JD1905

Hi All,

Does anybody know if it is possible to upgrade from WT to WT+ and then to CW. I'm on flight BA268 to LHR from LAX this Sunday and have been offered in-app upgrade to WT+ for $405. If I do this, would there then be any option to upgrade again to CW? I was hoping to fly CW on this trip and upgrade using cash, but cannot see a way possible of doing this from WT. Checked Expert FLyer and CW looks pretty empty right now.

Bonus question, do you get the additional points for these upgrades? I know that in-airport ones do not, unlike Virgin.

Help appreciated as always,
JD

mikeyfly

Hmmm I don't like your chances - you'll possibly get the option to buy an airport upgrade to CW, but this will be several hundred $$$

Best bet might be to buy a Y-J airport upgrade (if available) for $8-995

Recent (ish!) examples on the AuP thread :

Joshm300

If you decide to take the POUG to WTP for $405 you will definitely get the avios and tier points for the WTP cabin.

As already said, you may be able to airport upgrade to CW from either WT or WTP or something I’ve done in past is upgrade to WTP, like you have the option to do, and then use avios to get a reward seat in CW, depending on availability (which is worth checking up to he last minute). I can’t remember off the top of my head, but I think I had to make this change over the phone and pay a small amount to get the WTP fare made flexible in order to do the avios upgrade.

JD1905

That's a good idea actually. I'll go ahead and take the POUG at least and then explore the other avenues. I have 100,000 or so avois, so would be good to use some of those for the upgrade rather than shedding out over £1000. I've lived in Los Angeles for 2 years and this is my final flight back to the UK, so want to at least make it a comfortable one.

Thomathy

I think this is incorrect. I have received additional tier points and mileage on multiple occasions, when purchasing a BA airport upgrade, including within the last few months. The only exception to this is if the underlying fare is a redemption. I usually have to keep proof of payment for an upgrade and then send it in via the web form to be credited.

I can find no published policy either way, but that is my experience.

KARFA

Yes, just to confirm this, if you have an underlying cash fare and you upgrade with cash (AUP, AppUP, POUG, or a combination thereof) you are entitled to the TPs and avios for the cabin you have upgraded to.

JD1905

Below is the transactions for my recent trip LAX>LHR . LHR>BKK . BKK>LHR . LHR>LAX

I upgrade the BKK > LHR to WT+ at the airport.

What I also don't understand here is the difference in miles and tier points for certain journey legs. Should they not be the same?

I asked about the additional miles on twitter and this was the response.



The flights were booked as a multi-city through BA directly with cash.

KARFA

Thanks JackDann. Good to see you got the correct WTP rate for your AUP'ed BKK-LHR flight. The response from BA twitter was wrong, and you were entitled to the upgraded 90 TP and avios for that flight.

Had it not credited correctly (which does sometimes happen for AUPs) the advice you would have received on here would be to file a claim, and there would have been every expectation you would have received the 90 TPs from that claim.

willmatt

The difference in miles and tier points between your two apparantly similar transatlantic flights is the underlying fare code. LHR-LAX in Jan was fare code L while LAX-LHR in Dec was H. H is considered a flexible fare and earns full miles while L is considered a 'Low' fare. You can see the fares that earn full vs reduced points and avios here:

https://www.britishairways.com/en-de...-avios/flights

JD1905

Great, thanks, should I have received more avios for this booking also? And do you have any idea as to why I received only half of the tier points and avios on my return from LHR to LAX than I did on the way out? Seems unusual.

JD1905

That's interesting as all flights were all booked together at the same time online with BA, so I would have expected them all to have been the same Fare Code, is it possible the fare code may have been incorrect?

willmatt

I think it's quite common and completely usual for the fare codes to be individually picked as the lowest one available on each leg of a return flight or a multi-city. This would have been searching using the "Lowest Fare" option on ba.com I guess rather than the "Lowest fare which earns full tier points" option.

foolonthehill

The points looks correct to me, but as willmatt says, the out and return journeys were in different fare classes. From the BA calculator at https://www.britishairways.com/trave...r/public/en_gb (excluding your Bronze bonus) :



So you earned:
- 5442 + 70TP LAX-LHR in Economy Flexible
- 5919 + 70TP LHR-BKK in Economy Flexible
- 5919 + 90TP BKK-LHR in Premium Economy Lowest
- 2721 + 35TP LHR-LAX in Economy Low

You journey is considered a return LAX-BKK with LHR stopover. Each of the "Outward" and "Return" can be in different fare buckets on a single booking, as you have discovered - the website will choose the cheapest available unless instructed otherwise.

And during the booking process, I expect you would have seen the return flight to be more expensive than the outward portion, because the "Low" buckets on that journey (or at least part of it) had already sold out.

JD1905

When I spoke with BA they actually said that the trip was

Trip 1 = LAX > LHR > BKK
Trip 2 = BKK > LHR > LAX

The way I found this out was that if I wanted to upgrade online, I could only upgrade all flights on each trip and not individual ones.

I cannot remember seeing individual prices for each of the flights in all honesty, I had assumed as they were booked together that they would have all been the same, but this is likely to be an incorrect assumption. Thanks everyone for your help, I know we strayed slightly off topic here.

sammyg901

a special offer upgrade cannot be upgraded further using avios- only in cash at the airport

if you want to upgrade using Avios then you'll need a "fare difference" upgrade which is likely to be a lot more expensive

you can check upgrade availability by doing a normal Avios seat search for your flight then you could call in for a price if it was available