tarman121

Hello all,

i booked an economy LHR-MAD roundtrip fare on ba.com
LHR-MAD is with BA
MAD-LHR is with Iberia.

I found out after i booked that Iberia's flight is on a wide-body so want to fly business (on MAD-LHR only).
Upgrading the incoming flight only with cash is a rip off (over £300).
Apparently not possible to upgrade with Avios as you can only upgrade the next cabin up (which would be Premium Economy).

So i checked how much a new one-way business class redemption ticket and it's only 15,000 Avios + £25.
So if I go ahead and book this, will i have problem checking-in/boarding?

I'll have the MAD-LHR seat in economy as part of my roundtrip booking.
And now a new MAD-LHR seat in business as part of my Avios one-way booking.

Is this okay?

KARFA

You most likely would have problems with it if you remained with two seats on the flight when you got to check in.

So what I think you should do is once you fly the LHR-MAD cancel the rest of the booking which should solve the issue. How long have you got between the two flights?

tarman121

2 weeks between the 2 flights.

So you're saying I should go ahead and book my one-way business redemption flight.
then after I have flown my LHR-MAD, cancel the rest of the economy ticket, leaving only my business booking valid.
Is that right?
seems like a smart solution

mikeyfly

Yes. And maybe you’ll get a tiny amount of money back for taxes on the cancelled Y flight

Schwann

If you don't mind holding out, you might get an upgrade offer at OLCI for the IB leg. They are usually only about 50 Euro or so.

I wouldn't buy a whole new ticket just to experience IB business class on a 2 hour flight.

tarman121

would still prefer 15k avios + £25 over 50 Euros.

tarman121

I've just realised that there is no option to book premium economy on this flight.
although the a350-900 has a PE cabin, Iberia are leaving it empty for this flight.

so the BA agent on the phone was wrong to say i cant upgrade the original booking to business, claiming its not the next cabin up.
It appears it is.

guess ill be calling them back again...

Cymro

Even though there are premium economy seats on the plane, they are not sold as such.

You can either use your status to select one (or maybe even pay, with no status), or you can upgrade one cabin into Business, with actual lie-flat seats, if your ticket allows it.

Deltus

But they might have correctly said you couldn't upgrade the ticket at all with Avios - that would depend on what fare code your original booking is in.

BERbound

IIRC a few months ago IB were flying one of their newly delivered aircraft on the LHR route without the business seats fitted, meaning you would get an Y+ seat instead or worse. Also the Level aircraft pops up now and again. You may wish to check the seatmap before you book.

KARFA

Bear in mind to upgrade with avios your booking needs to have been made on a BA 125-... ticket, and for IB flights you can only do it if your flight is in the following selling classes - W, E, T, Y, B and H.

tarman121

DELETE

SilverChris

You'll get flagged for double booking if you have two active reservations for the same flight. Be careful if you go down this path - you might find one reservation cancelled for you, and not necessarily the one you're hoping for.

KARFA

I have had multiple bookings on the same flight many times and it’s never happened.

I think the only situation where ba does this is for TA bookings to try and deal with an issue they don’t like when corporate TAs make multiple bookings.

realistically the only problem for the OP would happen if they still had two live bookings when OLCI opens up.

aks120

I have a couple of these bookings - as I try to figure out what time I will leave work and so make double or triple bookings from LHR-EDI. I do this regularly and cancel the inappropriate booking as and when I realise what time work will finish. I am not sure this risk is an actuality.

Regards

aks120