obduro

Evening all, long time lurker first time poster after a bit of advice really.

My wife and I are travelling LHR-JFK in a week or so and I had been liaising with BA on Twitter about F upgrade availability. I had been told that the best bet would be to ask at check-in about the possibility of a discounted upgrade, and thought nothing more of it.

I checked MMB a few days late and, lo and behold, our outbound booking status read as "First - Confirmed". I tried to call the BAEC line to confirm what happened, but given the option to confirm seats was there I thought if there was an error, it would not allow me to perform this action. However, I went ahead and booked 2E and 2F with no problem. Great!

So I thought...

I sent BA a message again saying thanks for the Upgrade, and I received a reply telling me that "the wrong cabin had been held in error" and the original would be reinstated shortly. I currently have two bookings showing in MMB, one for First and another for "Club World - For Information Purposes".

I know upgrades aren't to be expected but I feel a little underwhelmed by the experience and wondered if it was worth asking BA to honour the upgrade. Not likely I know, but some thoughts/advice would be appreciated. Is this something that happens often?

Worst part is, I am flying back WT+ and I had the option to upgrade the return leg for £439 that I would have taken up that has now disappeared from MMB!

aceman

welcome to FT!

lesson learnt? next time, shhhhhh!

obduro

I know, right? Just for my own sanity (i.e. driving myself insane) would they have honoured it at check-in?

Doubt there will be a next time given our next trip is in Club Europe and on the 787 both ways

windowontheAside

Welcome to FT

I've never heard of an upgrade being given out in the circs you describe. It could happen (and be honoured) as a service recovery upgrade, but not simply by enquiring about an upgrade.

Just out of interest, you said you "would have" taken up the upgrade on the return - but what was stopping you?

obduro

Honestly? Searching here too much trying to work out if it was good value for money or not!

I started off thinking I would take that upgrade but I thought given the frequent travel this year I would prefer to get into F at some point (as all our flights this year are CW/CE bar the return leg of JFK). Hence the enquiry about the F upgrade on this trip, as I found that the 787's have no F on them.

So in the end I decided I would chance my arm and see how an upgrade to F on the outward leg went, and dependent on that outcome I would just see at the airport whether an upgrade was available when coming home.

The next question would be - if I fly out and complete my first leg, would you get offered an upgrade for the return leg through MMB even though the first flight was complete? And who would be the best people to contact to see if they will honour the upgrade (if anyone), not sure if that was what you meant by service recovery.

EDIT - I know what the next question in response to my post will be, and the answer is £439 to upgrade to CW from WT+ JFK-LHR.

windowontheAside

You may get offered a POUG for the return trip after having flown the outbound, but as ever, there are no guarantees one will ever be offered, even if there are plenty of empty seats available.

Similarly with airport upgrades - you may be offered one but don't count on it.

For me there's a huge difference between WT+ and CW, and much less so between CW and F. So I'd have jumped on that POUG in a flash, to secure a bed for the overnight return.

Let's hope it comes back. You'll know not to hang around if you see it again!

crazy8534

Yes you may be offered an upgrade for the return leg even after you have flown outbound. I would pay £650+ to upgrade into CW on an eastbound TATL (and have done) but then I can't sleep in WT or WT+. Bad luck on the F upgrade.

obduro

Thanks for the replies all. Seems this is a bit of an anomaly in terms of the situation. I've asked BA to explain why this happened (i.e. showing First in MMB) so will update with what they say.

I've spent ages trying to select a carrier to build up points with and this happens before I've boarded the first flight I booked! Typical!

obduro

So an interesting update. Just had a response from the "Social Media Team" when I asked why this happened. Their reply:

"It looks like when you were checking availability to upgrade your flight a space in first class was accidentally held. It was never an upgrade nor was it ever confirmed. Even if you hadn't made us aware of it our system would have detected that your ticket and itinerary didn't match so our servicing team will then have taken the space out again. I know this is disappointing as you thought you had been upgraded and I'm sorry"

There are a few things that don't add up about this response.

1. It said it had been Confirmed in MMB and I was able to select seats. Are you able to do this on a booking that isn't confirmed?
2. I never got the opportunity to search for a F upgrade as the system flatly told me each time, I believe correctly, that I couldn't upgrade the ticket due to the fare class I had purchased in.

Thoughts?

Often1

Next time there is an anomaly, show up at the airport and hope that it's honored as a service matter.

FlyerTalker6245

I have been able to in the past.

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk obduro, and welcome to the BA forum. It's great to see you here and please continue to post. I also hope you have a good trip to the USA.

1. above is definitely possible. In fact it is perfectly possible to select seats with an unpaid for, unticketed booking on an oversold flight! Only waitlists can't get to seat reservations.

2. That I am less sure of, but what you see in MMB is interfacing to another system, and that interface is shaky at the best of times. Having 2 segments on that booking could easily prevent the upgrade button working - it doesn't take much to get that message.

Take the FT feedback on CW with a pinch of salt. If the £439 comes back - which it may do - then for the night flight I can see it being sensible for you. The bigger moral is to stick with FT and then you will find how to get good value seats booked into the class you actually want to travel in, for less money.

OttoMH

Never. Call. The Airline.

obduro

Thanks for the advice guys and indeed for the warm welcome! Shot myself in the foot it appears! I've made one last attempt to get BA to honour it, expecting little but fingers crossed. Am looking forward to enjoying CW for the first time in any event!

Globaliser

"Confirmed" relates to the status of the reservation (not ticket) that has been made. It's possible for a confirmed reservation to be made by accident in your booking for a flight or a cabin. It sounds as if because the reservation was in First, as soon as there was a confirmed reservation the free seat pre-allocation function came live for you.

That's different from the question of whether you'd ever be issued with a valid ticket. You wouldn't get a ticket unless the correct new fare was calculated and you'd paid it. In addition, in your case, you wouldn't get a ticket unless the fare rules of your existing reservation allowed the change to be made. And without a ticket, you won't travel even if you have a confirmed reservation.

I wouldn't place too much reliance on the Twitter team's use of the specific word "confirmed" in the phrase "nor was it ever confirmed". I suspect that they used that word in a non-technical sense.Agents can try to do all sorts of things to bookings by tapping away at their keyboards. In contrast, if you use MMB, there are a lot of filters and checks that are made to keep the interface comprehensible to the average member of the public. So that may be why MMB correctly detected the difficulty and refused to let you do it, while an agent was able to muck about a bit more with the booking and make a mistake whilst doing so.