starlight

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​I recently booked LHR-DEN for about £750 each way in Club via Amex for Jan 19. I was told by them after a call to their BA contact it is a Dual Inventory Fare and not upgradeable. However, a few days ago I’d thought I’d call BA anyway to see if this was true and the agent just upgraded my outbound flight. I now notice in my App, it shows a First (e-ticket number present) seat and I can change it. However, there are anomalies: using ba.com it shows me confirmed in First on the front page of the exec club page but if I go to MMB and try going to change my seat, it shows me in Club and I cannot click to change the seat; the lounge shows as Galleries but not First (is this a feature of a T3 departure) but it does comment one of my flights has greater baggage allowance than the other. I am not at all sure it has been ‘properly’ upgraded and I wonder come Jan if I will be able to check in!

Are DIF upgradeable? Should inbound redemption seats open up I am nervous about calling to try and upgrade in case they cancel the outbound upgrade!

orbitmic

DIF are upgradeable. Not being able to change your seat is more likely to do with either the cabin being full or you’re ticket not reissued yet.

DVT

Put the PNR into Classic Check My Trip and see what is ticketed: https://classic.checkmytrip.com/plne...&SITE=XCMTXXNS

corporate-wage-slave

This may have just slipped by me, but while aware of DIF for WT to WTP (lots of discussions), I can't recall previous discussions on DIF from WTP to CW.

For the main question though, I often DIF WT to WTP then UuA to CW, using jokers if necessary. Until fully ticketed you won't necessarily get full MMB seating functionality. Just takes a bit of time.

KARFA

DIFs are definitely upgradable with avios. However, do not try to do one on ba.com as doesn't calculate the cost correctly. Also I think sometimes it is not possible for the agent on the phone to immediately calculate the difference in taxes/fees/charges so it has to be sent away to the "back office" for a manual calculation.

Some more information on DIFs in these threads:
Dual Inventory Fares - Is there an idiot's guide anywhere?
Why can't I find this ba.com fare on ITA Matrix?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ount-code.html

Globaliser

I wonder whether the first BA agent saw that it was an ex-UK I class fare, for which the fare rules do say "CHANGES NOT PERMITTED" which applies to fare rules upgrades as well as other changes, and thought that this applies to UuA as well. But as we know from non-DIF I class fares, that fare rule does not prevent a UuA, and so I would expect I class DIFs to be upgradeable using Avios in exactly the same way as non-DIFs.

However, I wonder whether it is all that good an idea to think of DIFs as "DIF from WT to WTP" or "DIF from WTP to CW". Although the practical effect of these is a little like a POUG, the WT+ DIFs are WT+ fares with pretty standard WT+ conditions, and (as above) the CW DIFs are CW fares with pretty standard CW conditions. You wouldn't want someone thinking that if they've bought a "DIF from WTP to CW", any element of WT+ fare rules ever applicable to the fare that they bought. AIUI, WT+ rules never entered into the equation. The only relevance of WT+ was that the availability numbers in WT+ governed which of the DIFs might or might not be valid for that particular flight.

starlight

Thanks for the replies but please forgive me, I just wanted to highlight one final thing:

If I do a dummy booking LHR-DEN-LHR e.g. outbound 9 Jan 19, inbound 16 Jan 19, it states in the fare conditions on the BA website "No upgrades permitted". However, if I look at the fare rules on ITA Matrix, I can't see they are prohibited.

I bow to all your collective wisdom and assume, despite the comment on the BA website, that DIFs remain upgradeable!

Globaliser

That relates to fare rules upgrades: you can't change (say) to a J class fare to add flexibility, and you can't change (say) to an A class fare to get into the First cabin.

It doesn't relate to UuA. If you scroll down the ITA fare rules, you should find a section that says "PENALTIES". In that section, there will be the rule "CHANGES NOT PERMITTED". But as I said above, the same rule is in non-DIF ex-UK long-haul I class fares and people are routinely UuAing these - so "CHANGES NOT PERMITTED" does not prevent a UuA.

starlight

Okay, thank you!