oceanscape

I'm flying Y tomorrow and hoping to (pay to) upgrade to J at check-in. I am BA Gold so will use the First Wing. Is "earlier the better" to maximise chance of availability (looks from Expert Flyer like there are only 3 J Seats left) or do they generally hold any remaining seats back until closer to check-in closing time?

krispy84

If there’s availability in J then you can always upfare, but I suspect you’re looking for an AUP, a paid airport upgrade. I wonder if BA’s systems are agile enough to make a minute by minute decision on whether they are offering an AUP. I suspect there may be a cutoff time (12/24 hours?) before departure when the decision to offer AUP, or not, is made

oceanscape

Yes, apologies, I was talking about a AUP. Sadly no POUGs appeared for me but this is a Concur TA booking and in any event I guess I would have only been offered WTP which I’m not interested in. To be clear, AUPs aren’t subject to the same “one cabin upgrade” as POUGs, are they?

I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and ask at check in - will aim to get there around 3.5 hours before. Still showing as 3 available J seats on EF. That might not be enough spare capacity for them to do AUPs but I’m holding out hope! Y is basically full so don’t relish economy at that density

13901

AUPs, depending on availability, are usually available for M-J upgrades. Price will depend on route and loads and bear in mind there might be issues with meal availability (especially if you’ve ordered a special meal).

Will100

Obviously answer is to buy a ticket for the cabin you want to fly in.

Upgrades will, for obvious reasons, ordinarily be granted to high status passengers who regularly fly and pay for premium.

oceanscape

this is a work trip and our company policy is Y only. Otherwise I would have done. I am BA Gold and regularly fly and pay for premium on my own buck.

LCY8737

OP stated that this is a corporate travel agent booking. Many corporates have fairly restrictive policies preventing people from booking what they want. I had to deal with this for years, it is pretty annoying when you're perfectly willing to pay a fare difference out of your own pocket and the travel agent doesn't do it because they have to be "in policy" and BA don't touch the booking because it is a TA booking.

Edit: OP beat me to it...

ibbitsc

On work trips I have to do the same as you. Typically I’ll ask when I get to the airport. If there is nothing, I’ll typically ask again just before leaving the lounge (assuming I’ve been there an hour or so). At both LHR and JFK I’ve experienced an initial nothing is available, and then something shifting and being able to later on.

Will100

Didn’t mean to offend, I obviously missed the point :-)

oceanscape

great tip, thanks!

ratechaser

Anecdotally at least, I'm not sure that's true of BA - plenty of gold/GGLs here that have commented on the paucity of op-ups in the past. This isn't a US airline you know...

Though I'm not sure anyone has deciphered the opup algorithm, it has been speculated it could favour those that rarely travel in premium cabins, in an attempt to give them a taste of the good life and get them to pay for it next time.

Not unlike the drug pushers business model. Including the huge come down that can follow a trip in CW

orbitmic

I would keep my expectations low: if indeed there are only 3 seats left for sale in J (ie J3), I think it is somewhat unlikely that an AUP will be offered unfortunately. Also bear in mind that even if AUP is offered, from Y to J will not necessarily be cheap even if work paid for a fairly expensive Y ticket.

oceanscape

So here’s what happened: first wing check-in, “great news, I can get you upgraded for £759 if you’re interested”. I say I’m happy to go ahead, she calls and gets told by someone “sorry; the seats are needed”. Whatever that means. No problem I say.

in the lounge I thought I’d try again as there was no queue at customer service desk and I see there are still J3 showing on expert flyer an hour before departure. Exact same thing happens; £759 showing as price but call centre says the seats are “needed”.

right up until ExpertFlyer zero’d out for departure there was always J3 showing (and it was possible to buy 3 J seats on BA.com). Yet I get on board and entire J cabin is full, all seats taken.

any ideas as to what happened? Held back for Cabin crew friends/family or VIP upgrades?

corporate-wage-slave

In the two hours before the flight is closed, there can be hundreds of movements on a long haul. To give one example - and there are many such - let's say there was a staff standby, typically in WT. They get onboarded late in the day, this then led to someone getting an WTP upgrade. It then turns out they have their partner on a separate booking, so requests to return to the original seat. Control finds someone else instead, but then it turns out they have decided not to travel. It's probably best not to think too linearly on this, it's more of multiple and chaotic streams of interaction. You can sometimes do some parsing of information to work out your chances, but I didn't have enough information here to be able to contribute. But generally if it's J3, C2, W1 for example that means no upgrades.

oceanscape

All makes sense; it was just weird the check-in and CS staff were seeing a price and believing a AUP was available and then only found out that not to be the case when they called.