787-900 operational change
Mar 18, 2018, 1:41 pm
#16
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
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This was a US airline approach. But it was not better for profits, because what it drove was (if anything) further business in the lower cabin, when what the airline wants is paid business in the higher cabin.
You continue to see the difference in BA's current approach to operational upgrades when the lower cabin turns out to have been oversold. Higher tier frequent flyers do not necessarily get the free upgrades; the airline does not want its regular customers to get used to being able to pay a much cheaper fare yet still expect to sit in the more comfortable cabin. The lesson is that if you want to be sure of sitting in the premium cabin, you must pay for it. Some of the infrequent customers who are given these freebie upgrades instead may come to do exactly that - hence the reports of non-members and Blues getting op-ups ahead of Golds and Silvers.
You can also see this in the limits that seem to be applied to the use of promotional airport upgrades. Even if available, you may not be allowed to buy one if you've been buying too many of them. Again, the lesson is that you cannot expect to get an upgrade on the cheap.
Complaints about this sometimes have an underlying subtext of "I'm Gold, so I deserve to be given a seat in a better cabin because I'm such a good customer of the airline's." Leaving aside the difficulties with the last few words of that (as a BA Gold might have barely set foot on a BA aircraft), that sentence illustrates precisely why the airline doesn't want to do it.
You continue to see the difference in BA's current approach to operational upgrades when the lower cabin turns out to have been oversold. Higher tier frequent flyers do not necessarily get the free upgrades; the airline does not want its regular customers to get used to being able to pay a much cheaper fare yet still expect to sit in the more comfortable cabin. The lesson is that if you want to be sure of sitting in the premium cabin, you must pay for it. Some of the infrequent customers who are given these freebie upgrades instead may come to do exactly that - hence the reports of non-members and Blues getting op-ups ahead of Golds and Silvers.
You can also see this in the limits that seem to be applied to the use of promotional airport upgrades. Even if available, you may not be allowed to buy one if you've been buying too many of them. Again, the lesson is that you cannot expect to get an upgrade on the cheap.
Complaints about this sometimes have an underlying subtext of "I'm Gold, so I deserve to be given a seat in a better cabin because I'm such a good customer of the airline's." Leaving aside the difficulties with the last few words of that (as a BA Gold might have barely set foot on a BA aircraft), that sentence illustrates precisely why the airline doesn't want to do it.
Mar 18, 2018, 3:17 pm
#21
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That's even if they opened the F cabin for seat selection for you in the first place - they only open FLUB relatively late in the day and it appears from other reports on here that it's only for selected passengers such as golds (OP is silver)
And BA would also likely spot the double bookings and cancel one of them anyway after a call "Hello Mr Joejet BA here you appear to have duplicate bookings on one of our flights perhaps one should be cancelled?"
And not that many people could afford to have the cost of a couple of fully refundable tickets tied up in the circle of hell Dante didn't write about - the BA refunds department.
I recall a couple in the US tried something similar with one of the US airlines to manipulate seating / upgrades. It did not end well for them.
Mar 19, 2018, 2:44 am
#22
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Someone might correct me but I believe they are correctly known as 787-8 / 787-9 and coming soon 787-10. Not in the hundreds for the Dreamliner.
Mar 19, 2018, 3:59 am
#23
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Mar 19, 2018, 5:59 am
#24
Join Date: Oct 2013
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I can affirm that BA don't upgrade higher teir members of BAEC of the many BA flights over the years I have only 1 when there was a higher cabin available and that was when I was a Blue on my first flight on BA after deserting VA.
Mar 19, 2018, 6:27 am
#25
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Mar 19, 2018, 7:36 am
#27
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