oceanscape

I have a slightly confusing situation, 2 of us are travelling - myself on a one-way WT Avios reward ticket and my companion on a cash ticket (WT+ outbound but WT for this inbound flight). The flight is next Sunday, 5 August.

I have seen from Expert Flyer that the CW cabin is currently pretty wide open in availability (all "9+") but neither of us have a POUG on our account. My companion is offered an upgrade to CW for £1k when clicking the upgrade tab (and I am told I need to call to make any changes to my booking).

- What are the chances a POUG might appear in the next week, or has that ship sailed?
- If I call up will our upgrade prices be different given one is an Avios reward and one is a cash ticket?
- Would you recommend trying to get an upgrade now or waiting for closer? FWIW, I would probably be okay with £1k max.

Many thanks for any advice!

tomparskate

If you call up you may get a better deal. Personally I would wait and do it as near to the flight as you can. Even try at the Check In Desk. If you have Status you may get an Op-Upgrade as flights to YYZ are very popular for people to go WT+ given the length of the flight.

Personally if it was me, I would speak to the check-in agent and see if I can upgrade there and then. I imagine it would be cheaper

corporate-wage-slave

POUGs are only one class upgrades, and if I've read it correctly for the flight in question you are both WT.

That CW upgrade looks to me to be a fare difference upgrade, it's not a POUG which are clearly advertised as a special time limited offer - see the Dashboard for examples of what it looks like (and in any case would be for WTP). If you bought that revenue ticket via an OTA and many TAs then that will be the best you can expect in advance of getting to the airport, you would only have a small chance of a POUG at OLCI, not in advance, whereas at the airport you can both request an AUP to WTP or CW. YYZ - LHR prices are shown in the Dashboard thread on the topic, and LGW would be the same or a bit lower. It would almost certainly have been cheaper to buy CW in the first place, rather than the fare difference now.

For the Avios ticket, your better bet will be to change the redemption to WTP or CW with Avios (if I have understood that you are currently in WT). It may even be a rare example of where buying some Avios is cost effective. I don't see any availability on a dummy booking at the moment but it would not surprise me if it opened up right at the end of July or early August. There may be a case to move hotel / Amex miles into BAEC in anticipation of this, particularly if there are other uses of Avios open to you if this doesn't work out. Essentially AUPs on Avios only happens when they are fairly desperate to push people forward, POUGs are only for one class upgrades, so in fact you should be looking not at CW availability, but WT availability. If there was a POUG offer on the Avios ticket it would be entirely possible to be at a different price to the revenue ticket, entirely possible that one of you is offered it but not the other.

So I would do a brief daily check of both bookings about 2 am UK time or later (refreshing the App if that is how you are accessing MMB) but mainly look to do an AUP at the airport.

oceanscape

You are correct - thank you. I didn't know POUGs were one class upgrades only. In that case, it wouldn't be much use anyway as we are not really bothered about WTP,

Yes, you're right. It's a fare difference upgrade and not a POUG.

Thanks, and noted. The revenue ticket was bought directly with BA. Unfortunately he could not buy CW in the first place as a third-party was paying for the ticket but it had to be Y class. Sorry, but what is a AUP?

Super helpful advice; many thanks indeed. You are right that there is no Avios availability showing in either WTP or CW at the moment but I will keep checking every day. Assuming that this opens up, I can upgrade my Avios reward by simply paying the mileage and tax difference, or is there a change fee too?

corporate-wage-slave

AUP is an Airport Upgrade Promotion, there is a thread about it the dashboard, and another thread with an abbreviations guide for the alphabet soup in which we swirl. There is a change fee for moving cabins, but it's something like GBP35. Otherwise it is the extra taxes/fees/Avios. If you find another day when CW and WT availability is showing for YYZ-LON then you can work out the delta, it's simply (CW-WT) + £35 - both Avios and cash element. There may be a slight difference when it comes to payment, for example due to currency movements on the taxes.

williamn78

The LGW route is routinely very empty from YYZ. So even if you don't upgrade you may well find yourself with three seats in WT to stetch out over! FWIW I had an upgrade to CW from WT+ for £200 or so on this route a while back.

oceanscape

Great to know; thanks!