Slightly confused with the whole upgrading of a BA flight using Asiamiles. I've got the BA booking in WT+, MPC has informed me they have the upgrade to CW confirmed but I need to cancel my WT+ booking with BA since it's a duplicate flight. Won't that just cancel my ticket altogether? Do I call BA and cancel the WT+ seat and mention the CW upgrade with Asiamiles? Will they see that booking? Do I have to pay again? It's a rather strange way of going about redeeming miles.
I've been told that as soon as they receive my confirmation they will issue a new electronic ticket. I'm guessing I won't be able to check it online on BA as I currently can with my present booking?
Has anybody actually done this and can they assist in this procedure.
Thanks for any help.

The thing to bear in mind is that a booking (or reservation) is seperate to a ticket. You can have a reservation without a ticket and vice versa. Asiamiles is correct on this occasion. BA created your WT+ booking and sold you a WT+ ticket for that booking. What Asiamiles has done is created a CW (Club World) booking for you and they will take the BA ticket as a form of currency, plus the miles you are spending to "upgrade" it to a business class ticket. Becasue the original WT+ booking was created by BA only they can cancel it. In the mean time, Asiamiles has already booked you a CW seat and has your ticket number so all you have to do is tell BA you want to cancel your WT+ booking but you don't want to refund the ticket (because Asiamiles is taking that ticket and changing it to a CW ticket).

One very important point to note: When using miles to upgrade on BA, no matter if the original tix is flexible or not, once upgraded you can not change the date of travel. At least that was the case 12 months ago when I fell victim to a change in policy. [One the other hand, if you were using miles to upgrade on CX as long as your underlying economy tix is flexible you could change the travel date].

Hope some of this makes sense!

Different CSOs would have different answers regarding to rebooking a BA reward. I did change the travel dates twice successfully in 2007 on a U(W) ticket without paying any surcharges. However they said I have to do it at least 10 days before departure (which I doubt),but anyways rebooking should be ok.

I never called to BA to cancel my W+ booking as the system should update and merge them automatically (from BA ticket (125) to CX reward (160). The only problem of BA upgrade reward is crediting miles. I never get them posted without sending miles claim forms to MPC.

I stand corrected. I happen to call MPO last night and took the opportunity to ask about this. The "no date change after upgrade rule" has been retracted but like you said, the date-change process is much more complex than most people can comprehend. I don't won't to bore you with the details here but the reality is I don't understand the complicated procedure myself when the agent went through it with me!

I know how complicated it is, as they did explain to me.

But anyways I believe AM MFU on BA flights would be gone very soon due to the recent change of BAEC to Asia/Pacific members. I am trying to confirm and issue those HKG-LHR-HKG upgrades asap,which is one of the best use of AM IMO (only 30K miles to u/g to J).

I called BA and was told the Club World ticket had already been cancelled as I had two bookings so have to start again. Have been told to ask BA to release my WT+ seat (without cancelling) and then call/email MPC and they will link the upgrade to my ticket. So confusing and wish it was easier. I'm just trying to use up these Asiamiles before they expire! It would be easier if it didn't take ages to get Asiamiles or MPC on the darned phone and not have to wait forever and a day to speak to a live agent (or have to listen to "I can fly" until I'm ready to scream!).
Thanks for your replies.

So What is the deal with the BA Upgrades? I am planning to purchase a WT+ tix from JFK-LHR at the end of the year and want to confirm whether or not can oyu change the date after you issued the award upgrade (provided your underlying tix is changeable) and also after you travelled on the outbound sector.


as I understand it the following rules are in place:

1) Must be E-ticket
2) Must be a Return ticket - no single upgrades
3) Both W and T Class are ok for upgrade

Been there, done that. Yes you can change the inbound date after travelling the outbound. You need to need to revert your U ticket back into a WT+ ticket (with BA or whoever you bought yout ticket from), change the date, and ask BA or MPO (forgot which one it was) to reissue your U.

On a side note, E Class is eligible for WT+ to CW upgrades as well.

I finally got my upgrade booked but it took a lot of work as the BA people seem to be unaware of the process. It took quite a while on the phone with a very friendly rep and their supervisor in order to sort it out. And then it only took 3 minutes on the phone with MPC before someone answered!! Incredible, as it usually takes me about 45 minutes. Of course, 24 hours later when I still hadn't received my email confirmation it took me 50 minutes to get through but I finally got the email confirming my upgrade.