spicysoup

Hello All,

Can anyone provide any tips for bookings made through work when looking to upgrade? My place of work has a Y only policy unfortunately and I've got a trip in June to Melbourne. I'm looking at going MAN>LHR>SIN>MEL and MEL>HKG>LHR>MAN.

1. As this will be booked in Y through the work TA what is my best option of upgrading any/all legs?
2. Will i have to call up and pay Ł150 to amend each leg and the price difference or will I have to chance an AUP?
3. Will I have POUG opportunities or not because it's booked through a TA?
4. Any other tips in general for this sort of situation?

Thank you so much for all input! If this is covered elsewhere apologies!

ajeleonard

Does you corporate travel policy let you pay the difference between the policy class and higher class? If so that might be easier to just be booked directly into W or J

spicysoup

Sadly not. I can enquire as to whether this could be allowed but currently it is not.

BertieBadger

My first tip might seem like a strange one - check with your employers that they are actually OK with you doing this. Many will be but some might not, depending on their policies.

With that said if it's booked through a work TA, I would say your best - possibly only practical - option is AUPs.

As the TA has control of the ticket up until the flight, I don't think BA can offer you a fare difference upgrade or a POUG (and while I have perhaps seen the occasional rare report of a POUG on a TA booking I don't think you'd get it on a routing like that anyway!)

ajeleonard

That does limit your options then. The corporate TA controls the booking until 24 hours before departure of the first segment.

For the outbound you are realistically going to be limited to upgrading at the airport if a promotional rate is offered. Calling in is likely to be prohibitively expensive

The return you will have more options such as miles upgrades if available, and you can deal directly with the airline

BertieBadger

Of course, you can UuA TA issued tickets if they meet certain conditions - all the gory details here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29235586-post7.html But UuA is of course restricted to one cabin upgrade only and availability on the days you require, which may be hard to come by on certain routes.

Vinotraveller

Y only policy on UK to Australia flights - poor you, I hope they schedule in a day for you to recover!

spicysoup

Thankfully I think I will! And a little leave in HK on the way home should be fun.

rapidex

Beware if work ta books you a flexible Y ticket and you poug to a non flex ticket, there could be repercussions if things change. This may not apply to your situation but it is worth pointing out.

jackcarr

If work tried to send me to Australia in Y I think I'd genuinely refuse to go. I get companies forcing TATL in Y but that far in Y is something else, especially if you're expected to work within day or so of arriving.

kb9522

memesweeper

DYKWIA

What a helpful response

flatlander

POUGs on travel agent tickets are quite possible - often available slightly before checkin opens as BA takes control of the ticket. I have done many of these myself.
POUGs on such a multi-hop itinerary with multiple carriers are much less likely I'm afraid.

AUPs are obviously possible (including on the QF and CX legs, but remember that paid upgrades on other carriers do not attract increased Tier Points as they do on BA).

The flexibility is an issue, too. Is this a very large company or one with a lot of travel? If so be extra careful because they may have invisible (to you) flexibility in their specially-contracted fare conditions that you'll remove with a POUG. If it's a smaller company booking a published fare then you'll know how changeable it is and how much you'll break that with a POUG. You can also gauge how likely you are to need to change the ticket - is this a very fixed job like "attend a conference", or more open, "Install this kit and get it working, solve this problem and stay until it's done" ?

If this is going to be any sort of regular occurrence for you then I have to question doing it in economy for the sake of your own health and well-being. For a one-off per year (or so) with some recovery time at the destination it might be acceptable but not only is this very fatiguing, you're burning up a lot of your personal time for work (recovery from overnight travel downroute is definitely "work").

I also question paying your own money towards any business travel, especially on an ongoing basis. Again if this is a one-off you might like to add your own money for fun, but paying in to employer's activities on an ongoing basis is money going the wrong way. I do not part-pay for business travel unless there is something in it for me that I'm willing to buy (strong professional benefit, a place I'd really like to go anyway, I need the tier points). Making work less miserable is not what my money is for, that is what my employer's money is for.

Greenpen

I really would not travel that far in Y for my employer. Go back to your boss with a case! I do travel Y on European flights as it seems the same as J to me. But I pay for J for my leisure travel if it is either cheap compared to the Y fares or over about three hours in length. Outside Europe I sometimes pay for J on short haul routes as you generally get the bigger seat, much more room and good service.