Questions and Answers

I recently purchased a ticket (before I found this website) for travel from Seattle to Stockholm (via LHR) on British Airways. I’m curious if there are any steps I can take between now and the flight that may help get me an upgrade (which takes place in July)?

Welcome [USER=1386]@ryan5379[/USER] – do you have any kind of elite status with either AA or BA?

What cabin and ticket class did you book? Do you have any miles? Especially with either AA or BA?

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 11627, member: 184″]Welcome [USER=1386]@ryan5379[/USER] – do you have any kind of elite status with either AA or BA?[/QUOTE]
No. Was hoping there would be an expedited way there via signing up for a credit card? Not sure if the BA visa would be a good way to get enough points to get one…thoughts?

The BA card signup bonus right now is 50K Avios after spending $2000 in 3 months. American has a couple of cards that will get you 50K AAdvantage miles after $3000 spend in 3 months. (See Lucky’s links at the top of the page.) Remember that if you applied and were approved today, it would likely be March before you’d see the first miles posted to your AA/BA account.

You’d need to use the miles of the airline who issued the ticket (not sure if you booked via AA or BA). It’ll take 50K AA miles each way to upgrade to Business. For Avios the cost is the difference in the cost of an Economy flight vs. a Business class flight. That may vary based on the day of the week (if you’re flying on Mon/Tues those are off-peak days and are cheaper in Economy). There will also be additional fuel surcharges of ~$340 involved and possibly higher taxes & fees. Not trying to scare you, just prepare you. 🙂

So something to keep in mind. Only you can decide if it’s worth it.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 11631, member: 184″]The BA card signup bonus right now is 50K Avios after spending $2000 in 3 months. American has a couple of cards that will get you 50K AAdvantage miles after $3000 spend in 3 months. (See Lucky’s links at the top of the page.) Remember that if you applied and were approved today, it would likely be March before you’d see the first miles posted to your AA/BA account.

You’d need to use the miles of the airline who issued the ticket (not sure if you booked via AA or BA). It’ll take 50K AA miles each way to upgrade to Business. For Avios the cost is the difference in the cost of an Economy flight vs. a Business class flight. That may vary based on the day of the week (if you’re flying on Mon/Tues those are off-peak days and are cheaper in Economy). There will also be additional fuel surcharges of ~$340 involved and possibly higher taxes & fees. Not trying to scare you, just prepare you. 🙂

So something to keep in mind. Only you can decide if it’s worth it.[/QUOTE]
That’s the info I was looking for. Purchased ticket thru BA, so it appears I must go through Avios. At this point in time, it won’t be worth it to me if I am required to pay a fuel surcharge (which is confusing b/c shouldn’t that be covered in the base ticket?). I get having a tax implication…

Regarding “the cost” if I’m flying peak on BA, what would that equate to for Avios points on a trip originating from the west coast? would it be just for the leg to LHR or all the way through to my final destination? Your help/info/knowledge is much appreciated. Thank you!

Avios awards are distance-based. SEA-LHR is 4800 miles. LHR-ARN is 911 miles.

The SEA-LHR leg is normally 25K in economy, 50K in business (each way). So you’d need 25K to upgrade this leg (each way).

The LHR-ARN leg is normally 7500 in economy, 15K in business (each way). So you’d need 7500 to upgrade this leg.

25,000 + 7,500 = 32,500 Avios each way to upgrade.

And you’d think fuel surcharges would be included, right? It’s one of the most annoying things about flying with BA. On award flights you can fly BA partners to reduce or eliminate fuel surcharges but it’s still a pain.

[USER=1386]@ryan5379[/USER] if you’d like more information than what [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] has provided here, BA has good resources at [URL]http://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/spending-avios/upgrading-with-avios[/URL]

The only minor edit I would make is that because of their Joint Agreement, you can actually upgrade BA/AA/IB flights using each other’s currency. If you would like to upgrade your BA flight using AA miles you can find more information here: [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/jba-upgrade-award-reservations.jsp[/URL]

Keep in mind that upgrades are limited to specific fare classes (check your ticket) and are usually only for one class of service so Economy-Premium Economy, Prem. Y – Business, Business-First. Good luck!

Good catch [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER] – I didn’t even think about Premium Economy being considered a separate class and I didn’t know their joint agreement would allow the different currencies. 2 new facts for me today!

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 11644, member: 79″][USER=1386]@ryan5379[/USER]
The only minor edit I would make is that because of their Joint Agreement, you can actually upgrade BA/AA/IB flights using each other’s currency. If you would like to upgrade your BA flight using AA miles you can find more information here: [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/redeemMiles/jba-upgrade-award-reservations.jsp[/URL][/QUOTE]

AAdvantage doesn’t word this well, but [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] actually has the right idea as to how this works in practice.

You [I]can[/I] use American miles to upgrade BA tickets, [I]if[/I] the ticket is issued on AA ticket stock. So if the ticket number starts with 001 you can use AAdvantage miles to upgrade the flights, if it starts with 125 you’d need Avios.

Thanks [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER], lots of learning today 🙂

Hah, right? You’d think with all the millions they spend on corporate communications there would just be a chart with all of this!

Of course this article the [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] wrote last year might be a good place to look first if you are going to upgrade with Avios.

[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/[/URL]

Get a BA Gold status. If you are US based I can get you an itinerary for under $1,700. I always recommend BA gold status for all US based peeps, the perks are that much better than the AA. And once done, your 2 flights with BA will mean 2 qualification flights will be out of the way (you will be silver by then, I believe)… And whatever miles you accumulate during he tier-run could be used for an upgrade. I’m sorry for selling you BA Gold too hard -:)