BA special offer upgrade

[samh004]

I’ve just booked my flights from the UK to Spain for the summer (mid-June) and in the BA “manage my booking” I’ve been given the option to upgrade to Club Europe for £150. Now I booked the ticket for £89, and the full fare Club Europe ticket costs £821, so it’s a fair saving, but just wondering how long am I going to see this special offer for? Do I need to jump on it now, or do I have a few weeks to a month to decide?

Also, if I upgrade, will my fare class move up, so I get more SC’s, or will it stay the same, in which case the upgrade is possibly worth a little less to me?

Thanks all.

 

[Mal]

BA offer these upgrades all of the time. While I'm yet to actually take one up where I've had to worry about points, I believe that it does put you into an earning booking class. (The one that I did accept ended up having the ticket completely reissued, so I don't know which class it was supposed to be in).

Have a look at:
http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/com...itish-airways-jettisons-high-fares-18798.html

 

[samh004]

Thanks for the link, I’ve posted a followup in that thread for good measure, seeing as I have no status and the question was asked if it was about status. Not sure if I’m going to take up the offer yet, as I have 3 in my booking and it looks like all 3 have to be upgraded. Perhaps it’ll be a surprise for my mum when checking-in.

 

[Dave Noble]

I’ve just booked my flights from the UK to Spain for the summer (mid-June) and in the BA “manage my booking” I’ve been given the option to upgrade to Club Europe for £150. Now I booked the ticket for £89, and the full fare Club Europe ticket costs £821, so it’s a fair saving, but just wondering how long am I going to see this special offer for? .

As long as you are aware that CE uses the same seating as economy, just stretched out to have 5 seats across rather than 6 . If having Sapphire status on OW to get lounge access, then the benefit of CE over economy on that flight are minimal and I wouldnt pay 2.6 times the price for it

Dave

 

[samh004]

As long as you are aware that CE uses the same seating as economy, just stretched out to have 5 seats across rather than 6 . If having Sapphire status on OW to get lounge access, then the benefit of CE over economy on that flight are minimal and I wouldnt pay 2.6 times the price for it

Dave

I would have QP with OW so same diff huh? Thanks for the tip though, the BA description makes it sound much more glamorous.

 

[Dave Noble]

I would have QP with OW so same diff huh? Thanks for the tip though, the BA description makes it sound much more glamorous.

If you have QC membership, then you have lounge acces anyway and so I would recommend saving the GBP150.

Dave

 

[newformula]

I did one of these for 100 euro FRA-LHR back in December. Seemed like an OK deal as I was chasing the SC's. It definitely booked into a J earning class for QF. As others have said, unless you don't already have lounge access, and want the extra SC's/10% better food and better luggage allowance then I wouldn't bother.

It stuck around in MMB for a good 5-6 weeks before I made the change.

 

[Commuter]

I’ve just booked my flights from the UK to Spain for the summer (mid-June) and in the BA “manage my booking” I’ve been given the option to upgrade to Club Europe for £150. Now I booked the ticket for £89, and the full fare Club Europe ticket costs £821, so it’s a fair saving, but just wondering how long am I going to see this special offer for? Do I need to jump on it now, or do I have a few weeks to a month to decide?

Also, if I upgrade, will my fare class move up, so I get more SC’s, or will it stay the same, in which case the upgrade is possibly worth a little less to me?

Thanks all.

I don't recommend you take up the offer, unless you are desperate for SCs.

What Dave Noble said about the seating is not quite the whole story - seats are put as 2+3 but the middle seat is not occupied in CE. So you will have some space between your seat neighbour. You also get a little wider seat, but not by much.

Also bear in mind that by using the £150 upgrade, you will completely lose the ability to change the flight. If you want to subsequently change the flight, you will have to buy a new ticket.

 

[NM]

As with others, I would not be paying 150 quid for a CE seat from London to Spain. Now if we were talking about a longish flight like say LHR-KBP, then it may be worth it. The seating is not much better than Y and I would find the CE meal poor value for that price. I would save the money to spend on better things during the vacation in Spain.

 

[samh004]

I don't recommend you take up the offer, unless you are desperate for SCs.

While the extra 45SC’s would have been useful, I guess that’s my only reason for wanting to upgrade. It’s not like I’m short of Platinum either, with all my travel this year I’ll easily slide across the line for Silver, so an extra 45 shouldn’t do much.

