BA WT+ cost and reviews

[toots82]

Hi

Thinking about calling BA to see how much an upgrade is to WT+ probably just for out return flight. We are doing Gatwick to Tampa in October, any experiences on how much is a good price and also any reviews super welcome, bonus points for photos LOL.

Thank you

[geewhiz]

We’ve done it once, not a massive improvement to be honest and wouldn’t pay more than £50 each to upgrade again especially on the return flight when I just want to sleep!

[Eccle]

We came back from Tampa in WT+ in August. We booked it as part of the original booking as it only worked out slightly more than standard economy (I think about £40 for the 5 of us). The extra space was good and the food better, we would definitely consider it again depending on price. I will try and find the couple of photos I took

[Peko]

BA has 3 types of cash upgrade on tickets:

> Standard upgrading with money - this will basically be the difference between the fare you paid and the current fare for the upgraded cabin, plus any applicable change fees based on your original ticket. This can often work out fairly expensive, depending what you paid for the original ticket, though the odd bargain appears when WTP is on sale. If you call BA to upgrade an existing ticket, this is the price you’re most likely to get.

> Special offer upgrades - these usually appear online in your booking (or in the BA app, if you have it), though have seen a few reports of offers via email. These will generally be in the price range of £150-280 per person per sector for east coast USA routes.

> Airport upgrades - you can ask on the day at the airport if any paid upgrades are available, prices will vary but the range won’t be too different to the special offer online upgrades above.

It’s not guaranteed that the special online or airport upgrades will be offered at all.

As to value, that is highly subjective. Some people will think £250 good value to them, others (as evidenced above) will say it’s not worth more than £50.

If you go on a site like Flyertalk, for example, the general willingness to pay is much greater than on a forum like The Dibb, probably because that audience is more likely to see the flight as a bigger part of the trip experience, with more Dibbers seeing the flight as a means to an end. I’m generalising of course, but overall that’s my impression. There is no right or wrong.

Trying to be objective, here’s what you get for your money, you have to decide how much any/all of this means to you:

> More space - this is the thing that the airline looks at most, giving you more real estate on the aircraft. Seat pitch (legroom) is about 7 inches more than regular economy seats (38 inches vs 31), and the seats are about an inch wider in a 2-4-2 configuration. Seats also have more recline, and leg/footrests, and usually slightly bigger IFE screens than economy.

> Checked Baggage - you get an extra checked bag allowance for any sectors you upgrade.

> Upgraded catering - the main courses in the main meal come from the Club World range. The rest of the catering is similar to economy, and which you prefer is of course subjective.

> Priority boarding - you board with group 3, rather than 4/5 with the majority of economy passengers.

There are of course fewer people in the cabin than in economy, but WTP cabin size has been increased (at least doubled, to 48/52) in the refurbished LGW 777s, so not as intimate as it once was.

One possible downside to consider - unlike Virgin PE, BA charges for seat selection in WTP, and given the fewer seats and potentially greater share of people with advance seat selection privileges through status, there will be less choice and potential for being split up at check in if you don’t pay. Not trying to scare you, it’s just statistically more likely and a very popular cabin on leisure routes like MCO/TPA. If sitting together or seat location is important, you need to consider this in your buying decision.

[mason1]

We flew back from Fort Lauderdale WT+ in August, and to be honest, didn’t rate it. We had a row of 4 seats in the middle, and the arm rests don’t move. Therefore when the person in front reclines, it’s a challenge (certainly for me) to get out of the 2nd seat without bruising my leg. If you can get the 2 seats by the window, then yes (we’ve had these before), but if it’s the row of 4, then we found we had a more comfortable experience in economy.

The food was slightly better (but we never find it great on the return leg, and the breakfast was dire). The advantage is the greater luggage capacity, but we didn’t benefit as we couldn’t fit anymore cases in the car to come home.

[toots82]

Thanks everyone, its really annoying that you still have to pay for seat selection. I'm looking on the app and online but nothing showing for me, the online system when I hit upgrade says sorry we can't change or cancel your booking online at the moment. really annoying given I booked on BA online!

[Triciamcl]

We were the same unable to change online but you can do f you call them

[DreamsOfOrlando]

We couldn’t upgrade online either, had to call them up. We were quoted nearly £600 for just outbound for 2 people! That’s also excluding seat selection and (cheekily in my opinion) its more expensive in WT + so we would have had to pay even more for seats. The return upgrade price was even more expensive. Safe to say we won’t be upgrading!

[John]

Until the trip I just booked we always flew out BA economy and WT+ on the way back. Sure it is nice to get a little extra room, but is it worth it.hmm probably not, but we still did it. However have given up with BA and trying Aer Lingus this time

[bighal]

If you have booked via a 3rd party and this does 8nclude BA Holidays then you would in general.need to contact the 3rd party if you are trying to upgrade before BA takes control of the booking which is usually 24-48 hours before departure so you won't necessarily see any upgrade offers. Also unless you start at Gatwick or Heathrow you might not see any either.