experience with buying cheap economy and using points upgrade?

[aussielori]

Just wondering has anyone had success with buying an economy and using points to upgrade
friend is flying from CPT to LHR on a night flight and has BA points,I logged in to see what and how to upgrade but couldn't find much.
do you request in the website ?or call or just ask at checkin?:
would there be any hope at all??
experience please?

 

[Quickstatus]

Upgrades are possible but depend on:

Avios points or cash
You can pay for original seat in cash and then upgrade using Avios but if original ticket is Avois, you can't upgrade with cash (unless there is a promotion)
If trying to upgrade using Avios, the upgrade seat has to be available to be upgraded with Avios. Not all seats are upgradable with Avios.
You can search Avios to see if there is an available Avios seat you can upgrade into -people often this when they buy the original ticket.
A cash ticket can be upgradable using cash or Avios

When upgrading, there is also a cash fee
Upgrades from economy to premium economy are not exactly the best use of points due to the cash fee and difference in points. Premium to business is where the value is at.

The ticket serial number has to be starting with 125-xx_xx_x
Upgrades are not available if booked through another airline

The cheapest Economy seats are generally not upgradable especially those in the Q, O G fare classes.

You can generally only upgrade one cabin up - economy to world traveller plus (premium economy), premium economy to business but not economy to business.

Upgrades are managed with "Book and Upgrade" in Avios or "Manage my booking" in the BA website
It is also possible to enquire about upgrades at Checkin but dont rely on it.