goodtofly

Yesterday we used Avios to upgrade our outbound flight from IAD to LHR at the very end of September. These are off-peak tickets. It was 78K Avios plus additional taxes & fees. I was surprised in the huge increase in Avios compared to previous upgrades we've done. I questioned this with the agent I spoke with (I think it was the India call center) & he said that's just the way it is. We went ahead with the upgrade.

We've been flying the IAD-LHR route for the last 10 years, yearly, sometimes twice/year, on the same flights. We've always been able to upgrade our outbound flight to CW. Most recently, our flight on March 23 of this year was 48K Avios to upgrade the 2 seats. April 2020 (eventually cancelled due to COVID) was 40K to upgrade. April 2019 was 48K to upgrade.

So, my question is, was there large increase in Avios required for upgrades? 78K is way out of line compared to what was needed just 3 months ago for the same flight and all our flights before that.

Thanks for your insight!

KARFA

Yes so it seems they are charging you the avios difference between WTP and CW

WTP one way IAD-LHR for one person

42500 Avios + � 140.00
33000 Avios + � 190.00
26000 Avios + � 255.00
21000 Avios + � 305.00
16000 Avios + � 355.00
10400 Avios + � 375.00


CW one way IAD-LHR for one person

80000 Avios + � 175.00
65000 Avios + � 320.00
50000 Avios + � 425.00
44000 Avios + � 620.00
32000 Avios + � 740.00
25000 Avios + � 895.00

The old band rates are bolded. SO before RFS was rolled out for all long haul last December you would pay the difference between the band rates for each cabin, so 24k avios per person. It seems they are now charging you the difference between the highest avios rates instead, so 37.5k avios per person.

DeathSlam

That explains the rate the OP was charged but it doesn't say if this was charged correctly. Is that what they are *supposed* to be charging for avios upgrades? I would have expected to have seen more posts about it if that were the case.

KARFA

Well yes I deliberately didn't comment on that, partly because since BA introduced this change I am still unclear what difference a UuA should be based on now.

sziwan

I was quoted 20k Avios + $450 to UuA EWR-LHR from WTP (cash booking) to CW yesterday, so old bands?

goodtofly

Well, I just got off the phone with BA. There was no wait time but the call lasted close to an hour; I had other questions to discuss re this upgrade. The agent insisted the Avios needed for a cabin upgrade is system calculated and is based on the difference between the highest Avios bands in the 2 tables KARFA kindly shared. He couldn't explain how another customer could have Avios calculated based on the old bands. He could not point me to where this change is explained on BA.com.

We've been flying BA from the US almost exclusively since 1992, even to non-UK destinations. We never had issues with our once or twice annual flights and were generally very happy to fly with them. Now, not so much; everything has changed. The change above is a good example. It's robbery & such poor treatment of their customers. Once we deplete our Avios we will likely no longer fly with BA. We're insignificant to BA with only one or two round trips/year but maybe the sky is bluer elsewhere. So sorry for the rant; thanks for listening.

Radiation Station

You can use your Avios on other airlines in OneWorld, so don�t feel tied to BA if you would prefer not to fly them. Indeed, some folks prefer to use Avios on other airlines.

Pigeon49

Not to mention we're getting fewer Avios now! Isn't that double jeopardy?
Slight thread drift but not too far?

sziwan

I'd imagine RFS (new bands) apply to Avios bookings, while old bands apply to cash bookings upgraded using Avios.

sammyg901

The "book and upgrade" tool uses the old bands (unless it's changed recently)

However for WT+ to CW it uses a "pure" WTP fare not a "DIF" fare so it's likely you'd be paying too high a cash amount if you book that way

I have upgraded WT to WTP out of JFK and paid the expected amount (13k IIRC) so I suspect it may be YMMV

Ldnn1

As a polite side note, it�s not immediately clear from the OP�s post whether the 78k mentioned was per one or two passengers.

I find it�s always helpful in this kind of thread (of which there are loads) to state the price per person, with the combined total if desired, as that makes it much easier to analyse and compare the pricing and any issues that we�re talking about.

goodtofly

Just want to close the loop on this. Made calls to 3 different BA contact numbers and received the same response. "The computer is calculating 75K Avios needed for the upgrade". No one was interested in looking further into this 56% increase in Avios needed to upgrade or why, if you used the "Book & Upgrade" option on BA.com, the calculation was correct at 48K Avios needed. If this 56% increase is in fact real, there would certainly be many more complaint than mine.

I was advised to log a complaint, which I did. The complaint was logged under "Avios & Executive Club" and then "Collecting & Spending Avios". Two days later I received the following response:

"Regrettably we can't help with your request as we're unable to make flight changes or conduct any money transactions via email, nor do we have access to some of the systems used in our contact centres. Additionally, we're not in a position to be able to override any previous decisions made by that office." What a waste of time. Is there anything they can do? This is just another example of incompetence.

Geordie405

This seems to be a classic case of the reply having nothing to do with the actual complaint or the issue at hand. I am just curious why you didn't use the "Book and Upgrade" option? Presumably you got the usual message stating that it couldn't be upgraded online and you needed to phone BA?

Either way, the amount of Avios needed to upgrade should be the same irrespective of the method used to calculate it. It shouldn't be 48k if you can use the MMB feature and 75k if you can't and need to call up.

I would probably phone up yet again and ask that it be sent off to the fares team for a manual review and recalculation. That's assuming they will look at an Avios issue.

goodtofly

Geordie405...How do I get to the fares team? We're only Blue & in the US so how do I get to them? Although we've been flying with BA since 1992, we don't have any status. It's been purely leisure bookings, once or twice/year. I didn't use the Book & Upgrade option because the tickets were booked in April & at that time no CW upgrade seats were available. So I started with 2 RT WT+ fares. It's been my experience that BA dribbles out the CW upgrade seats; this has happened many times. And that's exactly what happened here. One morning when I checked for CW upgrades two were available for our flight so I jumped on them. Then you know the rest of the story from my earlier posts.

LCSinTexas

@goodtofly - Please confirm that the 78k avios was the charge to upgrade two seats, correct?

LcS