abligh

As BAEC Gold OWE I have been upgraded on somewhere between 30% and 50% of AA Y flights I've taken, which is a far better ratio than I've had with BA (WTP->CW or CW->F). I haven't however had a single AA J->F upgrade on the 3 class transcontinental routes - they do exist (I saw one last night - I'm guessing the woman concerned had AA status).

flatlander

Those AA Transcon routes have EPs scattered like confetti at a wedding and Concierge Key (big spenders) making regular appearances, so any upgrades have a lot higher status people ahead of another OWE. Even as an AA EP I've never scored an upgrade on them by status alone (only using SWU).

abligh

Does BA GGL map to AA CK in terms of AA upgrades? (I am expecting the answer "no" here). Looks like I will reach the hallowed portals of GGL status in a couple of weeks.

yabadoo

Resurrecting this thread to see if anyone has an answer to his, but as AA has a priority/hierarchy of who gets an involuntary upgrade due to overbooking which starts off with Concierge Key and then works its way down the chain all the way to an ordinary Aadvantage member. Does BA have similar priority/hierarchy list of who gets prioritized and at the top of the list in line for an upgrade when the cabin is oversold and they're looking for pax to move up a cabin? Just wondering where OWE's slot in that list, if at all, and if upgrades are only programmed to be given to BAEC members in such situations and not to other OW elite members.

corporate-wage-slave

It is a lot more complex on BA, and it's done automatically by the DUT app within FLY. So BA assesses each passenger against various criteria, not just status, and upgrades according to its commercial logic. So it may upgrade a regular WTP traveller Silver passenger into CW thinking it may turn the passenger into booking CW, in preference to a Gold cardholder who usually goes CW but for some reason has ended up in WTP. AA passengers have a ranking within BA (called CIV) if they do some BA travel, so that helps, along with any previous flying history. The main driver isn't empty seats in (say) CW, it's full seats in WT, they upgrade essentially to create space down the back rather than to fill the front. I have enough experience to be able to guess DUT's logic, but even then I sometimes get it wrong, so you can essentially make zero assumption about what it is going to do.

rapidex

No. BA has a complicated algortihm for involuntary upgrades, which may see them go to non status passengers. Expext to fly in the cabin you booked.

TranceXplant

Maybe someone with more knowledge about BA's algorithm can make sense of this.

I'm OWE/AA ExP and got a free upgrade to J from PE yesterday between LHR and ORD. What I found particularly odd about it was that my ticket didn't even have a BA flight number (a high fare made the AA # yield more EQDs). So I wasn't even a customer of BA in a direct sense. Oversold, perhaps? Because there wouldn't appear to be much of a business case for upgrading a partner's elite with a partner ticket.

Dicksbits

I've been upgraded twice by AA as OWE. Once from J to F transcontinental JFK - LAX (Aug 19), and two of us from Y to J LHR - JFK (Nov 18) [partner had no OW status). I've never been upgraded by BA on any comparable mid-long hail route in 6 years as a Gold member (could be picking the wrong services that are not oversold!).

CKBA

Conversely as BA Gold, omitting IRROPs (all 788 to 789s), in the last 3 years I've had 3 AA upgrades to 'F' (admittedly internal), but zero on BA.

TTmex

I'm 0 for upgrades on the 787s. Most the time EF shows the premium cabins fairly full a few days beforehand. On the 747s I had more luck, guess there was more space to shift people forward into.

Honestly, while I'd love an upgrade on the 787, I find PE acceptable based on my standards. Have been fortunate TS has kept the seat next to be blocked on 5 of last 6 legs in WTP, so that does help. My 13.5 hour flight on CX PE also saw me with all 4 seats across at the front of the cabin. Perhaps I've been lucky. My last 4 LHs have been in J now and my next 2 coming up as well. That was thanks to finding UuA both ways and using up some of the double points earned in the Avios promo.

I can see why BA doesn't upgrade for the sake of it. They just don't need to. Speaking to some CC on certain routes (of course won't apply to all), they say that the prem cabins are regularly filled up with paying customers.

Love or hate BA, their financial results seem to suggest they are doing something right in their business model, even if it doesn't suit our own personal flying needs and prefs.

Sure, each time I approach the check-in desk, I'm always crossing my fingers, but I don't get my hopes up. Though I'd certainly be happy to score a J to F just to check that off my list

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum TranceXplant, it's good to see you here and I hope you had a good experience in Club World. It would be good to here from you in the future, I'm guessing your experiences are more AA based than BA so it would be interesting to hear your impressions on this and other services, it does help others with a similar background.

I've no doubt that all the other BA Golds in that cabin had long since been upgraded. This is actually about how they oversold the World Traveller cabin, and it's not completely unprecedented for everyone in WTP to end up at least one, sometimes two, cabins nearer the front. There are usually a lot of staff standbys on that route due to ORD's supposed connectivity to the rest of USA and Canada. When you consider the cash flows involved it's a sensible way to make money. ORD would be a good route for this, and WTP the best cabin to start from, so I'm not surprised it happened to you, it just says the pecking order was so long it went well beyond BA's own cardholders. Another day it wouldn't have happened, but in essence if there is a seat anywhere on that aircraft BA will try to sell it, at least once, maybe more.

Donsyb

Last year my OH who is EP/OWE was upgraded from WT+ to J on the 787 from Lax to LHR. I was already in J on a separate miles booking. He has regularly been upgraded on LHR to India flights from WT+ to J.

Out of 4 domestic AA legs last year travelling together, we got upgraded on 2 I think.

I was told by someone who worked on the roll out of the current system that it takes into account total historic spend with the airline (regardless of whether you're an AA or BAEC member) and status when looking at upgrades - he may have mentioned other criteria but I don't remember. Of course, the more you spend, the more status you likely have!