calmoan

First post here, and i have a few questions, please bear with me.

I am a frequent flyer with a BA silver card and around 150k miles. Almost all my miles have come from flying economy flights, this is a stipulation thru my employer. I am reading on here about different classes of tickets, can someone post up a list of these or a link to a list...what they all mean?

We have to book our flights through a travel agent (AMEX). Is there a way of booking an econ ticket thru amex and then upgrading using miles to business class, or even premium econ?

Thanks for the help!

Mr Enigma

If you book Premium Economy you can upgrade to Club for 25K airmiles, but this is not economy.

I am not sure about upgrading from an economy seat, I would say that you may be able to upgrade to premier economy.

malkie

Sticky at the top of the page answers most of your questions - have a good read through there as there is some extremely helpful information.

Currently TA tickets cannot be upgraded with miles, but BA are working on a solution (pity, as it means I've never travelled in F). Only the more expensive WT tickets can be upgraded to WTP, but (AFAIK) all WTP ticket classes can be upgraded to CW (which is by far the best use of miles!)

Currently non-TA tickets can only be upgraded one class - ie WT to WTP, WTP to CW, or CW to F (long haul), or ET to CE (short haul).

Jenbel

calmoan welcome to FT!

As someone else who has suffered under an economy only policy, I feel your pain. Try and be calm when you read those who get to fly J for work whinging about what to you seems minor annoyances, stuck as you are in 327 E! They just don't know how easy they have it!

Anyway, you'll find a list of fare classes in the ultimate guide - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13303114-post18.html which is worth looking through to get an idea of how the programme works.

You can only upgrade from economy into World traveller plus using miles, and to do so, you've got to be in fare classes YBH (the most expensive) Trying to gain status would probably have more effect on your flights (which is actually why I started collecting miles many years ago) as then at least you'll get better ground handling, be able to select seats (to try and obtain that crucial empty seat next to you) and be towards the front of the line if they are looking to offer operational upgrades.

calmoan

Thanks Jenbel and all. I have just maintained my silver, but need to do a further 900 tier points for gold before the 8th April....this is very difficult on econ tickets, i will nevet reach the proised land i fear. Operational upgrades with BA are becoming very rare IMO. I'm thinking seriously about shifting....most of my routes i can do AA and virgin.

Cap'n Benj

If you're not getting opups from BA Y, its more unlikely on AA and VS who are only 3 class carriers and therfore have a bigger Y cabin than BA, which means you're fighting for that opup with even more people.

LeisureFirst

It doesn't IMHO. There are seven different letter codes all translated as "discount economy" and four as "discount club". There's quite a lot of difference between them, not only in price but also in flexibility and in some case seat-selection rights.

Of course, the detailed fare rules depend on the full fare code, not just the letter. But it would be possible to make some further disinction between the various letter codes.

Jenbel

It's also a little out of date - R is listed as discount club, but isn't that one of the domestic codes now?

But, it's still the best list we have!

G-BOAC

That's because it is JCDRI.

LeisureFirst

But C isn't. I'd call it semi-flexible club, although flexibility depends on specfic fare rules. For seat selection purposes though, C counts as a flexible fare regardless of how flexible it actually is, and D doesn't even if it's flexible and refundable.

Jenbel

And is also one of the domestic codes as well? Or did it change back again?

Or does being club trump all other meanings it may have because the London-centricity of the board? (New word invented for the day )

Since you're being picky, I'll bat it straight back and also say that flexibility for short-haul has also vastly increased since this list was developed so describing BH as semi-flex, but not e.g. KLMNOVS which are also semi-flexible for some routes?

Reality_Czech

You cna upgrade now AA economy flights with BA miles to Business. Someone will know what class you need and how many miles. However you still need to book direct with BA on codeshare.

G-BOAC

Not sure, but I am guessing not? Premium connections on Domestic tend to book into J don't they (e.g., for a R class fare from LON with connection)? That said, I think feeder flights also have some odd ability to take whatever is available if needed or something, but then I do suffer from...

...so don't know for sure

Oh yes, and for CE too - C/D flexibility has come in, I is now 'POU class' effectively there too with R being the discount sale bucket, etc., etc. It's not all accurate, but I never said it was

Swanhunter

In response to the OP, worth pointing out that t/ a boles tickets are not currently eligible for MFU (miles for upgrade).

Jenbel

No, they don't. J is for Business UK fares only, but (apart from when the booking system was glitched) you don't want a domestic J fare on a discounted club/WT+ fare as it adds about £600 onto the fare. A recent thread suggested that R is used for domestic flights when booking onto discounted club, but it cannot itself be a club fare on domestic flights as its a one-class cabin.

Ok, in addition to inventing my new word for today, I now have the pedantry and geekiness out my system