This past May, my partner and I flew to Miami for Memorial Day weekend, in WTP. AA on the outbound, and BA on the return, connecting on the way back via JFK.

Upon arrival at LHR T3, we went to the AA First Class check in desk and asked about upgrade pricing from PE to Biz. ExpertFlyer had shown 7+ seats so I wasn’t expecting there to be any issue. The staff-member proceeded to type, click, type, stare at screen, and type again for what felt like 5 minutes, explaining to us when asked that because they were booked through BA, everything needed to be processed manually. Then finally a price was mentioned at 600gbp per person, for two tickets – playing nicely with that mental price boundary I had decided on silently beforehand. We agreed to take it. More typing. Followed three minutes later by “oh no. I am so sorry. They’ve both just gone.” “Gone?” “yes. It seems someone else has taken them.” We move on. Day flight, in Premium Economy, which 15 minutes earlier without the offer to upgrade being made we were more than happy to be sat in.

Now for the return, which would include an overnight leg from JFK to London, after a short flight up the East Coast. We were determined to upgrade this time. At Miami airport having retrieved our AA boarding passes for the domestic leg, we walked over to the BA check in desks thinking a BA staff member may be able to help with the connection ahead of us losing 3hrs and the potential available seats. This proved incorrect, and the person kindly advised us to ask at JFK as he was unable to do anything from Miami.

At JFK T8, we went straight to the Soho Lounge, with approx. two hours to spare before our flight. There was a passenger ahead of us, also asking to upgrade his ticket, but it was clear from overhearing the conversation that the lounge staff member didn’t know how to process the upgrade, as she didn’t have the credit card PoS machine. She advised both me and the other passenger to return shortly as she tried to locate one. 30 minutes later, she still hadn’t been able to find one, despite having called the Greenwhich lounge and the ticket sales desk who were unwilling to process it manually for some reason. A helpful colleague from the Chelsea lounge front desk offered to go to check in and retrieve one of theirs, which he would hand over the security line to avoid both him and the staff member we were speaking to having to go through. Another 20 minutes later she returned, successfully having acquired the device.

The device didn’t work. It simply wouldn’t connect to the computer to process the payment. A few more phone calls and another colleague turns up with the computer expertise to solve this. Or so we all thought. No luck. With the flight having been already called for boarding, I was advised to go to the gate as they would be able to do it. So we did, and were told at the gate it all has to be done in the lounge or at check in.

When we finally boarded the flight, I asked the IFM if there was anyway to do it onboard, mentioning a much more summarized version of the trouble we had trying to do it in the airport but alas no – cant be done. As it happens, the flight was great, WTP is a decent enough product, and if I hadn’t had got it into my head that the upgrade was needed when I was told it was available I could have enjoyed myself in the lounge rather than the disappointment that ultimately occurred. With an hour left to the flight, the IFM took it upon himself to come by our seats, and say that he’d taken it upon himself to file a report, quickly throwing his colleagues at JFK under the bus “as it’s been a total mess there recently”. Bizarrely, he went on to say while it shouldn’t happen, he would have just moved us forward to Club, but we were asleep! I was awake for 3.5-4hrs of what was a 6.5hr flight, so pretty sure that was an empty gesture made post fact…

In any case, 760 words to say, we weren’t able to give BA money even when we tried our damnedest, and we ultimately happy to have saved the cash and endured two perfectly acceptable flight experiences in premium economy/WTP.