FlyerTalk Forums - Tips for Upgrading NCW to FIRST JFK-LHR

Quote:

Originally Posted by PROBBE

Hey - saw your many posts about BA. Am AA Plat myself but will be flying mostly BA this year. Hoping you could answer a couple of questions..
I was looking at the BA site and they didn't specify if the upgrade awards are RT or OW..
Looking to either upgrade JFK-LHR to FIRST, and it says I need 50k miles, is that RT??
Any other upgrade strategies you could suggest from J to F?
many thanks in advance.
PROBBE

First of all you should note that to upgrade you need to purchase your ticket at ba.com. This may be a problem if these are paid for through your company travel agent.

Second, you should endeavour to pay for the ticket with a BA Visa card; you'll get double miles for every $ spent on your ticket, and a companion ticket (not itself upgradeable) in FIRST or Club World for every full fare ticket you purchase in FIRST or Club World respectively.

http://www.britishairways.com/usvisa_cf/

MFU Upgrade Miles are round trip; so 25k round trip from WT+ to J, but 50k from J to F (reflecting the greater premium on the product.)

When planning your travel dates, do bear in mid the current triple miles offer:

Earn free travel to your favourite destinations each time you fly Club World or FIRST between January 13 and April 30, 2005.

In addition to your usual BA Miles, you will earn 40,250 bonus BA Miles with each round-trip transatlantic flight. With each trip you’ll earn more than 50,000 BA Miles, enough for free* travel to a host of amazing destinations.

I think you have to upgrade both outbound and return; one way upgrades are not available UNLESS there is no availability on one leg in your requested upgrade class, in this case you may be able to MFU just one sector which would cost half the stated MFU Miles. You would have to telephone to arrange this, others on the Board may have more info on how this may be achieved.

Do bring your own headphones, as until Noise Cancelling Systems are installed (soon, apparently!) the headphones are the weakest link in the chain.

Currently, if you are looking for a bargain MFU J to FIRST, you can buy a return from BWI-LHR for $2000, whcih is a special offer, and will be available until March 16. Might be worth taking the short hop flight or the speedy train to DC to get this deal.

Don't forget you can fly to other airports in Europe; putting these as your destination may reduce the fare in NCW (New Club World/Business Class).

Anyone have any other suggestions for PROBBE?

OOps misposted to wrong Board; MOD please lock this thread I will re-open it in BA. sorry!