It's so long since I have done a POUG (pre-Covid I think!) that I can't remember when they generally get offered? I have a LGW-AMS coming up in around 3 weeks and returning RTM-LCY a few days later. Then in Feb I have a LGW-TRN and returning MXP-LHR.
At the moment, all of these sectors are showing a pretty high price to upgrade.....circa £140 for each, which I guess is just a standard upgrade and not a POUG offer. Appreciate they can be offered at any time from 48 hours after booking but is there a usual good time to start looking, ie X days before flight for the much cheaper POUG pricing?
For the LGW-BGI that I have this week, timing of offers has been approx:
c.3 weeks before flight: POUG for WT-WTP, at around£450 (I didn’t take too much notice as it was more than I was willing to pay). This then vanished, and clicking the “upgrade” in MMB was giving the option of over £1200 for the same (er, no thanks). It’s now the week of travel and I have a decent POUG offer.
Not sure whether timings for short haul POUG is likely to be similar, but from this I’d suggest the week leading up to travel is more likely.