woodey

Has anyone recently tried using the DC gold upgrade vouchers to upgrade from NE to The Business on a transatlantic flight?

My company will only pay for Premium Economy across the pond and I have to fly LHR - ORD in a couple of weeks. Options are direct flight on BA or via MAN on bmi. Just wondering if it's worth trying the bmi route with my gold card and upgrade vouchers? If they're not going to work I'd be better off on the direct BA flight.

Any thoughts?

Caber

I really hope they consider making this a regular part of the benefit. It's not like its any skin off their nose after all it's the usual 'on the day' space available so they're not withholding any seats that could potentially have been sold anyway.

Plus they get the NE fare rather than much cheaper economy one.

We'll be heading to Vegas at the end of March and will def book NE (even at a premium) if there was a whiff of a chance of using the vouchers. I wouldn't mind on the day if it's full but knowing I have the option to ug with the voucher if available would certainly encourage me to fork up the NE fare rather than the Econ.

simonsmith

I agree the only reason to fly NE really is if there is a chance of using a Gold Voucher. It is perplexing as to why they cant be used.

surturminn

Flew MAN-BGI-MAN and used miles plus cash. As BD*G, paid for Economy and booked in NE - on the way back however, I chanced my arm and got myself, my wife and daughter upgraded to The Business using the Gold upgrade vouchers

Caber

Brilliant!

Was econ (or NE for that matter) full?

Was there any hint that "we're not supposed to do this but go on"?

Did you try on the outbound in MAN with bmis own staff?

Sorry for all the questions but its nice to hear it working for someone but I'm wondering if it's the inexperience of outstation handling agents that allowed this rather than any lenience on the 'rules' per se.

(Actually having just checked while it stipulates transatlantic upgrades are from econ to new econ it doesn't explicitly rule out the next obvious move ne-business.)

I'll be booking Vegas in the next couple of days and am seriously considering NE now.

surturminn

1. NE was half full
2. Nope - asked at check-in, the agent dissappeared to check with her Supervisor and returned and said okay
3. nope - thru checked from EDI
4. I think probably some inexperience

woodey

Has anyone else tried using the vouchers for NE to The Business? I'm going to be booking in the next couple of days and still haven't decided on BA direct to ORD from LHR or bmi via MAN.

I gave DC a call today, spoke to 3 different people and got three different answers !!! Typical.

Airprox

Out of interest, what were those three answers ?

woodey

I gave the gold card line a call this morning, the girl who answered didn't have a Scooby but she said she'd call back within an hour. I hadn't heard anything by lunch time so I gave them another call, this time the person I spoke said the vouchers definitely aren't valid for NE to The Business. While I was on the phone the original girl called back and left a message saying that technically the vouchers aren't valid but if there's space on the day they'd probably do it. So in answer to the question DC said 1) don't know, 2) no and 3) yes. OK so technically two answers not three but sill not very helpful.

NickB

To be fair, what did you expect them to say? "Yes, we have these rules but really they are a lot of tosh that does not mean the slightest thing and you can quite happily ignore them"?
You know what the official position is: in principle you cannot use them for NE to the business.
But you also know that this is not always strictly enforced, so you take your chances without guarantee.
If what you are after is a firm and definitive answer from BD, it can only be a 'no'.

Skymonster

Similar issues with the Star vouchers. Technically they are not valid for some discounted economy booking classes on BD T/A, and in my experience the BD MAN staff tend to know this and enforce it. So I've had to use BD-G vouchers for upgrades instead - nice to have a choice! But come the return from IAD back to MAN, the UA staff at the desk were happy to accept the Star voucher without question on the same booking class! Seems like you pays your money and you takes your chances - no guarantees!

Andy

woodey

I'm not sure that's entirely true. In the T&C the gold upgrade vouchers don't include or exclude the possibility of using them to upgrade from NE to The Business. They just don't mention it, therefore it's open to interpretation.

The reason for my post was to find out how many FTs had actually tried to use them for this type of upgrade and what the result was. So far one person said they tried and they got upgraded on an award ticket.

Has anyone else tried?

Caber

This is precisely my take on it as well. Since the vouchers have always been econ-business I understood the clarification on the voucher for transatlantic is just to highlight that it is a single-class upgrade due to the three-class structure on long-haul.

Only econ-new econ is mentioned but it's not unreasonable to imagine that one could pay a premium for new econ and use the voucher to upgrade to the business (subject to the normal rules, available on the day).

Imho there's a good business arguement for it too, I'll be doing a number of transatlantics this year and while I may be able to afford the business for one the others will be economy only (all out of my own pocket). If there was the option of using the voucher (even given the usual limited terms) I'd happily fork up the ne fare and take my chances.

For little extra cost (bar maybe extra catering on the day) bmi could gain the ne fare rather than the econ fare all while holding out for the possibility of actually selling the business class seat until the last minute anyway.

woodey

My point exactly. With their limited long haul network I'd have thought bmi would be doing everything possible to encourage their Gold card members based in other parts of the country to hop over the pond via MAN.

As it is my colleague and I just booked with BA in WTP direct LHR - ORD, that's £3,500 what could have gone bmi's way.

I'd still be interested to hear if anyone else has tried using the gold upgrades in this way and what happened. Looks like I'll be doing LHR - ORD monthly for the rest of the year. I'll have a look over in the United forum but has anyone over here tried United's Economy +?

Cheers,

Woodey.

NoY

You'll prob find quite a few on this board have done UA E+ - it's pretty compelling especially if on a tight budget ;

- E+ seating even on the cheapest fairs, UA RCC lounge or any *AG lounge at departing a/port, priority boarding with F,J, MPP elites, 36"ish pitch, eco meals - but served first, 100% mileage credit regardless of fair, and, for eco, IMHO, pretty darn good eco catering. The downside? They charge for alcoholic drinks (still, sneak yr own cheapie miniatures on!) Hope that helps...if I've missed any benefits I'm sure others will fill u in!