An upgrade question
 

Very new to the forum and the BA Exec club, so please excuse my lack of knowledge here. I’ve tried searching the forum and have come up a little blank.

I recently booked a trip from GATWICK to BORDEAUX and was offered an upgrade to Club for a tiny fee. However this was only for the flight there. Now I know I could upgrade through manage my booking, but I’m being quoted £1196 for an upgrade to Club Europe. This seems a little steep for such a short flight.

My question, and I understand this wouldn’t be a hard a fast rule, am I likely to pay a more discounted rate at the checkin desk for the returns upgrade?

Welcome to the club and the forum!

As you said it is not a hard and fast rule, but every time I asked at the check in counter for a short SH flight the fee was somewhere below GBP350. Now, I am just one person and certainly not re presentable of how likely it is, but I would generally imagine that if there is a seat still available on the flight in Club that it is likely to be cheaper than the 1.2k you are currently being quoted. However, will it likely be as low as the upgrade fee you paid for the outbound? I would say "No".

Btw, there is thread that tracks what people paid (or were quoted) for an upgrade at the airport (AUP) - you may want to check that out as well.

Hope this helps

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA Forum Jacques Ferreira, it's good to see you here and I hope that we will see more of you here. It's a big resoruce, with the main information to be found in the Stickies and in the Dashboard.

For upgrades there are 3 types available
- upgrading for the fare difference - this is almost always available, and is the most expensive. It can sometimes through up silly fares (such as the amount you quoted) and probably includes some amount of change fee.
- POUG - proactive upgrade - which you can see in Manage My Booking and the App with a clear indication that it's a limited time offer. See the Dashboard for ProActive upgrades, there is a lot more information there and in its wiki, and the cost is only a fraction of the amount you are seeing here. It sounds like your upgrade fee for the outbound is like this.
- AUP, Airport upgrade - also tthere a thread on this in the Dashboard. This is usually the same as POUGs or maybe a little higher, but still more reasonable than the fare difference, usually.
The last 2 are capacity constrained so they won't be always available.

When are your travels? Best bet is to keep an eye every few days on the App and see if there is the * Upgrade special, this could be very reasonable.

I wouldn't lose any sleep about travelling in economy for this short haul hop - spend those Euros on a couple of nice meals in Bordeaux

Indeed I think that any significant money is best spent in Bordeaux, on Bordeaux :)

If it is the lounge you are after, there are a number of paid options to look at at least for the outbound, which you can book in advance or on the day (price changes).

https://www.gatwickairport.com/at-th...rport-lounges/

For a family, this will cost a lot less than any type of paid upgrade.

You can take the upgrade on the way out now if it's still available, should be around £90 or so? That gets you lounge access in Gatwick, which is the one worth having really. It's a nice lounge, decent food options and pleasant drink.

You will probably be offered another upgrade 48 hours before the flight for the return. But the lounge at Bordeaux isn't good, and you'll be paying for a small meal on the plane and some poor quality drinks, and a little more space in the seat. It's not great value

Fares and similar fees and charges are only meaningful if they are quoted in per person terms. When you said £1,196, I suspect that most of us assumed that this was for one person, as that is the only meaningful way we can assess whether the number is comparable to other offers, or whether it's good value.

I now have a suspicion that you mean £1,196 in total for all of you together. But still it makes a difference whether "wife and kids" means that it's £1,196 for four people or £1,196 for eight people (if, for example, there are six children).

If the upgrade price is for both flights (seeing as it sounds like you were expecting to get lounge access before both of them for that price), that also makes a difference. £1,196 for four people one-way is basically £300 each. £1,196 for eight people round-trip works out to about £75 per person per flight. Big difference.

Pret does a very nice lounge at lgw.
Fresher food and fresher coffee.

The lounge at Bordeaux is often suggested to be the worst in the entire network.

The £396 via the app will be the POUG fare for four people, £99 each. It is probably only available on the outbound.

My advice is that if you want lounge access and a nice experience on the flight that you take the POUG now on the outbound. That gets you the nice lounge at Gatwick, and the business class experience onboard. It's fun to do, at least once.

My experience is that when I get offered a one way POUG, almost always I get another offer via the app 48 hours or so before the return. So if you're hooked on business class and you don't mind a very poor Bordeaux lounge, you can decide then. Standard upgrades are usually very expensive (the "upgrade for money" option).

[posted simultaneously to Robespierre, same advice]