Upgrades on BA for CX Diamond
 

Whar are other CX Emerald card holders experience with op ups on BA , from both premium economy to Business and from Business to First.

Virtually nil.

According to BA's passenger manifest.. no matter what status you hold, the Cabin Service Director will only see: CX FF member

Any upgrades are given to BA FFP members first... and BA rarely upgrades if you care to visit the BA forum to ask. Or read this THREAD.

Op Ups are even rare for BA FFP.
Normally Op Ups occur when the cabin you are booked in is over booked.

Status only works (and works well) if the flight is cancelled and you have to be re-booked on other flights. Also works if you are on stand-by.

So I'll have a better chance with my BA blue card than MP Diamond ? BA emeralds are recognised on CX flights.

Actually, it does CX Emerald/Sapphire/Ruby so there is visibility of your status.

The reality of op-ups is that BA will take care of both it's Gold and Silvers before getting into the OW Elites. Given the bias of the BA scheme towards earning status through premium cabin flying you have a better chance of getting something from WT or WT+ than from Club.

My op-up record on BA (as a BA Gold) is somewhere between 5-10% of flights, almost all J to F when travelling on tickets booked into J. Fare class does seem to matter.

I have been upgraded a grand total of three times in twelve years on BA as a gold card holder so upgrades are generally thin on the ground. Each time it was clear that the business cabin was oversold and I was bumped to first because my gold card number was in the booking, which is quite a logical way to upgrade if you have to. Certainly BA don't go out of their way to oversell a cabin, knowing that they will upgrade the extra passengers, they seem to try to match demand to supply (and do it quite successfully given the lack of numerous upgrades). I doubt I would have been picked out if I had just had a Cathay card number in the booking.

When the roles are reversed, however, Cathay behave differently. On two CX returns to HK I was upgraded to first three times with only my BA gold card number in the booking, I had no status with Cathay then and always took discounted business class fares. I will freely admit this had me gobsmacked. I promptly switched all my Asian and Australian travel to Cathay, collected a diamond card, and now find that on one CX flight in two on average I get upgraded (where there's a first class to get upgraded to). Now that I am compelled by my company to travel on only fully-flexible business class fares, Cathay get the benefit of the increased revenue rather than BA. I still keep the BA gold card because it's useful in terms of increased air miles seat availability but that's about all and after the first month of my BA membership year it goes in the drawer once I've reached renewal (being outside the UK 800 points isn't that bad - the Cathay tiers are in my experience much harder to get to, but conversely you get treated better when you do eventually arrive).

actually, my experience has been pretty good. even as a CX ruby, i had been upgraded at checkin (at YYZ, BA staff actually said he upgraded me becuase "we take care of frequent travellers in oneworld"). but he did ask me me to change out of my jeans and sandals.

not sure about chances at gate, or OLCI.

:D

[QUOTE=Guy Betsy]Virtually nil.

According to BA's passenger manifest.. no matter what status you hold, the Cabin Service Director will only see: CX FF member

As said this is not true, we know your status and treat you the same as a BA FF of the same status.As a BA CSD I always find it interesting chatting with other Oneworld members to find out why they are travelling with us and how we compare.I haven't met alot of CX FF but of the QF ones I have met, BA always seems to come out well in comparison.
CIHY

Well, good to know. Because you know that the BP doesn't indicate that .. at least not the little bit part that we get back after the Gate agents take the larger piece with our 'status'.

On the PIL we receive, it has your seat number and your name on the left along with you OneWorld airline name and level.As it is impossible to remember all the levels offered by all the airlines in OneWorld, on the right you will also be listed as Emerald,Sapphire and Ruby.
CIHY

An op-up is an upgrade given because of overbooking, i.e. for the airline's convenience rather than as a favor. BA certainly does op-ups when necessary; they're not going to deny boarding to a passenger while a seat goes empty. But they have a policy of not doing upgrades when not necessary.

Apparently BA passengers who "pay" for club/first seats (I use quotes because usually their employer pays) like the exclusivity and this is good for business, but as Moscowflyer's post above indicates, it doesn't always work that way. Maybe BA likes exclusivity for its own sake, whether it is good for business or not.

BA has treated me very well in the past year even I am CX Gold... Out of the 3 rnd trips HKG-LHR in W, I was upgraded on 2 rnd trips to J either at check in and at the gate whereas I have flown over 20 CX Y rnd trips in the past 3-4 years and I have not been upgraded once( not saying opup is a "must", but just by probability no opup on CX as CX Gold seems weird)

Update
 

Having taken four BA flights since this post I can confirm that there was no recognition of my emerald status at any time , no visit from the Cabin service director and no reference to my name. Also no mention of my status on the boarding pass on two of the flights and no op ups at all but no complaints on that front. As a Diamond member I will definitely be angling for Cathay J in future even with the inferior seat as the all round package is just better and there's always the chance of that op up.

