col747uk

Travelling to Belfast for work tomorrow and because I have to go through the company travel agent i have to book Euro Traveller.

Trying to understand why I never get a POUG in MMB or at check in . What is the stategu for offering POUGs. Have seen flight go from J6 at 09.15 to J2 now - PUGs alrady offered & taken?

Koru Flyer

Try with the app. Sometimes I see the offer in the app, but not online. No idea why?

V10

It also depends on where your travel agency and BAEC account are based.

For example, when booking through my US-based company travel agent but with a UK-based BAEC account, POUGs would never be offered on any of my bookings.

col747uk

It is through AMEX and a UK based BAEC account.

V10

Nothing is guaranteed, that's for sure. If you could reliably count on a cheaper upgrade being offered then nobody would bother booking the more expensive CE tickets in the first place.

They're also more likely to be targeted, where offered, to passengers that could be tempted to book CE in future. In your position, booking through a corporate travel agent and with a massive back catalogue of BA travel (LTG,GGL), they might feel there's not much to be gained by offering the POUG to guarantee your ongoing business.

mmxbreaks

I've had them offered many times in this format (US agent, UK account). End up paying in USD, which is typically a better deal than GBP.

Lately POUG seems to have lessened, for me anyway.

There was a thread somewhere about the possibility of BA thinking some pax are booking a cabin below on the gamble of a good value upgrade at time of check-in and therefore not making POUG available to frequent buyers of such promotions. Don't know the truth of it.

Also, the more I've paid for upgrades the less often I've been OPUPed. My presumption here is that BA want to use such bonuses (if they can be called that) to entice passengers up the ladder, not continually reward the most loyal pasengers... many times I've seen Silver upgraded over Gold (know that because they were in the same group booking as me), for example.

hypercrypt

I wish BA would offer a free change (still pay the fare difference, obbiously) to a higher class when booked through CTA. Not looking to save any money as such but our travel policy is Economy, often I'd be happy to pay the extra to go WTP / CE but adding the change fee etc makes it prohibitive.

corporate-wage-slave

Next time this happens, just see if the system will offer you a UuA to CE. I know it's probably not what you want to do, and it also depends on the fare bucket, but broadly speaking if a UuA is possible then a POUG can also happen. However note that the POUG may well only be offered at T-24 since BA don't fully control the ticket before that time. Adding a POUG normally changes the flexibility of the ticket (though admittedly not to any significant extent on Domestics) so BA can't add POUGs to a ticket in which the travel agent has a continuing financial interest. AMEX Corporate based in the UK normally will allow UuA and POUGs at T-24, subject to the usual caveats.

Airways45

I've been GGL for a number of years (with CCR card) and I haven't had an upgrade offer in the app or when I check in online for years. I've taken many flights where AUPs are available but i'm not offered anything online or in the app. This includes many flights directly booked on BA.COM or on the phone with BA. I presumed this was deliberate (in that I'm deliberately not being targeted). Are you more likely to be offered upgrades for money if you are Silver? While we are at it, I've not been auto-upgraded when I check-in online either for ages but have been lucky at the gate or an hour or so prior to departure...

col747uk

Yes when flight was J6 on Friday it was offering 1 Avios in CE which yesterday was 3 avios in CE. Will see what happens at T-24 but not holding out hope asJ2C1D1R1 and still t-3 to online check in. Just checked stil offering 1 in CE for Avios.

apollo00

Can you not just do it at time of booking and pay the extra to the CTA directly? That's what our policy is for any upgrades or similar (for instance if I wish to stay longer on a business trip and the flights are more expensive as a result I just pay the travel agent the difference on a personal card).

apollo00

What flights are you taking, if you're GGL then I assume you're in J already a good portion of the time. POUGs seem far more common on short-haul than long-haul to me and much more common when in Y or W to start with.

I rarely see a J>F POUG offered but it's a rare short-haul Y that doesn't have a Y>J POUG offered at the moment.

I'm also GGL and I've probably taken a good half dozen short-haul POUG offers in the last few months so I don't think it's your status, more likely your flights or booking class are just less targetted.

MarkedMan

This. GGL/CCR here, mostly Y now since I've pretty much given up on the CCR for next year, or at least not if it means paying for the current service in CE on SH trips to MUC, PRG or northern Italy.

Here is what I see with frequent SH trips in these areas. A POUG is usually somewhere between high two digit cost and 150 quid on these routes. A POUG can also take out two middle seats. So ... on weekends to popular holiday destinations (think VCE or PSA), forget it. They are selling Y seats at 250 a pop at least and CE at 400+, they aren't going to offer POUG, makes no sense. Now, PRG or MUC on a lovely, afternoon tea flight on Tue to Thu, I always am offered the deal. It's a sucker's deal, of course. I do appreciate that when you have to buy through a corporate TA you have no choice, but these flights are such that often enough the cost difference between Y and CE is less than 50 quid, often small enough you'd do it just for the TPs and row 1. I have one going out to MUC at 3pm this week and have had an offer to upgrade since i booked it. It was with BA. I have had it with TA tickets too. Needless to say, not biting

jerry a. laska

The OP may want to look at the discussion in these threads for some reasons why he isn't offered (or is refused) an airport upgrade (AUP) at check in:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...e-improve.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...u-upgrade.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tions-cap.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...nt-policy.html