Ian:
Firstly welcome to FT!
Originally Posted by
Ian7000
I have read all of the various guides about how the BA excutive club works in practice.
Ah, so hopefully you'll avoid the dreaded cattle prod!!
I understand that you can only upgrade a ticket with BA miles that is bought from ba directly, either online or by phone.
Correct. Of course in the US, certain Travel Agents can do this, but they are generally tied to big corporate accounts.
I know you can't buy WT+, CW or First unless you have the correct amount of miles, i.e no part cash part miles, although you can upgrade with miles.
Yes.
I also gather that you can only upgrade once with BA miles, so you can't go from WT to First in 3 steps.
Correct. Even the US airlines don't allow this.
What is the difference between upgrading a new booking with BA miles and upgrading an existing booking with BA miles?
None really. But if you do the new booking, you can tell if the flight has upgrade space available right away. If you make a booking then decide you want to upgrade later, the space may or may not be there.
I got a bit confussed by the Y, Z, etc. ticket classes, i assume this means that only some WT tickets can be upgraded with BA miles? How do you tell that a WT ticket is 'upgradeable' before you purchase it online with BA.
Best is to do a 'book and upgrade'. Basically if the fare earns TP's it is generally upgradable (classes YBH only). You can tell the class by making the booking and then hover over the flight number. You can see the fare code there. But most will agree that upgrading from YBH WT fare to WT+ is ppor value. You'll find it cheaper to book a lowest fare WT+ fare in advance. Plus you can then upgrade that fare to CW!!!
What is the best way to buy CW or First tickets, i.e. the cheapest, booking through Airmiles site or BA site, etc. There seems to be huge price differences dependent on dates, etc.
How long is a piece of string. All depends not only on who you book it from but where you journey starts. See the ex-EU guide in the sticky
With WT tickets you can book a couple of days before and get good prices.
Apples and oranges. WT cabin is price sensitive leisure travellers or poor sod's like me who work for a bunch of cheap w@nkers and then spend more on a full Y ticket than on a cheaper WT+ ticket or even CW!
Should you buy a CW ticket and then use miles to upgrade to first.
Again depends. Some folks see an overnight first as a waste as you'll sleep through most of the flight. Also depends on route length, etc.
Are the household accounts worth setting up, as you can't transfer miles between accounts, but can book tickets for anyone from your account. I understand the formula for how they remove BA miles when a household account is in operation.
If it is a group of you, it may make sense to pool the miles. That is one big plus of EC.
I assume buying BA miles is not that great an idea unless you are short a couple of thousand miles for a upgrade.
Probably true. Depends on the street value of your ticket. I think others here will agree it may be cheaper to buy some confetti at Tesco's however