More details here. There was a theory that LGW HBO's were also restricted, so that CE was not available, but clearly not.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...nt-policy.html