Op Up’s when both cabins are quiet
Jun 12, 2018, 10:37 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Shoreham By Sea
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,328
Op Up’s when both cabins are quiet
Assessing chances of a WTP to J free upgrade.
7 days out, all cabins are showing 9’s. Seat maps show 28 empties in J and 15 empty in W. Apprecaite a number won’t take seats until T-24.
So there is no need for BA to upgrade from W to J but from experience, do they something anyhow?
FWIW I’m on the LGW to LAS flight on June 19th.
7 days out, all cabins are showing 9’s. Seat maps show 28 empties in J and 15 empty in W. Apprecaite a number won’t take seats until T-24.
So there is no need for BA to upgrade from W to J but from experience, do they something anyhow?
FWIW I’m on the LGW to LAS flight on June 19th.
Jun 12, 2018, 10:48 am
#5
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 756
BA does offer op-ups gratis, it's just that nobody knows why precisely. This forum is absolutely full of people trying to work out why they didn't or didn't get an op-up. If it happens, it happens, but I wouldn't spend time trying to strategize.
Jun 12, 2018, 11:00 am
#10
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Gloucestershire
Programs: BA Gold (ex-GGL, maybe future Silver), Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,197
When you said 9s in all cabins I was thinking... can't dismiss the odds if it's something like this:
J9 C6 D4 R2 I0
W9 E5 T0
Y9 B9 H9 K6 M4 L2 V2 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G4
But no, every single bucket has at least nine seats in it. If the Marie Celeste were a BA plane it's probably be closed to Q fares a week out.
Getting an op-up then is a lottery win.
J9 C6 D4 R2 I0
W9 E5 T0
Y9 B9 H9 K6 M4 L2 V2 S0 N0 Q0 O0 G4
But no, every single bucket has at least nine seats in it. If the Marie Celeste were a BA plane it's probably be closed to Q fares a week out.
Getting an op-up then is a lottery win.
Jun 12, 2018, 11:04 am
#11
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Flatland
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold 1MM, BA Gold, UA Peon
Posts: 6,109
BA do sometimes do so but rarely. Not "can't rely on it but I won't be surprised", not even "It happens sometimes", but "I can't remember this happening to me before anytime recently".
It seems to be mostly if they wish to impress someone, like a newly minted Gold member who looks like they shifted their allegiance recently. So it doesn't apply to most people.
Your chance of being able to get a cheap paid upgrade (either before departure via the website/app, or at the airport) is medium.
Your chance of free upgrade remains very low.
It seems to be mostly if they wish to impress someone, like a newly minted Gold member who looks like they shifted their allegiance recently. So it doesn't apply to most people.
Your chance of being able to get a cheap paid upgrade (either before departure via the website/app, or at the airport) is medium.
Your chance of free upgrade remains very low.
Jun 12, 2018, 11:11 am
#13
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,930
Jun 12, 2018, 11:15 am
#15
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: LCY / LHR / ZRH / JNB
Programs: BA
Posts: 120
Op-ups due to overbooking are common, and the prioritisation of passengers to receive those is somewhat opaque. The passenger experience is therefore that these are ‘infrequent’. (Though I remember a lucky time where I had more than ten consecutively.)
But a plain old discretionary upgrade, other than for operational (usually overbooking) reasons, is best described as somewhere between extremely rare to vanishingly non-existent, rather than merely infrequent. I have never heard of one.