dnw

Interested in people's opinion/experiences with this one. Have always assumed there is some sort of attempt made at applying a pecking order to opups, to reward loyalty or spend but my last two experiences of this have not been the case.

Scenario: travelling with a member of my team. Me Silver for maybe 10 of the last 15 years, him Bronze for two. He doesn't care too much and never preassigns a seat (especially as he generally has to pay as a Bronze). I always do, either using status or will pay for an exit seat the few times policy won't stretch beyond WT+.

On both of the last occasions that we have travelled on identical tickets on the same flights that are oversold, he without an assignment has been pre-upgraded to Club at online checkin and I with an assignment have not. The only difference being (other than lower status!) the lack of a pre-assigned seat.

This feels like laziness to me. Not enough seats available when flight is edited and rather than look for a higher status passenger with an existing seat assignment to upgrade to vacate a seat, it's quicker and simpler to place the lower status passenger straight into Club.

Last time this was at an outstation (DFW) which I could almost understand. This time it's at LHR for tomorrow's lunchtime flight to Chicago.

I never expect an upgrade and generally pay/uua if it's that important to me- but I would like to think that in the cases where opups are being made, especially prior to OLCI with no time pressures, some sort of prioritisation would exist, regardless of whether it was a published rule of the programme or not.

It does make me consider whether the higher status that I occasionally push a bit of money BAs way unnecessarily in order to maintain really is worthwhile...

Too much to ask/hope for even at BAs base?

paul4040

There's been lots of Blues and Bronzes given op-ups lately according to these forums. I imagine they want to give these people a taste of a higher cabin in order to influence future spending patterns.

nux

BA does not just upgrade the highest status passenger(s) but uses a range of factors, and apparently also now limit the number of op-ups any passenger may receive.

See:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...p-ups-out.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ade-rules.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...e-upgrade.html

HilFly

I hate to break it to you, but there were plenty of OpUps given to Blues since the dawn of BA time - the inception of BAEC!

Globaliser

If you don't expect an upgrade, why are you upset that someone else got one ahead of you? Doesn't that in itself suggest that you thought you deserved one more than he did?

dnw

Do I expect one as a rule - no.
Do I expect that if there are opups available they will be prioritised to reward loyalty/status - yes.
Does this mean I think I should have been higher in the pecking order than my colleague- yes.

Often1

I do not think that this is "laziness" at all. Rather it is part of a sophisticated marketing effort by BA to make lemonade (paid premium sales) our of lemons (handing out free UG's in the form of OPUP's).

Starting with the proposition that an OPUP is a necessary evil of the business. Overbooked flights become oversold, seats malfunction and so on. It is far better to OPUP someone than to deny boarding.

Awarding the OPUP to someone who does not fly premium cabins but who might if they had a "taste" is a smart marketing move. It costs BA nothing as the seat had to go to somebody and it lessens expectations from the so-called "pecking order" that they can purchase cheap tickets and stand a reasonable chance at an OPUP.

The world is full of people who would never consider flying anything other than WT and not paying anything more for anything including a seat assignment. Seat them in WTP, let alone CW and they are sold for life.

Globaliser

That sounds like expecting op-ups when they're available.

At any rate, BA hasn't ever really done it quite like this, and BA seems to be deliberately moving further away from it. So, as Often1 says, it's nothing to do with "laziness".

HilFly

When did BA tell you that OPUps were a benefit of status?

nux

Then you should use another carrier, as BA does not do this as per the threads linked above.

windowontheAside

I agree that it's as frustrating as heck when you see someone with lower status on otherwise similar tickets get an opup instead of you.

My own opup rate is woeful. I develop a tinge of green when reading of posts here from people who get opups 50% or more (my own rate is low single figures), but there's nothing I can do about it except expect to fly in my ticketed cabin.

All that said, I wouldn't say that the application of opups is lazy. I am quite sure there are all kinds of factors taken into consideration, and there's an argument to say that someone like me who flies all classes, and WT or WT+ most often, is a 'wasted' opup because they already have most of my business, I know all the cabins. Perhaps upgrading a blue or bronze who's never flown CW may cause them to pay for it next time - certainly upgrading me won't affect my future spend with them.

Would I like them to upgrade purely by status? Sure! Do I think it should happen that way? Umm... no. It doesn't really make commercial sense.

themapelligroup

Why should I pay for CW when, as a Gold, I would know I would get upgraded if the flight is overbooked?

BA is a business, not a charity, if I get to fly on a superior cabin rather than the one I had originally paid for I will say thank you very much, but I don't think it's my task to decide who gets the upgrade and who doesn't.

matthandy

Indeed, my first ever flight as a member of BAEC was in CW as a result of an op-up from WTP. I was travelling on a ticket booked by our corporate travel agent which may have been a factor.

ObserverA3

You realize that even if BA applied the two principles you state, it is extremely unlikely that you would have received the upgrade as there were quite likely a number of pax on that flight which were higher in the pecking order than you were, don't you? In fact, you might be better off with BA's current policy.

LTN Phobia

It's one of those things. Even when my husband was Bronze, he had a much higher op-up rate than me (a GGL/CCR) - probably 50%. He, as a Gold due to my Partner card, he still has a much higher op-up rate than me (probably about 50%, including a two class op-up). That may well be route, class, day of the week, etc etc as well. It helps that he's an easy target for op-up as he's usually in WT. It's easier to move someone from WT than F

Admittedly I generally only tend to fly in the highest cabin so it's not surprising I don't get an op-up very often anyway, but I have remained in WT+ when the flight appeared to be full and there seemed to be op-ups, so the op-ups must have gone to others. Fair enough! BA probably know I'm pretty much a captive audience as a GGL/CCR, and they know I know what CW and F are like so an op-up doesn't work as a marketing tool for me.

I even scored a downgrade (it was due to flight disruption and I suppose I was lucky to get on the next flight at all but I also suspect I wasn't even prioritised not to be downgraded) as a GGL/CCR.

It's just life. I think BA, particularly nowadays, see op-ups as a potential marketing tool, and that's fair enough.