Originally Posted by
scottishpoet
This is a sales ploy and revenue protection ploy.
Give them a taste of the premium cabin and hope they will book it he next time
If someone usually flies club, but on one flight choose to fly WT+, why upgrade them to club, at either a significantly reduce price or OpUp? That would just encourage them to pay for WT+ the next time.
If BA can block certain passengers from an AUP - such as someone who usually pays Club but chose WT+ this time - they could program in similar limitations to some software that would allow passengers to upgrade using Avios.
It likely makes more sense to allow a passenger who flies WT+ a couple times a year - perhaps with no or Bronze status - to self-select for a seat in a premium cabin
and reduce their Avios liability than to just offer it to some random passenger.