pauljeff

Hey,

I recently relocated to the states. I'm looking at trying to book some trips in biz ORD-LHR-ORD and even keeping an eye on the price it looks like biz never sells for less than $6000 which seems steep given I'm accustomed to EX-UK sales at c. £2k. Even after you stack AARP and Chase its still $5000 which works out at something like £3.5k. So - am I missing anything or is it just typically twice as expensive from the states? Googling suggests that sales ex-US in premium cabins are few and far between...

Secondly - it looks like the real value from a GUF1/2 is in going from W->J. Looking at May 24 out and May 28 back on the above itinerary, W is pricing at $1.8k, J is $6.4k, and F is $6.9k. Is there any way to use a GUF2 + TA to book into J ath the W price, and then pay the J->F fare difference of $500 to get into F? Or does the GUF2 basically force you to re-price the lower class, so to upgrade to F you have to pay the difference between W and J? If so, it looks like there is basically no value in a GUF2 if you typically travel in F given its cheaper to do first / chase discount than pay the full price in J and use a GUF2.

Any advice welcome!

Cheers

mikeyfly

Have a look at the GUF thread, but I believe after applying GUF your only option to move to another cabin is buying at the airport

BA Gold Upgrade Voucher Discussion and Wiki Thread

teledude

Have you considered nested tickets if planned in advance?

​​​​

pauljeff

Thanks - I had a look in there and I don't think its covered. There's an implication that changes are governed by the fare class of the lower class booking, but it isn't clear how that applies to upgrade pricing. I could post in there too but I figure the forum is anti-cross posting and it seemed a bit more niche than most of the GUF2 questions.

pauljeff

Yes, definitely the smartest solution if I can't find a better ex- north America option.

KARFA

I don’t think your fare difference would be J to F though. I think if you tried to do a fare difference upgrade to F it would be from the original W fare and that would be expensive.

The only reasonable cost way from J to F would be either a POUG offered in MMB (this is very unlikely for a TA booking) is via a AUP if it is offered.

golfmad

The reverse of exEU works from the states. If you're prepared to do something like ORD-LHR-XXX-LHR-ORD where XXX may be any of the usual suspects including DUB, BRU, LUX, AMS, CPH etc you can usually achieve significant discounts. If all the flights are on BA you can then stack the AARP and Chase discounts too. The downside are the extra legs and the additional cost of XXX-LHR-XXX. The upside compared to nesting is that you don't need to think that far ahead. My most recent example is a ticket I bought last month which is BOS-LHR-AMS-LHR-BOS using AARP and Chase in J which came to a grand total of $1,768.19. I was going to apply a joker and a GUF1 but bizarrely there was redemption space in F on both legs so I just used the GUF1.