Interestingly enough during my trip I took a short haul flight in the U.S on the budget 'Jet Blue airlines' who were absolutely fantastic , constantly referring to me by name and the presentation and quality of the check in and cabin staff was way beyond F standard from BA & Cathay, always smiling and very helpful. I think the majors have a thing or two to learn from these guys.

Actually on the larger part of the BP it does state your Status:

Emerald/CX 1234567

BA J really is better than CX J (and I say that as the biggest fan of CX that exists on FT). To be fair to BA, they do recognize OW status most of the time, even if your 4 flights don't show it (and I must have 100 flights on BA longhaul by now, though most in F where they do remember your name, with or without status). BA is far less consistent than CX in their inflight product (both crew service and even the physical goods onboard the aircraft; also often cabin crew know less about the F service than some pax do, many times I've asked for something simple, like the comb insert in the amenity kit, been told they don't have it any more, asked them to please check and they find it ... this happens over and over again these days). My sense is that the BA F product has had a rough patch in the past 2 years but is now improving and coming out of it.

Back to your original question, chance of opups as a non-BAEC Emerald, I am sure that most of the time you will be upgraded before any BA Silver. However there are a lot of BA Gold around, though most are flying CW so it is the J->F upgrade that they are angling for. I've even seen BA upgrade from Y pax with zero status (presumably they ran out of any Sapphires).

I strongly disagree both about BA being better than CX J (it is not in ay way better apart from possibly the sleeping position of the seat), to being the biggest fan of CX on FT, that is my role ;)

Seriously I have NEVER been upgraded by BA as a Gold for over 5 years now. I am consistently treated better by CX as a BA Gold than I ever feel I am treated by BA. CX Rocks, but you have the proverbial snowballs chance in hell of an upgrade with BA even as a CX uber-elite.

You're incorrect , on two of my boarding passes there was no reference whatsoever , be it on the stub or the main part.

Interesting. It seems unfair that my carrier treats other OW status with respect whilst BA don't. As far as CX are concerned they are doing the right thing , due to their policy with BA Golds such as yourself and the lack of CX recognition from other OWs it seems as if they are coming out on top even with the inferior seat. On that subject does anyone know when CX are going to upgrade their seat. BA are coming out with a new one soon.

Some would say this is not unfair just very good business sense. If CX treat other airlines FF's well they will surely gain more business from them. This is not an approach that BA shares and I dare say that they do not win so much revenue from CX FF's as they otherwise would.

CX policy with respect to other OW elites has certainly had an effect on my purchasing habits. So I agree they are probably winning more custom as a result of their policy.

See this thread for more information on this subject. Looks like next year some time they will be announced.

Not incorrect. Your particular experience may not be consistent with Dave Marsh's post, but mine has been. On all my flights in the past few months (the overwhelming majority of my OW flights are on BA), the main part of the BP showed my OW status while noting that I was flying as a CX FF, but the stub just showed my CX number.

I very much agree. I think CX's use of the op-up as a marketing tool for frequent flyers is probably the canniest I've seen. Speaking as a beneficiary of that strategy, I say more power to CX. :) (Yes, the policy has influenced my buying patterns as well.)

BA is also in the favourable position of having lots and lots of OW flights dropping lots and lots of OW pax right into its lap/hub. And blocking any new competition as LHR being the main hub for OW in Europe. They have no need to try and keep those pax happy (by no means am I saying BA is a sub-par airline). CX is not so lucky, so they use other means to protect their interests, and they do it very well.

Originally Posted by Moomba
CX policy with respect to other OW elites has certainly had an effect on my purchasing habits. So I agree they are probably winning more custom as a result of their policy.


Count me as another who has given my business to CX due to their op-up policy. I've recently thrown three trans-pac tickets their way rather than on a OW partner who I used to fly mostly. At the risk of jinxing my luck, I have an op-up ratio of about 50%. Along with their excellent on ground and inflight service, what's not to like?

I like CX's opup policy with OW elites as well. Ever since I became an EXP in Dec. 04, I have gotten many J-F upgrades that keep me loyal to CX. In fact CX is the reason that I'm an EXP. Every time I think of flying SQ, I have the thought run through my head that "hey, there is a chance that I might get an upgrade on CX" and the money then goes to them over SQ.

Strange, on the main part of my last CX boarding pass I always see my FF number + Emerald status. Just looking through the last couple of CX boarding pass stubs from over the last few months and all of them have QF/EMERALD written on them under the boarding number. It also has my membership number on the line below.

I think if you trace back up from your referenced post you will see that the discussion was about BA boarding passes and not the CX ones.

Just checked my stash and it seems that BA show my AA number but no status on the small portion of the BP. It shows my BA nujmber and status though if that number is in the booking.

FWIW QF shows my OW status on the BP in much the same manner as the CX BP's show the OW status.