Onboard paid upgrade
 

Hello!

Having been discontinued in the past, there are reports of a limited trial being reintroduced in 2012 to allow for onboard paid upgrades. I am a little unclear as to whether this trial was extended, maintained, discontinued or indeed whether the programme was formally reintroduced. Does anyone have any information on this, please?

Thanks!

If upgrades are available onboard, you would need to ask the CSD.

I don't believe that there have been any reports since last year. See these threads:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...al+csd+upgrade
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...al+csd+upgrade

Prior to this trial ability to upgrade onboard went away in 2008:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...s-onboard.html

I don't know why I know this (was it here? was it a conversation with a CSD?) but my recollection is that the functionality was put into the iPads, and a trial started where CSDs could offer a paid upgrade and take credit card payment. However it seemed to be a very limited trial and it wasn't continued after a few months on select routes.

I further suspect that BA aren't needing to try quite so hard to get payment for CE/CW occupancy, thanks to the general economic situation.

The trial has finished and BA have decided not to have a pay onboard facility.

Apart from the crew aspect, I think that from a passenger's perspective it may not have been the best solution indeed. Few people knew about it, but if a CSD approaches passengers to propose them to buy a paid upgrade it may feel a bit "Ryanairish" in terms of trying to push sales. If it is knowledgeable passengers contacting CSDs, paying and moving, it may well mistakenly look to other passengers around like "wild upgrades" which would not give a good image (however unfairly). Rather have BA increase possibilities for OLCI or airport upgrades if need be.

There wasn't a strong demand and the costs of putting a robust infrastructure in place outweighed the revenue benefit.

In addition, my own feeling is that the cc and the Csd have enough to do during boarding without going round and touting for paid upgrades.

Why would you need a robust infrastructure ? Just add an item to the onboard sales catalogue that is "upgrades"

CSD has the manifest and the catering so no need to over complicate things.

In any event,I think upgrading on board for cash is generally a bad idea and has more downside than up

Didn't they used to give you a letter which said something like "Here is your upgrade, you are very naughty for leaving it to the last minute!"

whew! For a moment I thought I was living in the past!