Originally Posted by Teamscoop

A newbie here, so I'll appear a bit daft, but are these offers that I can ask for? I'm travelling Gatwick to Barbados and return [WT+ outbound and WT inbound] on April 6th/April 21st. I originally booked WT return but was then offered £125 upgrade to WT+ but only for the outbound [?] so I took that. Since then the upgrade costs for WT to WT+ inbound are more than upgrading the outbound WT+ to CW! I would like to upgrade the inbound to WT+ but it's currently £1480! Should I just check every day and maybe enquire at the desk on arrival?

Sorry if this a bit basic but I have to start somewhere! Thanks for your time.

Trevor

Originally Posted by Teamscoop

I would like to upgrade the inbound to WT+ but it's currently £1480!
Trevor

Originally Posted by BertieBadger

Not at all daft, we all start somewhere.

Basically, you have a number of different ways an upgrade is possible - you'll find lots of highly detailed information information linked off the dashboard, worth a read. I'm sure I've forgotten some as well....

Briefly:

1) "Standard" upgrade - this is where you are paying the fare difference, plus any change fees. Tends to be expensive in my experience

2) POUG - This is the proactive upgrade offer, will appear in your booking, or your app. This is what you've taken for the £125 by the sounds of it. No guarantee when it will appear, nor what will happen to the pricing

3) AUP - Airport Upgrade Promotion. These are only offered at the airport, either at the check-in desk, or the ticket desk where that is separate. You basically just ask for a price, and can accept it or not. No guarantee they will be available on any particular flight, but can often be a good bargain (my last AUP was under £300 from ATL to LHR, going from WT+ to CW)

4) Op-up - Operational Upgrade. The best type This is when BA need your seat for something else, usually because they've sold more tickets for the cabin than they have seats available, so people get moved up to a cabin where there are seats available. The algorithm for choosing is (unsurprisingly) not known, although people will have ideas about what improves your odds

5) AppUp - relative new, an option to upgrade via the App after check in.

So, for your particular question, yes, keep an eye on POUG prices, they can change, but there is no guarantee they will drop. But what effort does it take for an occassional look. And if they don't drop to a level you like, ask at checkin for an AuP and see if they can offer you an upgrade price.

Originally Posted by BertieBadger

Further to your question, we can get some idea of the likelihood of a good price by looking at the flight availability, and I'll say now, it's not good news

Assuming you are on the BA2154 on 21st April BGI-LGW, tools like ExpertFlyer will reveal the ticket availability for that flight, which shows:

F6 A0 J2 C1 D0 R0 I0 W3 E0 T0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L9 V9 S9 N4 Q0 O0 G0

Now, what that gibberish means is the number of tickets in each selling class that BA is prepared to sell. I've highlighted the 3 classes relevant to WT+, with W being the most expensive flex class, and T being the cheapest most restricted.

That's not the number of seats left, BA can and will oversell a cabin and move people forward as needed, but it still gives you some insight. Basically, for whatever reason, they don't have much availability left in WT+, and that which they have, they think they can sell at a high price. So by my reading your odds of a cheap upgrade are not good

Now, compare that with your outbound flight:

F6 A5 J9 C9 D9 R9 I9 W9 E9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 L7 V6 S2 N0 Q0 O0 G0

And you see a very different picture. They will sell 9+ of the cheapest WT+ tickets, which suggests they have plenty of space they are trying to fill, so encouraging people forward from WT with good offers makes sense, hence your £125 price. (Further, the CW cabin is pretty empty too, so they can move people forward from WT+ into that)

Finally, a caveat - I'm fairly new to this myself, so the above is just my interpretation. Someone more experienced may have a different reading of it.

Originally Posted by Virazuno

It's useful to add here that things can change a lot in a short space of time, when it comes to booking class availability. Best to take that data this a pinch of salt, given it's still a month before travel.

Originally Posted by BertieBadger

was as much to give Teamscoop a possible explanation as to why the huge disparity in upgrade prices, and to give some indication of the likelihood of it coming down

Originally Posted by Virazuno

And an excellent explanation it is, for which I am sure Teamscoop and others are very grateful!

Originally Posted by BertieBadger

Yes, that's a fair comment, thank you. I didn't expand on it too much, as it's somewhat off topic to the thread - was as much to give Teamscoop a possible explanation as to why the huge disparity in upgrade prices, and to give some indication of the likelihood of it coming down (even if it is only one step up from "wild assed guess" ).

I would certainly say to Teamscoop to still check the app anyway for POUGs, and ask at the airport for an AUP for all the effort that is involved. Check this and previous AUP threads for the sort of prices you might encounter. (And if they are checking availability, best to make the request in the dedicated thread for that)

Originally Posted by furryman

IAD-LHR CW to F, £790 offered in the lounge, on the 787, March 2018... I just wanted to sleep, so would not have benefitted..