TedToToe

With a reduced number of flights for business, this year has seen me relying on POUGs, a domestic TP Run and stellar priced LAX return in CW courtesy of the Premium Fare Deals thread! However, on returning from LAX in late August, I have one further EU business trip in Y, and this will take me to 590 TPs; my TP year ends on 8th September! My query is regarding the EU trip, which is booked through the company travel agent. The booking ('L' out and 'V' return) provides me with 10 TPs each way. So, to make it to 600, I simply need one of the legs priced as a fully flexible ticket and earn 20 TPs. Any upgrades in MMB are locked out and I am reluctant to call BA due to it being a TA booking. Will MMB open up at some point and allow me to 'upgrade' to a fully flexible ticket?

Any advice appreciated.

corporate-wage-slave

Wait until T-24 / OLCI. You may get a POUG offer, but if not you can then call BA to get a fare difference upgrade. This will involve a change fee unfortunately but take your unwritten assumption here, it would still probably cheaper than doing anything else. The actuall best approach would be
T-24 - check for POUG
T-16 or whatever - when you pass midnight GMT since the robots recalculate POUGs at that point
T-4 - check at airport if AUP available
T-3 - if not fare difference to either Club or a higher class.

I shouldn't say this really, but if there is a strike announced tomorrow / Wednesday then there may be a Customer Advisory, which with careful perusal of Expertflyer could show up an interesting rebooking option.

Otherwise get thee to LGW and a GLA/ED evening tripI for £46 and 10 TPs.

TedToToe

Many thanks C-W-S. Yes, I'd be happy with a fare difference upgrade. I'll keep the LGW-GLA TP Run as Plan B!

mmxbreaks

Where is the last business trip from and to? Sometimes there are good one-way CE fares out of select cities, like ARN.
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TedToToe

It is LHR-GVA-LHR 2nd to 5th September.

mmxbreaks

There are certainly cheaper options than my masterplan then.

Wozza2404

Worst case is a simple same day LHR-MAN-LHR for £92.

mmxbreaks

Actually it's not impossible, just not necessarily the best for your needs. It depends how much time you can put to this and how Avios rich you are perhaps. For example, GVA-LCY one-way in (so called) business is 168CHF (£140) on 5th Sept. You could use 10K Avios to cut that down to 94CHF (£80) and still earn the 40TPs. More than you need, but may be preferable if you don't want to lose a day travelling later.

TedToToe

Stewie Mac

Don't forget that you actually have until September 22nd to get the extra TPs, you can ask for a two week extension to your year if you're going to collect them just after the official cutoff....

Pascoe

Does that actually work? Given BA's usual up and down ability to process stuff I'd be a bit sceptical personally. But that's just me...

thecoogan

Yes it does. And they do it fairly quickly. One thing to note is as it is a discretionary benefit, you couldn't get an additional benefit applied on top of this (e.g extension and then Maternity/Paternity/Adoption benefit)

thecoogan

And another gotcha, if you claim the two week extension any flights in that two week period count only towards the previous year.

Mapman

Yes, another data point: my wife slipped to bronze because I'd booked us a trip for my January birthday convinced that her renewal date was February 8th. But it wasn't - schoolboy error as it's January 8th. Called and got the points from 11 & 14 January counted for the previous year. Silver retained - although it took two phone calls as the first agent didn't actually act as they said they would.
All to the good, and family holiday to Portugal went well with lounge access at both ends for four people (and we all really liked the QF lounge in T3 which we had almost to ourselves before the afternoon flight to LIS).
Moral of the story - the extension does work!

Pascoe

Interesting. Never needed it although got close one year and it was a gold / silver situation so would have potentially been useful as that's a lot of TPs to burn....