Upgrading flight and paying the admin charge

[Disney Jo]

Hi,

I have never upgraded a flight before but on Friday we was offered what we think was a good price (the price was showing on Manage my booking section when I logged in to look at the flights) and upgraded outbound and inbound.

I called later in the day to see what the price would be to upgrade the outbound one more level - the price was good but we had a £150 admin charge each (3 travellers) on top of the price.

This is with BA - i am guessing this is normal and I should wait to see if they offer us an upgrade instead? The £150 each made the price just a little too much really.

[Stevelovesfl]

Originally Posted by Disney Jo

Hi,

I have never upgraded a flight before but on Friday we was offered what we think was a good price (the price was showing on Manage my booking section when I logged in to look at the flights) and upgraded outbound and inbound.

I called later in the day to see what the price would be to upgrade the outbound one more level - the price was good but we had a £150 admin charge each (3 travellers) on top of the price.

This is with BA - i am guessing this is normal and I should wait to see if they offer us an upgrade instead? The £150 each made the price just a little too much really.

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Why did you call up if the price was in manage my booking?

I have only upgraded once and that was because work booked me economy and I found PE for about £100 but I didn't pay an admin charge as I did it online. It was a good price because I got upgraded to club at the airport.

[landandword17]

Am I right that you upgraded online in MMB but then called looking to upgrade that ticket again into Club? I think £150 is Air Passenger Duty. Whether the agent should have charged you that or not I'm not sure as it's also 150 in PE so you should have already paid the difference when you upgraded in MMB. Perhaps someone else knows?

[Disney Jo]

Thank you.

The price came up online for the first lot of upgrades, but it wouldn’t let me upgrade online as it says I booked more then 365 days ago - which I did originally but had to change due to Covid. I then called and upgraded over the phone and they gave me the same price as the “offer” price online. No admin charge was added for this upgrade.

I then wanted to see if we could upgrade our outbound again to club, but when I called she broke it down as the fare, tax and then on top of that was an extra £150 each as I was changing my booking. I am making a change but I didn’t realise there would be an admin charge if I was upgraded - not sure why I thought that there wouldn’t be. Maybe because when I did it earlier in the day I didn’t have one.

[Peko]

It's correct, and it's not APD. The £150 pp is a change fee attached to making a change to the original ticket (it's not always £150, but that's a typical amount if the original ticket was a restricted fare).

The first upgrade was a special offer online upgrade, these cannot normally be done over the phone, but obviously the situation was exceptional due to Covid and the original booking being more than 365 days old. BA does not charge change fees on this type of upgrade.

The second request was a standard cash upgrade request, the same whether done online (via "upgrade my class of travel with money" in MMB, or by calling), and would attract whatever change fees applied to the original ticket in addition to any fare difference.

The only ways to avoid the change fee would be to wait and see if there were another online special offer price shown in MMB (you'd probably have to book it on the phone because of the 365 day issue, but you'll only avoid the fee if it's offered online), or see if there are any upgrade offers at the airport on the day. Neither is guaranteed to be made available.

[Disney Jo]

Originally Posted by Peko

It's correct, and it's not APD. The £150 pp is a change fee attached to making a change to the original ticket (it's not always £150, but that's a typical amount if the original ticket was a restricted fare).

The first upgrade was a special offer online upgrade, these cannot normally be done over the phone, but obviously the situation was exceptional due to Covid and the original booking being more than 365 days old. BA does not charge change fees on this type of upgrade.

The second request was a standard cash upgrade request, the same whether done online (via "upgrade my class of travel with money" in MMB, or by calling), and would attract whatever change fees applied to the original ticket in addition to any fare difference.

The only ways to avoid the change fee would be to wait and see if there were another online special offer price shown in MMB (you'd probably have to book it on the phone because of the 365 day issue, but you'll only avoid the fee if it's offered online), or see if there are any upgrade offers at the airport on the day. Neither is guaranteed to be made available.

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Thank you Peko for the explanation. I got an email about the first upgrade price and then logged in to be able to see it, so will keep an eye out for another one if it is offered.

I might be getting too excited anyway with the borders still being shut, but it is nice having something to look forward to even with the realization that it might not happen.