shorthauldad

For those of us new to the "book WT+, then UUA to CW" game, when booking during during a WT+ sale, do you

a) book WT+ even if there's no immediate UUA availability to CW, aiming for dates/flights you "know"* ought to open up later, then keep checking... and checking ...and checking, until you score your upgrades?

or

b) change your dates until you find something that's immediately upgradable, then book-and-upgrade all in one go?

or

c) some other strategy I haven't thought of yet?

* for some suitable definition of "know"

rossmacd

I would only ever book in situation B - no point booking LHR-SYD in WT+ in the hope that reward availability opens up

mumha abu

I was wondering that myself. Is there any difference in price/Avios if you UUA immediately ?

stifle

There shouldn't be. But if your flight originates other than in your membership country, then booking and upgrading at once is definitely the way to go.

shorthauldad

Unless they decide to hit you with a "change fee" (which ought not to apply to UUA ... or am I mistaken?) there ought not to be; any additional taxes/charges ought to be the same whether it's book-and-upgrade in one go or book and upgrade later.

Having said that, I've done two "book first, upgrade later" recently and they were handled completely differently for no apparently reason. The first time I called they just processed the upgrade on the phone there and then, the second time I called they said they had to send the request over to ticketing to get it repriced; they called back several hours later to confirm the upgrade.

These two upgrades were actually the outbound and inbound legs of the same booking, so I still don't understand why they were handled so differently.

shorthauldad

Well, there is that. Allegedly some people do actually fly in WT+ though... and I even heard a rumour there may even be something called WT on that route, but that can't really be true, can it?

I did write "know"* to imply that on certain routes/flights one may have a feeling that there ought to be availability opening up at some point before departure - LHR-SYD is probably not one of those routes, though!

T8191

Agreed completely, although our personal circumstances allow that flexibility. OK, we're usually lucky, and have only ever had to shift by a day or a week to find upgrade availability to CW - but that's booking 9 months ahead on a far less 'stressed' route than LHR-SYD.

Looking from the other end of the telescope, would I fly to SYD in WT+? NO. So I wouldn't risk booking it and hoping for UuA availability.

shorthauldad

So you have never booked in WT+ and waited?

Globaliser

As most of my travel is because I have to be at place X on Y date, even though it's all personal travel, I have to book the dates/flights on which I have to travel and then hope that MFU availability will open up. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't; but MFU availability won't change the dates and times of the events that I am going to or around which I have to organise my travel. Being able to book during a sale, rather than immediately at a non-sale price, is already a luxury.Judging by the number of FTers who claim that it is not possible to survive a LHR-SYD flight in economy, I am surprised that there aren't more suppliers of body bags at LHR and SYD as that business would (according to those FTers) make a killing.

T8191

No, never ever.

We do not wish to fly l/h in WT+. We only book it if we can MFU at the same time - if we can't MFU, we won't go on those dates and seek others.

We flew in WT+ some years ago, but that was when we first started flying BA … and before we discovered FT.

PETER01

If you didn't know T8191 is BA's WT+ UuA No.1 fan.

T8191

� and a cheap-skate OAP

shorthauldad

Oh, I know ... I was just seeking to clarify the "upgrade now" or "upgrade later" bit!

PETER01

Oh, he always upgrades there and then whilst booking ......or never

shorthauldad

I was joking ... three years ago (long before I discovered FT) I flew MUC-LHR-HKG-DPS and back with Mrs Shorthauldad ... in Y (mostly CX apart from the MUC bit which was BA).

Was "OK" ... probably wouldn't book it that way again, but at the time it seemed fine.

DPS airport nearly drove us insane (wonder if they still have the 'bing bong' musak playing everywhere?), so after that CX even in Y felt like a welcome relief.

Perhaps there's a lesson there .... if the airport is bad enough, even the worst seats on the plane seem good.