flying_pig

I rang the GGL line yesterday to upgrade a TA booking (which is something I do it rather frequently, upgrading CW tickets purchased by my company's travel desk). I was told that, as of Thursday last week, they are prevented from doing certain changes over the phone, including avios upgrades to TA bookings. The agent was - as always with the GGL team - very competent and polite (except when suggesting that this was "for my benefit..."), explaining that this was enforced "from above" due to a very high volume of fraudulent activity over the past weeks. Interestingly I was also asked for passport information as part of the security verification process.

As all of you know the problem is that whoever enforced these new restrictions probably failed to realise that there is no other way of upgrading a TA booking besides doing it over the phone. This effectively means that, for the time being, it appears to be impossible to do said upgrades. This was confirmed by the agent, saying that they will have to address this sooner rather than later, but at the moment this is it. I am also wondering what other "changes" are affected by the new security restrictions.

This is completely unacceptable as upgrading TA bookings is a published benefit under the current T&Cs of Executive Club. I am beyond disappointed, but ranting was not the main purpose of this thread and I will follow up appropriately.

I rather wanted to give everyone a heads up, as there migh some of you who (like me) count on the ability to upgrade TA bookings and would be unable to do so for the time being - better knowing this before making a booking!

flyingmonkie

That's not good news.

Do we know it is just TA bookings? I have never been able to UuA any booking from MMB and have always had to call the GCH line.

PaulN

Useful info, thanks. Would be good to get some additional experience from others of this. I should have a TA booking next week that I was hoping to upgrade.

HIDDY

There was a post in another thread about fraud having been committed with upgraded TA bookings so it may have something to do with that.

BA Executive Club

Hi,
We haven't made any changes to our policy on upgrading using Avios on Travel Agent bookings. There were communications sent out last week to our contact centres linked to data protection which unfortunately this agent has read to mean they cannot deal with travel agent bookings outside of 24 hours. This is not the case and we are arranging new communications to clarify this.

Warm Regards
Louise

crazyanglaisy

Thanks Louise. Now if only BA would consider looking again at the ability to upgrade using Avios for bookings made by overseas travel agents. Almost all of my work trips on BA are booked this way, which makes it almost impossible for me to make use of my Avios on long-haul flights.

windowontheAside

Ditto. I would love this to happen.

flying_pig

Louise, thank you very much for the clarification, which is most welcome. Just to be clear: it wasn't just one agent who interpreted the communications in the way I outlined. This was escalated to a supervisor, who also conveyed the same message. So, it appears it is definitely necessary to make things a little clearer.

BA Executive Club

Apologies, I am aware it was not just one agent who interpreted it this way hence why we are send out some comms to clear up the confusion that was caused.

flying_pig

Thanks again, Louise. I am pleased with the prompt reaction and very glad to see BA monitoring the issue.

Markie

I managed a TA upgrade on Saturday via GGL line. Was told that only option was Avios (no Gold Voucher) and I had to play a joker, but it worked like a charm.

And yes, probably a couple of extra verification questions but that is OK.

luftaom

Are the restrictions on Avios upgrades for bookings made by non UK travel agents still in force?

Tobias-UK

luftaom

Ahhh yes - sorry I misread that.

GinFizz

Possible that Tobias-UK also misread your question, though his answer is entirely correct... As far as I know there have been no changes to the policy - so yes, a restriction still exists on upgrading using Avios TA bookings where the TA is registered in a different country to the country where your BEAC account is registered. I haven't seen any data points yet on whether this restriction exists for the new GUF2/1 policy where reward space can be used to upgrade TA bookings.