This spring, British Airways made some significant changes to their Avios program, including the costs to upgrade flights. Previously, upgrading to premium cabins on British Airways was a phenomenal deal, to the point where it was often a no-brainer.
Continue reading: Are Upgrades With Avios Still A Good Deal?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Nice article. Would it be possible to do one about upgrading for US domestic airlines eg, AA or United?
Great post! I used to upgrade using Avios prior to the devaluation but haven't since, so this very helpful in giving me a good sense about what to expect.
Just did it last night. Sea-Lhr from business to first class for 22.5k miles. No brainer and great value!
Silly question, but when you upgrade a BA flight with miles from J to F what booking class do you end up in? Aka a status and miles earning class?
Ridiculously useful and well laid out post. Thank you, Tiffany! It's crazy that PE to business class requires 60k avios when that can be about the same number of miles needed to get a business class award outright in other programs.
Comment take 2. Oops. The 60k is round trip. I blame short attention span with flight delay I'm dealing with right now. Ignore my previous comment.
@ Bill -- Thanks! I could, but in general it's not a good deal unless someone else is paying for the base ticket. The foreign airlines tend to have better upgrade programs.
@ Norm -- Nope, as the Travel Together ticket is only valid on award bookings anyway. However, you can redeem that voucher for business or first directly.
@ No Name -- You earn miles for the cabin you were ticketed in originally, great question.
You can however combine the 2 for 1 with the gold upgrade for 2 (if you earn 2500 or more tier points per year from BA). The gold upgrade for 2 also doesn't require award availability, just availability in A class, if booked via a travel agent. There's a lot of info about this on flyer talk.
I was going to comment that this post was a return to form then realised who the writer was. Great analysis Tiffany.
+1 Al.
Fantastic job Tiffany...really, REALLY useful post. Sure beats the crap outta Lucky's low brow Real Housewives and One Direction infatuations. Thank God Lucky has the sense to have people like you writing the posts that keep his blog relevant...just.
Appreciate your insights here, Tiffany! Very helpful and 'scientific'......It seems to have taken a lot of time writing this one, but if it's convenient, would you follow up with even more complicated deep dives, such as using AA miles to upgrade on BA/IB metal and using Avios to upgrade on AA metal? i bet the many hobbyists here would like it very much.
If you're stuck in non upgradeable fare class of economy and you want to sit in business class - which is a double upgrade - there is a hack over the phone with a BA agent that agents can sometimes do for you. First ask to be pay an upfare and get refared as a T (premium economy), then use miles to jump from T to biz cabin immediately upon re fare over phone. The refare does cost a bit - like 300-500 but it's not that terrible - it's like a copay with miles. And you just scored a double upgrade!
Awesome post - I had been wanting to better understand Avios redemptions on BA after the recent changes.. so helpful!
Good summary, Tiffany! With regards upgrading at BA.com, I find it normally fails for existing bookings (certainly when you have a connecting domestic flight as I always do), however for new bookings if you login to your BAEC account you can select to 'book and upgrade using Avios' - this let's you do the upgrade at the same time as purchase and avoids any risk of the upgrade space you want disappearing. I've done this a few times on the BA website without any issue.
Can you upgrade with Avios but still credit the mileage earning to another partner (i.e. American)?
I'm surprised you didn't know how to do this online. I would have thought working in points redemption company, you would have figured this out
I found the best value upgrade comes from booking a premium economy return on ba.com, upgrading one way and returning on a partner airline which doesn't offer the cabin, therefore travelling in economy (Iberia or American). Found a return London to New York for £700 + 20000 avios. Outbound business return in economy this way.
lumma
Would you explain that in more detail please?
Thanking you in anticipation.
K
@Lumma - please explain. What is the total outlay then? ie: upgrade fromBA PE to J outbound and XX airline Y to J return?
Can you expand upon using Avios on Iberia? I've heard that the fuel surcharges are significantly less than those on BA.
You left out the most important gotcha: you can only upgrade using Avios on BA ticket stock! I learned that the hard way...
Can you upgrade BA flights that are not purchased through a partner Airline's website or Avios? Thanks.
@ Andrew -- If the flight is operated by and marketed by British Airways, and is in one of the eligible fare classes, then it shouldn't matter where you purchased it.
If the booking is done through a booking agent and is on the ticket as ECONOMY (N) - would that mean it was part of a bucket type booking and therefore not eligible for upgrade?
@ Felicity Grassi -- I was going to say no, but now the website says "only the lowest economy fares (Q, O and G) cannot be upgraded" so it may indeed be possible these days. You are best off calling to ask.
Which website were you using to get those ticket prices? 5500 dollars in First for a return LAX to LHR flight? It three times that price on the sites that I use!