flytoeat

Greetings,

Will BA allow me to purchase a World Traveller fare, then call in to upfare to a Club World fare within 24 hours of the original purchase? What if the initial ticket is purchased through a travel agent? Any fees involved?

Thanks for any assistance.

Flytoeat

sammyg901

If it's via a TA then you can't - you'll need to go back to them. Direct with BA then no charges within 24hrs

orbitmic

As sammyg901 rightly says, BA will not allow you to change a ticket through them that has been purchased through a TA. You will have to complete all and any changes through the TA at least until departure time at the airport.

Perhaps we'd be able to help you a little bit more effective if you give us a bit more information as to how you need/want to buy a CW fare in such a roundabout way. I'll take a wild guess here, but in particular, if what you have in mind is that this is a ticket paid for by work and you want to then upgrade it, some employers would have an issue with you doing it that way after the ticket is purchased. If this is what you wish to achieve, you are in a much stronger position being upfront with your employer explaining that even though you understand that their policy is to only pay for WT, you wish to pay the difference out of pocket to travel in CW. This is actually the position I am typically in myself, I had a clear chat with them from the beginning that I wanted to be able to book CW even though only seeking reimbursement for the WT fare when I wish to travel in more comfort and we agreed on the procedure that I had to follow to do that.

If this is not the sort of scenario we are talking about and you have another reason to want to do this, maybe best explain to us and we can think of possible creative solutions.

flytoeat

Thanks. Very simple. My artist wife has been awarded a scholarship to study/teach for a week in Florence, including economy airfare. She will travel from Vancouver and does not want to travel in economy. The sponsor insists on using their travel agent and will not purchase a business class fare, even if we agree to reimburse the difference. Thus, coordinating an upfare within 24 hours of initial purchase of an economy ticket seems a reasonable plan of action. It sounds as if the travel agent will need to process both transactions?

Andriyko

Yes, that's correct.

Globaliser

It occurs to me that it will be worth asking the travel agent before you make the initial booking whether they will be happy to do this post-purchase upgrade for you. While it's easy for us to predict how a paid upgrade will work if you buy a BA published fare, once a travel agent is involved it becomes possible that what you're buying is not a published fare but some other fare that comes with different rules. In theory, those could include a rule that prohibits paid upgrades. You don't want to have any unpleasant surprises after you've booked the economy ticket, and so I think it might be worth having this conversation with the travel agent in advance.

If you are doing this through a travel agent, there may be no magic in doing this within 24 hours of initial booking. If you book directly with BA, there is a 24-hour grace period in which certain things can be done. But the travel agent may have no such rule, and (even in the case of a published fare) might have to apply the standard rules from the moment of booking. In the case of a published fare, that involves paying the change fee associated with the current fare, together with the fare difference up to the new fare that you want. Again, this is something that you might usefully talk to the travel agent about in advance.

sammyg901

Definately worth asking them - my corporate TA is able to do this at my new place and I know colleagues do it quite frequently as some of our permitted fares aren't much cheaper than business class at times. It's done whilst they issue the ticket though - they route the equivalent charge to my employer and the balance to my personal card ( not after separately/within 24hrs )

Otherwise you may get offered a "POUG" during online check in (unlikely if its a connecting ticket though) or you can try buy an "AUP" at check in at the airport - plenty of threads around on here with indicative prices etc

orbitmic

I was about to make the same point as Globaliser - also because some corporate TAs are reluctant to let another payer buy pay for additional options or changes rather than the original account.

corporate-wage-slave

The one exception, if a TA booking, is Upgrade Using Avios but that's only by one cabin, so it sounds like WT to WTP here. This you do by calling BA, but only if it's a BA ticket, BA metal and not a complicated ticket.

You are able to up purchase to CW or even First when within 24 hours of departure of the first leg by calling up, as well as a fare difference at the airport, or if available, AUP (see Dashboard thread).

windowontheAside

Yes, do check. My company's TA won't do this even though my company is happy for it to happen. They say they can't have two different entities paying for one ticket. Not sure if that's an ethics policy or an IT limitation but it seems pretty immutable.

You also might want to check likely costs carefully before booking anything. Can be mighty expensive flying in premium cabins from Canada.

orbitmic

My understanding from the cases I know is that it is not IT limitation but accounting/auditing issues. They just have to have the same account charged for the whole cost of one itinerary.

flytoeat

Thank you all for your kind assistance. All within the hour, economy ticket purchased by provider via their credit card, then I was able to upfare with an add/collect for the differential on my credit card. No fees due to being inside 24 hour window.

Globaliser

An excellent result, then.

flytoeat

I find it to be quite the contrary: business class tickets to Europe or Asia are frequently half the cost from Vancouver than from Seattle (119 air miles to the south). This fare was over $6000 USD from Seattle, while under $2700 USD from Vancouver. Next week I fly YVR-SIN-YVR for under $2800 USD.