testycal

Curious for other's experiences. My only experience checking in late at YVR to LHR a few months ago resulted in an upgrade from WT+ to CW which could have simply been me cashing my one lottery ticket that actually paid out.

Perhaps it had nothing to do with the upgrade but very curious. There are downsides of course ie lose chosen seat, taken off flight if overbooked etc.

the810

Well, essentialy, you'll get the worst possible seat in the class you've booked 99% of the time, and an upgrade on 1 out ouf 100 trips.

testycal

I guess I maxed out my 1/100 chance already...perhaps best to hang out in the lounge early

Door5L

Too many variables to guess with much accuracy what will happen, not least those who miss connections, BA and other airline staff on concession travel, blocked off seats, configuration variations and more.

In 2019 I had an economy booking to JFK and checked in as normal to row 40 or something. While waiting for the flight at the Starbucks B gates, I noticed my seat on the app had moved to 21J or thereabouts. True enough the alert beep sound went off at the boarding gate and the agent said with a smile that we had been upgraded by the system. I have no idea why my companion and I were moved to Club World given the relatively low fare we had paid but it was very well received. I can only guess that the aircraft had changed from a low J 747 to one of those super J ones at the time with Club almost reaching as far back as door 4.

gliderpilot

With status, you can of course delay check in but still have seat assigned. I wonder if this still impacts Theoretical Seating (TS) though, with you maybe losing any spare adjacent space before an equivalent status holder?

On a related note, would passing through conformance late have any impact similar impact to late check-in?

orbitmic

A long time ago former BA lurker Nicki confirmed that in fact it is the opposite and that whilst it is a very minor criterion, early check in gives you a slight advantage in the upgrade algorithm. Having said that, it seemed to be criterion no 854 or whatever in the pecking order, but at any rate zero advantage in checking in late for upgrade purposes and an at least theoretical “penalty” for it beyond the obvious.

id add that even when you have statue, curtain roulette on short haul and equipment change roulette on long haul can mean you lose you pre assigned seat and get relegated to a dump without ever knowing. Checking in early can enable you to partly correct that and checking in late won’t.

Confus

It doesn’t matter how late you check in, if the DUT hasn’t authorised you in advance for upgrade if required, you’re not getting one. It was different in the old days of manual flight management, but now FLY can handle all regrades with a single click of a button, 99.5 times in 100 it’ll be done by the book.