BA upgrade
 

I have rung BA & asked about upgrade to World Traveller Plus from my Economy seat to San Francisco they wanted £800pp one way :cry:
I will ring again over the Summer, but if not when I get to the airport do I check in & enquire about upgrade or go to a dedicated desk ;)
Thanks :wavey:

A lot depends on the price you paid for your ticket in the first place - at least it looks as if it is an upgradeable booking class if they have given you a quote. Keep an eye on Manage my Booking regularly as sometimes upgrades are offered on your PNR.

Also the BA287 is operated by an A380 so it will offer more WTP seats (55) than the BA285 is a 747 (30) - but not sure which flight you are booked to travel on.

Not sure about BA but the dedicated upgrade desk for VS is next to the check-in desk (or was when I did it last)

Pretty much any BA cash fare issued on a BA ticket is upgradeable with BA, the booking class restrictions from economy only apply for Avios upgrades.

However, unless there is a special offer, or a sale on the upgraded class, the cost will often be prohibitive, as the OP has found. Basically the price will be the difference between the fare paid for the original ticket and the current cash price for the higher class, plus a change fee. During a sale, the difference in the cash fares may drop.

These can be good offers, just to be aware that various things can prevent them being offered due to BA’s flaky IT.

These include flights with a connection, and multi-city / open jaw bookings

Also, if you’ve booked with a travel agent rather than direct, such offers don’t come until OLCI opens, if at all.

We are on the BA285 & what is the PNR :confused2

Thanks :d:

Thanks, we booked a package direct with BA.

The PNR is travel industry speak for your booking in the airline system. It stands for Passenger Name Record. Your 6 character airline booking reference is sometimes referred to as a PNR, though strictly speaking that is a PNR Locator :)

BA’s airline system will treat this as a travel agent booking (BA Holidays is technically a travel agent / tour operator and a separate company, although owned by BA).

You’re not going to see any special offers in the booking as a result, except possibly when online checkin opens. Your best bet in advance would be during any sale periods, when the cash price for WT+ might be lower, reducing the upgrade price.

At the airport, you can ask either at the ticketing desk or the check in counter (who may or may not send you to the ticketing desk). You’d probably only find a decent price in the event of an oversold economy cabin, in which case you might also get a free upgrade, but obviously you have no idea whether you’d be the lucky one.

I would keep checking before you fly, chances of a cheap upgrade at the airport seem more unlikely to me. I have just looked at flights to SFO around the time of your countdown and there are some that have PE at £800 more than economy but there are others that are between £200-£500 more so you may have booked on a more popular flight.

It pays to keep an eye on Flyertalk for this subject. This thread is about upgrades offered via Manage My Booking

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...19-thread.html

And this one is about upgrades offered at the airport

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...19-thread.html

I've seen a sign on the check in desks sometimes offering WTP upgrades, however the cabin is small so is probably often full.

Some great information in this thread. I keep checking "Manage My Booking" to see if there are any options to upgrade from my WTP seat to LAX in August. I found WTP to be underwhelming when I flew to Orlando in March.

I've never had an offer and whenever I click on "upgrade with cash/avios", I only ever get the error message "sorry but we are currently unable to change or cancel your booking online". Hopefully I'll get an offer 24 hours before the flight.