wanderingswede

Let me start by saying that I don't want to be one to look a gift horse in the mouth but I was curious about some recent upgrade experiences on BA. BA have been good to me over the holidays: I got an upgrade from wt+ to F on the way back to London for Christmas and am now sitting in the lounge heading back to new York having scored an upgrade from WT+ to CW.

I noticed on today's boarding card that where the ticket would normally say something about an involuntary upgrade due to overselling it now says "upgrade dut BA/gold". This seems to suggest that BA has adopted the us custom of upgrading people purely based on status and not an operational need. Has anyone else had experience of this? Any BA staffers who can shed a light on this?

Cue multiple comments about devaluing the premium product...

Filthy Monkey

How busy were the flights you were upgraded on? It's most likely still an operational upgrade, just referenced diferently on your boarding pass.

adrianjc32

No, just a different computer system to control it and it's driving different comments on boarding passes.

tbm13

So does anyone know what "DUT" stands for if not "due to"?

Just curious because I recently got upgraded to WT+ and the boarding pass said "Upgrade DUT BA/Silv".

KenJohn

Finally! It's a simple way to accentuate the positive by doing nothing new really - just publicising the fact. This can only engender loyalty!

Upgraded!

This isn't the US custom on long-haul int'l flights, only North American, Central American and Caribbean flights. Comps on intercontinental flights are still only done for operational reasons.

I also wonder whether it has anything to do with how internal accounting/controls keep track of upgrades where additional APD isn't collected (only applicable ex-UK)? Not sure why it would make a difference, though.

beerup

FWIW, "DUT" stands for "Discretionary Upgrade Tool". It is a system for operational (and occasionally space-available) upgrades that are usually processed at least 29 hours before a flight.

Priority is based upon:
� Executive Club status (CIV score)
� Fare class
� Agency/industry discounts
� Date of booking

http://share.pdfonline.com/f6a597b03...APR13%20v1.pdf

BlackBerryAddict

Interesting. I think I need to make DM my friend.

Cccharlie

Mr Cccharlie and I both got the following on boarding pass recently "op upgr DUT BAEC" never seen that before and our boarding passes were changed at the gate.

correctioncx

Who is Denize McGregor

correctioncx

Head of Customer Service & Operations UK Regions, Europe, Middle East, Africa & South America

Cabbage

Seems to be a BA big cheese...

Head of Customer Service & Operations UK Regions, Europe, Middle East, Africa & South America

travelwithross

Surely she can't do that job herself?
That seems an awful lot of regions to be in charge of? I can barely handle UK and Ireland.

Well. At least I'm not out of touch.

Cabbage

Certainly one of the longest titles I've come across.

I'm guessing some else must have a title that says 'North America and APAC' as thats all that's left...?

badoc

I'm surprised at their priority list...

At handover to the airport, a telex list will be sent by DUT, which will show the priority of people to upgrade if necessary.
The order of these are:
1.Staff not in their cabin of eligibility (bookable and premium standby)
2.Space Available requests that are still outstanding
3.A list of prioritised passengers if further operational upgrades are required (in oversales situations)

Also, it's not quite clear what a space-available UG is - can any BA insiders elaborate? It sounds as if this might be along the lines of 'something dreadful happened last flight and so this person should be UG next flight' but I may have got that arse about face.