charleyq

Sorry to say but as a BA Gold card for over 4 years - i regularly get upgrades from Club World to First ( around 50% of the time....) and often from Traveller to Club within Europe, so much so that I now feel positively disappointed when I don't get them.

Not sure if it's because i fly over 200K miles a year and under 30 and female but..... never have to ask when travelling on paid ticket. I was once told by check in once that you'll never get in 1st if you are wearing jeans so now always travel in anything but jeans.

It also seems to happen more often on fuller flights or if I don't get my seat preference, simply ask if there is anything better ( not actually ask for aun upgrade) and it usually works.

Only times I do specifically ask are when I am flying on miles and unashamedly ask for me and companion and normally get a good response at least into WT+ and sometimes club.

I did get the odd upgrade at Silver but things really took off at gold flying out of LHR all the time, now living in Asia things are tougher as the switch from BA to Asian miles really is a killer since so many people here travel so often that gold is less of a perk...but have still had the odd upgrade back to Europe.

nobbyclark

Seems to be a lottery. Been Gold for 6 months and Silver for most of the 14 years prior to that. Been upgraded on 5 occasions, of which 3 were in the past 3 weeks, all coming back from TLV on flights that were overly full.

I don't know BA's rules for 'operational upgrades' but I suspect it goes along the line of flight capacity vs. value of customer to the airline. Why bump someone up to Club on an empty flight? But you can see the logic of upgrading someone if economy is full and you can get another paying, warm body on the flight by making some lucky Gold cardholder's day. Suspect the customer's attitude has a lot to do with it too.

Last week I had 27B on a 767 which is a bulkhead seat and you can prop your feet on the attendant's seat during the flight, so not the worst seat in the house. Didn't even ask for a seat change at check-in. But they bumped me up, doubtless to sell the seat to someone else, and I got an even nicer ride home.

_Sin

I get upgraded from WTP to CW, roughly 50% of the time - probably a shade less.

I attribute that to nothing other than pure luck at flying routes that are busy, and having Silver to push me up the list a little bit. There has been one rare occasion when a non-Silver colleague got upgraded and I didn't, but generally it would seem that the priorities are honoured. Usually if we're on the same booking, everyone gets the upgrade, so that's nice.

I'm also usually on a full-fare flexible ticket, because that's what the company defaults to buying for business travel.

Of course I'm always friendly and polite to staff (and for that matter, most other people I meet...) and I've never asked for an upgrade - but I suspect that's of minor importance. Still, no reason to be rude to people!

I'm also usually rather scruffy, but not to the extent that it looks like I slept on a bench in the local park. I'd be slightly surpised (and possibly even offended) if I had earned significant frequent-flyer status, booked lots of expensive CW tickets, and later discovered that the reason others had been upgraded over me, was down to their attire... I have every intention of flying in F in the future for a long holiday, and every intention of being just as scruffy as ever! Will I feel out of place amongst a group of people wearing top-hat and tails or ball gowns?

Basically for me upgrades are a really nice perk that helps keep me loyal to the airline, but it's not something I expect, nor something I think I can influence (other than retaining that Silver card...)

Fraser

You fly 200k miles per year and redeem for WT

G-BOAC (you'll see him soon enough will be here with a few more s soon enough

BAAZ

About 10 years ago I was approached by an EC rep in LHR T4 F checkin who told me that as a Gold, any time I booked in WT at whatever fare, I would be automatically upgraded to WT+ if I called the EC centre after buying the ticket. I never had occasion to try this out as luckily I've always been able to pay for WT+ or above, but was this ever really true?

Fraser

I thought WT+ had only been around since about 2000/2001-ish...

G-BOAC

at the WT redemption and that I surely can't be the only one (you aside) to go at the WT redemption

I can 'disprove' the jeans thing though - I've been upgraded wearing jeans - W to J and most recently J to F coming back from DEL IIRC.

Oh, and welcome to FT and the BA Board, charleyq

Globaliser

True: 2000, according to ba.com.

latitude

I can confirm (not on your flight ) - but I normally always wear jeans on long haul, and have been given many u/g from W to J...never J to F mind you, but it is not often I get to travel fully paid up in J

Daveon

That's my experience of it. I was silver for 2 years and now into my second year at Gold. I mostly fly WT+ and had a good rate of upgrades at Silver which have tailed off enormously at Gold to the extent that I've seriously been thinking of switching airlines.

I had to make a formal complaint about the CSD on a long haul route recently and that comes after 2 successive flights with frankyl poor crews.

I've flown 50/50 Club and WT+ this year and the difference in treatment that WT+ gets now compared to Cub and compared to a couple of years ago is quite shocking.

screwedbyaa

Whoever told you this is plain ridiculous. Not only do I truly believe that attire has nothing to do with op-ups, but it has also been my experience that most people in F are usually dressed in "chic casual," which automatically implies jeans. Most Club World/Europe flyers are business travellers in business attire. However, businesses generally do not pay for First, so most flyers there are actually eccentric rich people who couldn't care less what anyone thinks of their attire, not to mention that "chic casual" is just that: "chic." That agent has obviously not been to Barney's lately, where he/she can pick up a pair of jeans for a cool $300 and up!

More to the point, I'd like to see a deserving elite or full-fare-paying passenger denied the op-up in favor of a better dressed non-elite, less-paying passenger. That's not a very defensible move, in my opinion.

PS, charleyq: I'm not attacking you...my skepticism is directed at the agent.

710 77345

Can you elaborate on these two points at all?

lowlyblue

I am travelling from LHR to BOS on Friday in WT+. Checking availability, it seems that WT and WT+ are full but Club and FIRST aren't. Is this a promising situation for an upgrade?

_Sin

In my limited experience, yes - whenever I've been upgraded, that seems to have been the situation. I would assume that there would have to be people waiting for a seat in WT/WT+ and that the CW and F seats remain empty - then a few lucky folks will probably get bumped up.

I wouldn't be too hopeful though - you'll only end up being disappointed when you "only" get what you paid for...

BAAZ

Time flies!
must have been 2000 then. It was in the F checkin at LHR T4 (can't remember when that was introduced). I probably still have the rep's card somewhere.