BA Upgrade to B Class

[npope]

I am taking my wife away for her bog birthday in Jan, I have booked Premium Economy but would like to upgrade to B-Class on the day. I phoned yesterday and they told me it would be the best option to wait for the day as if the flight is not full they will sell them on cheap. Has anyone done this and if so what sort of price did you pay?
Thanks

[dealmaker]

npope said:

BA Upgrade......... sell them on cheap.
Thanks

Thats an oxymoron, right there.

You have two hopes of getting a "cheap" upgrade from BA.....(and one of those is Bob)......

Do you have any air miles?? BA do a deal to use miles for upgrades?

[npope]

dealmaker said:

npope said:

BA Upgrade......... sell them on cheap.
Thanks

Thats an oxymoron, right there.

You have two hopes of getting a "cheap" upgrade from BA.....(and one of those is Bob)......

Do you have any air miles?? BA do a deal to use miles for upgrades?

i do but not enough to upgrade and I can only buy 19k a year so still not enough

[BigBen]

If you try to upgrade at check in they will charge you the full difference between your fare and the fully flexable business class fare on that day, i.e. several thousand pounds.

What can work is when on the plane ask for the cabin services director and purchase the upgrade on board, this will be much cheaper.

See the air travel version of PH www.flyertalk.com for more details than you ever thought possible

Ben

[touching cloth]

Actually have recently heard BA have adopted this type of "on the day upsell" at the checkin desk, which Virgin have been doing for years. It's likely to be a lot cheaper than paying the fare difference at time of reservation but don't know how much you might be expected to stump up (it will still be load related, so loads of spare seats will mean cheaper, last few will mean more). No risk to the airlines as you won't be taking seats that they might otherwise have sold at a higher traditional fare (given will be doing this at say 3 hours prior) so expect it to be a fairly decent saving.

I'll check with "my people" at the airport and see if they can get a rough idea of the pricing window, is it long haul flight?

[GCH]

On board upgrade from Wt+ to J (club) is £600 per person each way- wait until on board though.
Check in will charge you full whack.

If you have BA miles then call up and see if any award availabilty to upgrade using them- for wt+ to J its 25k miles (each) for the round trip upgrade to the US for example.. which is v good value

Edited by GCH on Tuesday 4th November 12:04

[npope]

touching cloth said:

Actually have recently heard BA have adopted this type of "on the day upsell" at the checkin desk, which Virgin have been doing for years. It's likely to be a lot cheaper than paying the fare difference at time of reservation but don't know how much you might be expected to stump up (it will still be load related, so loads of spare seats will mean cheaper, last few will mean more). No risk to the airlines as you won't be taking seats that they might otherwise have sold at a higher traditional fare (given will be doing this at say 3 hours prior) so expect it to be a fairly decent saving.

I'll check with "my people" at the airport and see if they can get a rough idea of the pricing window, is it long haul flight?

Thanks, yes long haul, Mauritius

[RLK500]

One thing to bear in mind. You may be able to upgrade on the day but you may not get seats next to each other, which is a bit of a bummer. I went biz class to Mauritius on Honeymoon and we had to get bumped up to first class to get our seats together. We had booked the flights 9 months prior. It was a great flight and holiday, so hope it works out, but I would double check that whatever you do ensure you can get your seats together.

[darreni]

Check the BA website & book direct. We flew LHR to JFK, club word return for less than £1200 each.
Service was great, i'll fly club world again if poss.

[touching cloth]

npope said:

touching cloth said:

Actually have recently heard BA have adopted this type of "on the day upsell" at the checkin desk, which Virgin have been doing for years. It's likely to be a lot cheaper than paying the fare difference at time of reservation but don't know how much you might be expected to stump up (it will still be load related, so loads of spare seats will mean cheaper, last few will mean more). No risk to the airlines as you won't be taking seats that they might otherwise have sold at a higher traditional fare (given will be doing this at say 3 hours prior) so expect it to be a fairly decent saving.

I'll check with "my people" at the airport and see if they can get a rough idea of the pricing window, is it long haul flight?

Thanks, yes long haul, Mauritius

Sorry nearly forgot about this, checked today and seem to be getting conflicted story now. Seems they are selling these "cheap" upgrades as an option when using the online checkin service and can't be done at Heathrow, however some Gatwick flights can be done this way at the airport as can most return flights. Clear as mud really as far as a cohesive policy goes but that's BA Pricewise they weren't able to advise as it's not something they have been involved in, I would guess it is close to the "on board" upgrade prices mentioned above.

[BigBen]

touching cloth said:

npope said:

touching cloth said:

Actually have recently heard BA have adopted this type of "on the day upsell" at the checkin desk, which Virgin have been doing for years. It's likely to be a lot cheaper than paying the fare difference at time of reservation but don't know how much you might be expected to stump up (it will still be load related, so loads of spare seats will mean cheaper, last few will mean more). No risk to the airlines as you won't be taking seats that they might otherwise have sold at a higher traditional fare (given will be doing this at say 3 hours prior) so expect it to be a fairly decent saving.

I'll check with "my people" at the airport and see if they can get a rough idea of the pricing window, is it long haul flight?

Thanks, yes long haul, Mauritius

Sorry nearly forgot about this, checked today and seem to be getting conflicted story now. Seems they are selling these "cheap" upgrades as an option when using the online checkin service and can't be done at Heathrow, however some Gatwick flights can be done this way at the airport as can most return flights. Clear as mud really as far as a cohesive policy goes but that's BA Pricewise they weren't able to advise as it's not something they have been involved in, I would guess it is close to the "on board" upgrade prices mentioned above.

I think you are talking about the offer to upgrade to club Europe at the gate / online for £50 each way which is running at Gatwick (and Heathrow ?) not offered on proper club as far as I know

[touching cloth]

BigBen said:

I think you are talking about the offer to upgrade to club Europe at the gate / online for £50 each way which is running at Gatwick (and Heathrow ?) not offered on proper club as far as I know

It's possible, although I got them to ask specifically about long haul as per OP's trip - as I say though, knowledge of BA staff outside the immediate area they are involved in, tends to involve somewhat randomised answers.

[BigBen]

touching cloth said:

BigBen said:

I think you are talking about the offer to upgrade to club Europe at the gate / online for £50 each way which is running at Gatwick (and Heathrow ?) not offered on proper club as far as I know

It's possible, although I got them to ask specifically about long haul as per OP's trip - as I say though, knowledge of BA staff outside the immediate area they are involved in, tends to involve somewhat randomised answers.

Never mind outside their area, ringing BA's customer help lines / booking lines also yeilds completely random answers to anything out of the ordinary

[Puggit]

BigBen said:

touching cloth said:

BigBen said:

I think you are talking about the offer to upgrade to club Europe at the gate / online for £50 each way which is running at Gatwick (and Heathrow ?) not offered on proper club as far as I know

It's possible, although I got them to ask specifically about long haul as per OP's trip - as I say though, knowledge of BA staff outside the immediate area they are involved in, tends to involve somewhat randomised answers.

Never mind outside their area, ringing BA's customer help lines / booking lines also yeilds completely random answers to anything out of the ordinary

Try bmi then

[npope]

I guess I will have to just try my luck and see what happens but not holding out.

Thanks all