eileenetturner49

Hi,
Can anyone tell me what is the likelihood of being able to purchase tickets to Denver from Heathrow and upgrade from world traveller.
We are planning to fly on the 30th August returning on the 20th October next year.
I have been through several dummy bookings and it appears that I may be able to buy my tickets using cash and Avios but upgrades only seem to be available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Is this normal or is it likely to change nearer the date.
I can't book until 31st October/1st November I know but I am planning to convert some Tesco vouchers to Avios and don't really want to do it if I am not going to be able to use them.
I have a booking on the Gatwick to Larnaca flight and return in January/February which should earn me some more Avios but don't know if it's worth waiting for them before I book, or will I miss out if I wait until I return from Larnaca in Februay when the Avios from this trip should be available.
Sorry this is so long-winded and I appreciate that a similar question may already be on this forum but I can't find it if it is.
Would be really grateful if anyone can help me.

Moderator2

Eileen,

You posted this in an administrative forum (TalkBoard), so in order to get you a solid set of answers I'll move it to BA.

Thanks.

eileenetturner49

Thank you. I'm new to this and thought that I was in the right place.

Jpsartre

You are aware that only the most expensive economy tickets can be upgraded? WT+ seats booked in a sale will likely be cheaper than buying WT seats and upgrading with Avios.

eileenetturner49

No I wasn't aware of this, thank you for letting me know. Although when I 'book' it seems to be saving me about £600 on the two tickets which is not to be sniffed at. This, though is only allowing upgrade on the return which is a Tuesday.
Do you know how often there is a sale. Denver does seem to be difficult as I think BA are the only airline flying direct from london.

Cymro

Hmm... you're still more than 9 months out, so it's hard to say but I would expect that the cheapest fare buckets haven't been loaded yet, so the WTP tickets will be more expensive than they might be anyway.

If I were a betting man, I would expect there to be a new year sale starting around Christmas and lasting into January... but I don't work for BA, I have no way of knowing and I could be (and very frequently am) completely wrong.

So this is where you go with your gambling instincts... do you fold and buy (relatively expensive) tickets now in WT and upgrade, potentially wasting your Avios... or do you hold and wait for prices to drop (as they most likely will) but potentially not having the opportunity to spend those Avios (or even getting WTP for the price you'd now pay for WT and upgrading to business?)

eileenetturner49

Thank you Cymro. I can't book yet anyway as my return (20th October) is still more than the 355 days that allows booking.
Do you know if it's possible to buy tickets outright and then upgrade with Avios at a later date, obviously subject to availability?
Also, do you know if reward seats are ever available on Sundays which is the day when we fly out?
Sorry, but are you saying that it may be possible in a sale to purchase business class for less than it would normally cost to buy a WT ticket.

irmster

you can really forget about buying WT tickets and upgrading with Avios. Only the more expensive WT fares can be upgraded in this way, so it's simply not worth it. You can get offers to upgrade WT tickets with cash for a reasonable amount.

The best value is to buy a WTP ticket in a sale and upgrade to club with Avios - although club availability to the US is not that easy to find these days.

eileenetturner49

Thank you again. Sounds like a plan.

Cap'n Benj

Again to back up what those have said above. If you are wanting to fly in WT+ it will be cheaper to buy a WT+ fare in a sale than any economy fare that is upgradable.

The likely cheapest economy fare that is upgradable to Seatle is likely to be considerably over £1000. If you google 'continental club BA sale archive' you will be able to find a likely BA sale price for DEN in the January sale, which will likely be considerably cheaper than an upgradable economy fare.

Again as others have said you will then also get the chance to upgrade your WT+ tickets to business class (for the same number of Avios), as unlike economy, even the cheapest WT+ fares are upgradable

I would suggest that if you want to fly WT+ Both ways, you should assume you will be paying around £400 per person more than the cheapest economy fare available at the time

Now will most likely not be the cheapest time to buy for DEN in a years time, again I'd review the Continentla Club blog for the likely best moment to buy, I suspect it will be in the Jan sale

eileenetturner49

Hi Cap'n Benj and thank you for replying.
I have looked at the sites you suggested and see what you mean.
How does it work, I've never used any Avios before.
Do I book my WT+ flights in the sale (when it is on) and then upgrade separately with Avios or is it all done at the same time. Or can sale flights be booked directly through the executive club?
What I'm concerned about is if I have already booked and paid for WT+ sale flights and then can't upgrade my flight will have cost me more (approx. £2200 for two return tickets) than if I book standard WT flights using my available Avios (approx. £1200 for the two return tickets). Granted however the first option would give us much more comfort anyway. But also if I wait until the January sale to book and can't then get the upgrades due to availability, my WT return flights will cost me approx. £1800.
Decisions, decisions.

corporate-wage-slave

Indeed the second paragraph is the nub of the issue. I guess you need to be steered by just how important it is to you to go WT. If at the end of the day you could be happy with that and have everything sorted, that would lead one direction. If you really don't relish the prospect of Wt and prepared to take a small risk - particularly if you have some date flexibility - that takes you another direction. DEN is a bit of an unusual route, in my experience, so also you may want to consider connecting flights to increase flexibility, but there again it may work out.

To answer the questions in the first paragraph, if Avios availability is there then yes you can do it in one fell swoop online during the sale. Perhaps familiarise yourself with the process by doing a dummy booking a few days beforehand and checking you understand both the price and the Avios situation. Sometimes, notably on the first day of the sale, it's a bit flakey so you have to call anyway. But the beauty of WTP is that if availability isn't immediately there, you can just book WTP, keep checking and change if it is available later on. Even on the day of travel. With WT, unless you are in the high price buckets, that scenario will never work.

Cap'n Benj

You will be reliant on there being award space available at the time of booking, if you want to confirm 100% that you are in business class. Otherwise you are indeed reliant on award space opening before your flight, which may or may not happen.

You can view award availability for DEN online now and see what it looks like and try to gauge what it may be and any patterns for things opening up.

By the sounds of it you're not keen to pay £1000 more for WT+, which is not surprising, I think I'd keep that to spend in the US myself, whilst thinking its not a bad deal for business class, again an option for which I'd be willing to pay, so perhaps you should go forward with that mind set, book WT+ and upgrade on whatever sector(s) you can when you come to book, book WT for the other and then just be sure not to look at award availability again, just in case it does open!

eileenetturner49

Thank you all for your help here.
I think I now have it in my mind (not as easy as it used to be now that I'm 65).
Think I might take a chance and wait to see if anything comes up in December/January.
Does it generally cost more if I book each leg separately?
^

corporate-wage-slave

Yes it can do, normally BA singles outside of Europe are very expensive, and indeed a good reason for using Avios if you are not spending at least one Saturday night away. Pure redemptions are generally best bought as singles, to make it easier to be flexible, but as it happens to the USA return redemptions starting from the UK are cheaper than singles. One other thing to watch is the cost of a BA Holiday to DEN, if you include a hotel wrapped around the travel dates. These can be very good value in all classes.