Upgrading with miles
 

Hi this is my first post . I need some advice and have rung BA and exec Club and no one can help me so I found this site I thought Id ask the experts.
Im flying LHR to YVR and LAX to LHR in September. We bought the cheapest World Traveller seats and upgraded to Club with airmiles.
I booked the tickets last October and was able to check availability for upgrade seats on line and there were always plenty going.
Im now looking at return flights LHR to Newark, again world traveller and upgrading to Club with miles. When I try mock bookings on line for any month /route up to next May, it always says the return leg is not available.
The web site looks different to what it was before. Are BA stopping us from upgrading both ways!
When I phoned BA the girl just said the upgrades hadnt been released yet! even for next week?!!!!
I would be really grateful if anyone could help me. Sorry for long post. I hope it makes sense.
Thanks
Sarah

Sarahuk - welcome to Flyertalk!

Have you taken a look at the sticky at the top of this board? There is a lot of useful information in there which might help you.

I'm guessing you bought the cheapest "World Traveller Plus" tickets (premium economy), rather than "World Traveller" (plain old economy) tickets - the upgrade (or MFU to use the term!) is normally for one cabin up only (e.g. WT to WT+, or WT+ to Club, or Club to First).

Generally if you can make a mock booking on ba.com, then you should be able to book an MFU. If one leg is available for upgrade, but the other isn't, BA will allow you to upgrade that - but quite often getting the agents to book it is a different story!

BA has recently made changes to the fare explorer booking interface (primarily allowing you to book flights using miles on other Oneworld carriers).

How many people are you looking to book for, and what are your preferred dates? Also, looking at JFK might open up some more availability.

Cant understand why its not showing availability on return, nor why the BA agent spouted that rubbish.

Can we just confirm you are talking BA Miles not Airmiles?

I did a mock booking just now and shed loads of avail both ways to Newark.

Firstly, are you upgrading from World Traveller or World Traveller Plus? You say World Traveller, but this means your upgrade will be to World Traveller Plus, not Club. You can only upgrade by one cabin.

Secondly, I'm not sure why you cannot see return availabilty. I just tried a World Traveller and World Traveller Plus upgrade on BA.com for mid-September and it showed availability both ways. I would just ignore the information you were given by phone - that's not right. I assume you have got sufficient BA Miles in your account? (not sure if insufficient miles could create such a scenario?)

Insufficient mileage wouldnt matter. It only comes into equation when you are asked to confirm itinerary.

Have another go at a mock booking, and tell us exactly what you enter. Then we can try to replicate. ^

It must be me doing it wrong!! Very Likely!!!!!!!
Heres what I do
Log on to exec club, then "book and upgrade with BA miles.
Tick box for upgrade return
Dates Thurs 8th Nov return thurs 22 Nov
Class- premier economy
This is world traveller, then we should be able to upgrade to Club class shouldnt we???
Every booking always says outbound ok but inbound "booking class not available " and only club class available to purchase.

Sorry I should have put world traveller PLUS and upgrade to Club class using BA miles

That's the BA system telling you there is no award availability in Club on the inbound date you selected. Club seats are available for purchase but not for upgrade - all upgrades are drawn from award inventory.

If the dates are critical to you, then I suggest you follow Shuttle-Bored's advice and enter NYC as your destination instead of EWR. This should widen the field - hopefully award availability will show from JFK.

Oh, and welcome to FlyerTalk sarahuk

Are you ticking BOTH boxes - upgrade outward and upgrade return?

For those dates, I see:

London - New York - Thursday 8 November 2007

09:10 8 Nov
12:05 8 Nov
Heathrow (London)
Newark (New York)
BA0185
British Airways
Club World

Direct flight, total journey time: 07 hours 55 minutes.

14:45 8 Nov
17:45 8 Nov
Heathrow (London)
Newark (New York)
BA0189
British Airways
Club World

Direct flight, total journey time: 08 hours 00 minutes.

Inbound
New York - London - Thursday 22 November 2007

08:15 22 Nov
20:15 22 Nov
Newark (New York)
Heathrow (London)
BA0186
British Airways
Club World

Direct flight, total journey time: 07 hours 00 minutes.

18:55 22 Nov
06:45 23 Nov
Newark (New York)
Heathrow (London)
BA0184
British Airways
Club World

Direct flight, total journey time: 06 hours 50 minutes.

20:45 22 Nov
08:40 23 Nov
Newark (New York)
Heathrow (London)
BA0188
British Airways
Club World

BA0188is a Club World Sleeper Service flight.Click herefor further details.

Direct flight, total journey time: 06 hours 55 minutes.


And the fare for whichever option you take, comes up as:

Passenger Price BA Miles Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges* per person Inclusive total
1Adult £ 670.00 25000 £ 192.90 £ 862.90

Thanks everyone for your welcome
SMIRNOFF A HUGE BIG THANK YOU.
I wasnt ticking both boxes. I thought it you had to tick one ,either one way upgrade or return box meaning return trip ie both ways.
Now I see availability for nearly every trip.
Thank you all for your replies.
I vote for Smirnoff to run BA!!

Thanks Shuttle-Bored.....does this mean one can use AA miles to upgrade now on BA?....thanks

I don't believe so - the functionality is to allow BAEC members look at spending BAEC miles on partner airlines for pure mileage awards (from what little I've seen of it). So for the time being, I expect MFU remains a BA booking, BA miles thing.

"
Generally if you can make a mock booking on ba.com, then you should be able to book an MFU. If one leg is available for upgrade, but the other isn't, BA will allow you to upgrade that - but quite often getting the agents to book it is a different story!"


Okay, I booked an MFU going LAX-LHR-BCN-LHR-LAX. The outbound is fine club (business) all the way, But on the return, the agent said there was only business on the BCN-LHR. She said check online to see if it comes up and call us. and we'll book it club. They deducted the 15,000 miles for the return. Am I entitiled to get the LHR-LAX because one leg (bcn-lhr) was available on the return.??????

Sorry, maybe my wording wasn't clear. What I was alluding to was that if travelling LHR - LAX - LHR, and only the outbound was available to upgrade from say WT+ to Club, then you would be allowed to do LHR - LAX in Club, and LAX - LHR in WT+ - for half the miles.

It doesn't entitle you to a magic Club seat becoming available I'm afraid!