Also bear in mind that by using the £150 upgrade, you will completely lose the ability to change the flight. If you want to subsequently change the flight, you will have to buy a new ticket.

Luckily I don’t think we’d need to change the flight as we’re on a very tight whirlwind tour of Europe while we’re there, and this is the positioning flight to start us off. But good to know about the fare rules.

As with others, I would not be paying 150 quid for a CE seat from London to Spain. Now if we were talking about a longish flight like say LHR-KBP, then it may be worth it. The seating is not much better than Y and I would find the CE meal poor value for that price. I would save the money to spend on better things during the vacation in Spain.

I think I’ll probably pass thanks to all this advice. I was hoping it would be substantially better than it appears to be. BA sure knows how to spin it the right way

 

[Dave Noble]

What Dave Noble said about the seating is not quite the whole story - seats are put as 2+3 but the middle seat is not occupied in CE. So you will have some space between your seat neighbour. You also get a little wider seat, but not by much.

I forgot that they now had the policy of not selling the middle seat. They also stopped the policy of expanding the seats to make them wider and they became just economy seats with the middle seat empty. I am not sure if they have restarted making them wider again or whether it is still the dismal economy with an empty seat

Dave

 

[Commuter]

I am not sure if they have restarted making them wider again or whether it is still the dismal economy with an empty seat

They're squashing the middle seat again. However, apparently there are some aircraft being delivered on which the seats are not squash-able.

 

[JohnK]

Is that £150 extra per person? Unless you were really desperate for SCs then not worth it. Now if it was CX short haul business it would be a totally different story....

 

[samh004]

Is that £150 extra per person? Unless you were really desperate for SCs then not worth it. Now if it was CX short haul business it would be a totally different story....

It is, but as everyone has dissected for me, it’s not worth it for what I’d get onboard such a/c. I was looking at it for SC’s mainly, but all it will do is speed up a qualification for Silver, not get me much closed to Gold.

We’ll have lounge access anyway.

 

[ajw373]

As long as you are aware that CE uses the same seating as economy, just stretched out to have 5 seats across rather than 6 . If having Sapphire status on OW to get lounge access, then the benefit of CE over economy on that flight are minimal and I wouldnt pay 2.6 times the price for it

Dave

They changed from 5 to 4 across on their A320 family and 757's flights about a year ago. The only difference in the air is the meal and the empty middle seat. Everything else is the same as down the back. I do fly business as the company pays, otherwise not worth it, even as a payed upgrade. Funny thing is I used to get asked to fill out a survey on a regular basis, I always wrote how expensive the meal was. Once someone from BA took the time to email me and ask me what I meant by that.

PS. With the upgrades, you always have the option provided seats are available.

 

[ajw373]

I forgot that they now had the policy of not selling the middle seat. They also stopped the policy of expanding the seats to make them wider and they became just economy seats with the middle seat empty. I am not sure if they have restarted making them wider again or whether it is still the dismal economy with an empty seat

Dave

On my recent BA flights I have noticed they make the port side seats wider, but not the starboard ones, I assume they are not capable, as these were the ones that used to be sold 3 abreast even in business.

 

[Dave Noble]

On my recent BA flights I have noticed they make the port side seats wider, but not the starboard ones, I assume they are not capable, as these were the ones that used to be sold 3 abreast even in business.

Seats on both side get wider

On the Port side ( A B C ) the A and C get wider at the expense of the B seat which becomes unusable
On the Starboard side ( D E F ) , the 3 seats expand

Dave

 

[ajw373]

Seats on both side get wider

On the Port side ( A B C ) the A and C get wider at the expense of the B seat which becomes unusable
On the Starboard side ( D E F ) , the 3 seats expand

Dave

For the past 3 years I have been doing on average 4 BA short haul sectors a month in business and have never once seen the DEF seats on an A320 or 757 changed to make the D and F seats wider. When BA used 5 abreast in business the A and C seats were wider by moving the arms of the B seat inwards. When they first went to 4 abreast they stopped doing this, just leaving the seat empty, but in the past 4 or 5 months have started doing it again but only on A and C.

On the 767 they do it on the middle seats.

My last segment was last week from Stockholm to LHR in seat 3F of an A321 and this was very evident.