BA Executive Club

As our move into Terminal 5 draws closer, we wanted to let you know about a change we will be making which will provide additional benefits to you when using online check-in for flights departing from Heathrow.

On busy flights, ‘on the day’ upgrades will now be issued by selecting from Gold and Silver Executive Club members who have used ba.com to check-in online and print their own boarding pass before those Gold and Silver members who have checked-in at the airport. Once our Gold and Silver members have been upgraded, we will apply this same approach to select from our Blue members, and then other customers.

Our customer service agents at the airport will communicate any upgrades to you before you board the aircraft.

We are implementing this change to encourage as many customers as possible to use online check-in before we move into Terminal 5. In the new terminal, customers who have used ba.com to check-in and print their own boarding pass can expect to drop any baggage at a Fast Bag drop desk, complete any required passport or visa checks and pass through security within approximately 10 minutes of arriving at the terminal (subject to a normal operation on the day).

As always, we are interested in your opinions on our service and we will continue to monitor this thread for any feedback you have.

British Airways Executive Club

antichef

Thanks for this interesting tit-bit. I am sure it will be broadly appreciated by FT'ers.

Perhaps the Mods will put it in the U*grades Sticky?

PAGING G-BOAC ...

ajax

That's really good to know! I've always eschewed OLCI because I figured my chances were greater checking in at the airport due to last-minute overbooking, etc. My record has always been pretty good - for 10-12 long hauls per year, I've been op-upped from WT+ to C more than 50% of the time...

Thanks for the information!

BAHumbug

What about people who OLCI but don't PYOBP ?

Sorry to ask questions already but for a lot of us, if we're on an inbound flight we're often unable to PYOBP but can OLCI.

BAH

blawson

Excellent idea. I think i mentioned this a while back - I should have copyrighted it ;-) Will settle for an out of court upgrade instead ;-)

Can you tell us - roughly what % of people currently use OLCI for long haul (if it is not commerically sensitive data).

squeeler

That is interesting and a heck of an incentive.

Just a comment though - I have 8 long haul out of my last 20 BA flights, and that has been typical of my travel pattern for the the last 4 years on BA. I always OLCI at T-24, or as near as possible.

I have had one op-up from Club to First in that 4 year period.

So do not build your hopes up.

koksy

Great news Lyndsay, but what about those of us (like me) who do 90% of our flying from Gatwick? If you can do this at Heathrow, why not Gatwick as well?

LeisureFirst

Exactly. If BA are going to advertise this (as I suppose they must do if it is going to have the effect they desire) I do think they should do it in a low-key way, esepcially for Blues and non-EC members. A lot of infrequent fliers dream up all sorts of things they might do to maximize their chances of an operational upgrade but, not only is much of this misguided, for most travellers the chance of an op-up is very small indeed whatever they do: I don't think BA should do anything which encourages people to travel to the airport hoping they're going to get upgraded, because if they do they'll end up with a lot of disappointed travellers.

I, too, am curious about the traveller who has OLCId but not PYOBPd. Many of us have laptops with us when we travel but don't have easy access to a printer.

SchmeckFlyer

Will this become a published and/or announced benefit of the EC? Or just something that will be posted here and spread via the grapevine. Everyone on FT seems to think giving priority when upgrading to Golds/Silvers is already (internal) policy (although I have/had my doubts).

botham

Wonderful news.

We all like a freebie!

I was hoping to MFU my FCO flights, in August, after flying CW to Florida, in June, but now I have another chance of an upgrade.

LeisureFirst

In which cabin are you normally ticketed?

I ask because experience of myself and friends suggests that the chance of an op-up from WT or WTP for a Silver or Gold is non insignificant. For those of us in CW it is pretty small. Needless to say, in F it is even smaller.

On short-haul, the moving curtain obvsiouly means they never have to move many people even on a full plane, although I think a Gold or a high-CIV Silver has a chance; it has happened to friends with whom I've been travelling.

CT-UK

"a change we will be making" i.e. it hasn't come in yet.

TravellerFrequently

Interesting news, and thanks for posting it here first on FT!

Obviously upgrades are always subject to operational requirements and loads on the day, but it is good to know that it is definitely worth using OLCI as this will improve the chances of being in line for an upgrade, should one be available, rather than reduce as some of us have wondered in the past.

Please clarify whether it is essential to print the boarding pass as well to "qualify" as occasionally we may not have access to a printer when we are using OLCI.

Thank you.

CT-UK

Just hit print anyway and print it to PDF, MS XPS Document writer, Onenote or anything else that is local. Then go to the airport and say you lost it.

bernardd

Darn, and I thought I'd escaped the insanity of the AA forum and it's interminable "what's my chance of an upgrade on flight nnn on Noverber 5th" kinda threads. I really hope this isn't the first step towards BA looking like AA and its "free lunch" syndrome.