Thanks all, my partner rang earlier and they confirmed (as a couple of posters already have) that we would get the seat fees back.

And yes we booked cash CW for the outbound so no problem upgrading to F. Its actually part of a BA holiday package so only paid the deposit so far.

Just realised we are 800 Avios short so will have to pay £31 for 1000 which is awful value but all we can do!

This may realistically be our only chance to try F for a few years at least so going to book now.