I wonder if there are any BA staff here who could shed light on the following scenario for staff who are travelling on standby bookings.

We have 2 options when booking standby travel: Basic or Premium standby. I won't explain the difference as any BA staff members will already understand what they are, but the important bit of this is that there are no part-refunds for premium standby bookings which end up seated in economy.

It is stated in the policy that you may not make both a premium and a basic standby booking on the same flight. This creates the situation for staff that you have to hedge your bets right up to the last minute about which type of standby to go for, and consequently you may: 1) end up giving up on your chance to get a premium seat if you're not confident about J/F/W availability, even though you could still get it, or 2) end up paying for premium standby even though you only end up getting the basic standby entitlement.

Whilst I understand that this is stated in the policy, my question is what measures are actually in place to prevent you from doing this as it remains entirely possible to do this anyway via the staff travel booking process?

I have searched high and low to an answer for this and am surprised I seem to be the only one asking this specific question!

Does anyone do this anyway?

Any light which could be shed on the situation would be most insightful!

Thanks in advance!