How To Upgrade Your British Airways Flights With Avios

BA is a sign of the lost pride of Britain, a sad reminder of better days gone by. I would never fly them, unless I got their F fares at J prices and even then it is pushing it. @The nice Paul - Qatar airways 😉

@ Varun Susarla

Actually, while I am clearly a Qsuites fan-boy, BA still gets pretty much all my business from LHR to North America, and most of it to South America (non-stop flights and hatred of US3 are the main reasons). The last rear-facing CW window seat in each cabin has both direct aisle access and the privacy I crave.

Unlike most on OMAAT, I don’t mind those CW seats as seats.

Though I was just checking Lucky’s reviews of KLM’s “new” business class - all seats in 2-2-2 configuration but, whereas with BA he never fails to give them a kicking for lack of direct aisle access (I agree with him), on KLM he seemed seduced by the quality of the food.

Back to James. I gave up looking for upgrade possibilities some years ago; they were so infrequent as to be just a frustrating waste of time. I was getting more random free upgrades at check-in than I was able to score with Avios.

Business to First can be a good value as well. When BA had the Oslo mistake J fares ($600 or so RT), I upgraded them to F on the 789 for 20k avios. Pretty good use of avios IMO.

Thanks, James. It is refreshing to read a blogger who is not anti-BA. After years of flying the Concorde, my allegiance to BA is still strong and it is always a pleasure to use the JFK Concorde Lounge to bring back good memories. Frequent travelers to Asia know how valuable Avios points are.

Can I do the same if it's a BA ticketed flight but operated by Iberia? Last week Iberia told me that you cannot upgrade cheap premium economy tickets.

can you upgrade using avios (transfered through MR) and credit the flight to Aadvantage?

@ Andres - yes you should be able to - change the FF number from BA to AA at check-in. You'll only get the miles for the class/fare you paid cash for, not upgraded to, remember.

Good article. thanks for posting. Have a BA fligt in WT+ and was wondering how much and what the steps are.

I have to concour with the nice Paul. I flew LAX-LHR in club world on A380 in 59K and enjoy my seat more than flying first on the 787-9 coming back to SJC. The club world seat was slightly narrower but way more private and it was great for a red eye. I ate at the lounge and sleep much longer in a quieter plane.

If you knew there was no award availability on the flight you booked, then why did you hope to be able to upgrade online and 'walk us through' the process? Isn't the takeaway that no higher-class award availability = no chance of upgrading with Avios?

I recently upgraded WT+ flights to CW on BA using Avios (Toronto to Kolkata via London). I upgraded the Toronto-London sector in one direction and the Mumbai-London sector in the other direction.

The taxes went up quite a bit however. Reading this article it says the taxes should be fairly static between WT+ and CW. Can someone help out?

@ GTCBT - I had only hoped to be able to show you all how to upgrade and that was only only BA Y cash flight I have booked.

As per the article, if no award availability exists in a higher class then no way to upgrade.

I upgraded my parents from WT+ to CW last year on a TATL flight. In two separate upgrades since J seats on the outbound leg became available several weeks before the inbound segment. The (repeat) interactions with the call center (in India?) were among the most painful experiences when it come to trying to spend money/points on something.
Ultimately I was successful by interacting with the (very competent) German call center (in Bremen I think).

Long story short: my parents loved it, but at the same time it was the first time ever that they flew J.

I agree, BA F is AT MOST a good J product, it is definitely not the world's best J as some like to claim.

James, if I were to book a BA-operated flight but used my AA frequent flyer number, would I be able to upgrade using Avios from my BA account? Or would I have to have the same BA frequent flyer number on the ticket to upgrade with those points?

I do this often for personal travel but work go through a travel agent and the flight invariably come back with an IT (package) or BT (bulk fare) status which can't be upgraded. They even come back IT despite only being for flights, and the agents claims it's not a package deal. We only find this out when we get issued the eticket....

@Arnold

BA service reps are notoriously unreliable. I have upgraded the same flight multiple times and have been a myriad of fee increases ranging from $64 (correct amount) to $250. I would do the math yourself and when they quote higher simply correct them and ask them to recalculate.

@ Steve - you can use anyone's Avios to upgrade a BA ticket provided its issued on BA stock. They can then credit to whichever program they like.

Thanks James, great topic to write about for those of us based in the U.K. I personally think BA WT+ to Club World longhaul upgrades are the best value in the entire Avios program, since even discount premium economy tickets are eligible for uprgrade. If you use expert flyer and have some degree of flexibility, and plan a couple months ahead I find you can usually score them, particularly for the trunk routes (JFK chief among them).

Having said that, business class award space FROM the US on BA for the next few months has been absolutely decimated, in what I can only assume is a side-effect of Iberia’s crazy promotion.

I have always wondered if you could upgrade AA-operated tickets booked via BA so thanks for clarifying.

I recently paid cash for a trip in BA PE using both AARP discount and the Chase cardoffer 10% discount. I then tried to upgrade it to CW using Avios but got an error message at the confirmation stage (post-payment). After calling BA, I was told that my tickets were not upgradable due to a discount code, but they didn't reveal which one. So apparently, some discount codes might render your tickets un-upgradable.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

Anyhow I got a limited time cash offer $960 to upgrade the LAX-LHR leg (747), which is about half of the difference between currently available lowest PE and CW fares.

James: I have booked RT tickets in CW on British Airways using Avios. Is there an opportunity to use Avios to upgrade to F? Can you explain how that process works?? Thanks.

So how much are the in cabin direct to purser cash upgrades these days ?

James,
I have a BA itinerary MIA-LHR-FCO booked in I class. It was booked through a cruise line. Is this fare class eligible for UG to First? Is the calculation of Avios requires only for MIA-LHR or all the way to FCO? Thanks!

Hi James,
Fantastic article and very informative.
Was wondering if you can advise me, I purchased a return ticket on ba.com LHR-JFK in WTP. The return flight is operated by American Airlines (although a BA issued ticket)

Would that be upgradeable with Avios? And if yes, is it done the same way?

@Lucas: Iberia has no First Class

I had a very interesting experience upgrading a B.A ticket bought through AA with an AA ticket number

@M
What was that experience?

James - a quick question:

1) Do you know if you upgrade only the second leg of a flight *transiting* LHR (i.e. upgrading LHR-DEL on JFK-LHR-DEL) - are the UK APD taxes less than they would be if you were truly departing ex-LHR on LHR-DEL? Hard to price that out using ITA..

Thanks!