saskew

We are flying LHR to YYC next month and are currently booked on O class tickets. I've enquired direct with BA about paying to upgrade in advance from Economy to Premium Economy as the extra tier points would be enough to bump us up to bronze. The cost to do so however was extortionate. Can anyone advise whether this situation may change closer to our departure date, if so is it still possible to do so after you have checked in? We usually check in online before arriving at the airport, would this limit our opportunity of being able to upgrade at the BA desk when we actually arrive at the airport? I can't check any upgrades anything online as our flights have all been booked manually due to us using miles to upgrade into club on the return leg.
Thanks in advance :-)

darthlemsip

Keep an eye out in MMB as sometimes you will get a special offer in there. If not, ask at the airport on the day - it will be something like £179-£199 to upgrade if they have seats available (not guaranteed)

windowontheAside

OLCI won't affect your ability to upgrade for cash at the airport.

If seats are available they're offered on a first come first served basis to any class of ticket, so might be worth getting there early.

Note that if you do pay to upgrade, there are often problems with the correct TP posting automatically so you might have to contact BAEC afterwards to fix that. I think I read here that this has been fixed recently though, so hopefully it won't come to that.

MNManInKen

I think it's important to point out that there are different types of upgrades.
If the cost quoted you to upgrade was "prohibitive" as you say, then you'd be paying the fare difference for a WT+ ticket in an available fare bucket for the flight. They'll sell this to you as long as there are seats available.

In contrast, proactive upgrades like the ones appearing in MMB tend to be cheaper. However, there is no guarantee they will be offered. Similarly, an on the day upgrade in the airport is not always available.

saskew

Thanks for the all the helpful advice. It won't offer me upgrade options on MMB as the return leg is a redemption booking so the whole booking had to be done manually on the phone with BA. However as we're staying at heathrow the night before we will have the opportunity to go into the terminal early and check that way. Good to know online checkin won't affect this too.
Cheers all ^

Genius1

This thread may be useful: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ng-thread.html