sany2

Hello.

I had read somewhere that while you are unable to upgrade tickets to business class (unless you pay the difference) on the ground, once the plane takes off, British Airways will sell upgrade coupons for something like $200.

Is this true? Is there any way to upgrade (subject to availability) on the day of the flight to Club World from World Traveler Plus?

Thanks

Jenbel

Welcome to FT!

Questions like this (which are very airline specific) get better answers in the appropriate airline forum. But the short answer is yes, one class upgrade only, cost depends on route and distance (but quite a bit more than $200 on most routes), subject to availabilty of seats (and more importantly catering for the WTP to NCW upgrade - ie if they don't have a surplus NCW meal, you won't get the upgrade). Tier points and miles will not be awarded for the upgrade, but for the original class of travel.

Check out the sticky on the BA board, there may be some information on this in there, and hopefully Richard will be along to move this to the BA forum presently.

richard

Thanks for posting. We hope to hear from you a lot! This will be moved over to the BA forum.

--richard, moderator

spotwelder

From WT to WTP was £200
From WTP to Club was £500
From Club to F was £700

This is for most routes but not all the way London Australia and return. The above are single trip costs valid about 3 months ago. Food must be available. Space must be available.

It is done as a Duty Free Sale, no status points awarded over base fare, no additional mileage awarded over base fare, only mileage points associated with use of BA Amex credit card and BAEC duty free sales earning.

Where are you thinking of going, which classes and when. You can go from Y to F at £1400 one way, I think. Some routes are very very busy in Club and you stand little chance of there being a seat available.

Fraser

Am sure you are much more experienced in this but I've read a number of people say they've claimed the miles and tier points from the cabin they moved up to.

MaxFlyer

When's the best time onboard to as for this upgrade? As you board; sometime pre-take-off, after take-off? I appreciate that being discreet is vital.

My company's booked me on the most cheapest WT ticket possible meaning EC won't even accept my money to upgrade to WTP.

Purchasing an onboard upgrade is my only saviour!

Thanks

Jenbel

the advice given in the past (and I've never done this personally) was to grab a crew member as soon as possible after boarding, explain you wanted to purchase an upgrade and could you speak to the purser about it asap

sany2

Thanks for your quick responses- I had never seen this forum before and its great!

I will be traveling from Detroit to Delhi (4 people) in WT+ in june. We were going to fly WBC on NWA (our normal carrier), but the fares were higher than they have been in the past. We have usually been able to use miles if the fare was higher than we were willing to pay, but now we have to use 240,000 miles per person (and we have enough, but don't feel like using them all at one time).

So you can upgrade from WT+ to First as well? If there are no seats in Club, can you go to First for the ammount of the Business+first upgrade?

When you say one way cost, does that include both segments (DTW-LHR-DEL? or just one segment?)

Do they accept USD?

Also, a little off topic and I think I should maybe post this somewhere else, but since we would be participating in the AA platinum elite challenge (LHR-DEL would be 5000+), would we be able to do both at the same time, and be Gold by the return flight?

Would we be able to claim BA miles on the DTW-LHR flight and AA miles on LHR-DEL (AA won't let you get miles for flights to london).

Thanks very much for all your help!

Sany2

Globaliser

I know very little about onboard upgrades, but this struck my eye. As you're dependent on there being (a) enough spare space; and (b) enough extra/spare catering already loaded onboard the aircraft; trying to get onboard upgrades for four people might be a bit optimistic.

ramraideruk

N.B. If you're flying back from the East Coast, at night, there may be no catering in Club. Everyone sould have eaten pre-boarding. All you'll get is a panini, then it's lights out!

Fraser

Although I doubt DTW is a Sleeper Service destination bearing in mind the current lounge is in a hotel

DTW-LHR maybe not much more than 7hrs if you get good tailwinds....nothing to do with curry I hasten to add

m600

I did this on JFK-LHR when we paid for an upgrade at check-in from W to J in Nov '04. As it was a one off I may have just been lucky?

flyingskyhigh

Slighty OT (as it related to a ground u/g)

On a MCO-LGW trip last year 4 of us were in M......

At check-in the annoucment was made that they were selling discounted upgrades which worked out @ $500.

Noticing not many people were taking up her offer I walked up to her and said their were four in my party and we would want to move up. She said $1000 (should have been $2000) for a full fare upgrade m-j for four! Which worked out at £150 each.

Out came the credit card and we had a great flight!

Globaliser

Bargain of the year, that must have been!

sany2

Anybody else have anything to add?

Should I move the AA questions to the AA forum?

Thanks,

Sany2