BA testing ‘upgrade for £ in the departure lounge’ via their app

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• Phil says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:30

  The same seat and a choice of poor food (if they bothered to load any) is not an upgrade.
  Choose a seat near the front and take on or buy a sandwich. Save your money

  • the real harry1 says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:08

    how about you upgrade at home the night before?

    you can now take 2x 32kg luggage instead of 23kg = £40
    you get a lounge pass = £35
    you get all the preferential/ priority check-in desk & boarding
    you get some elbow room & no fat gut next to you
    you get 3 G&Ts plus a bit of scran
    & hey everybody I’m travelling upfront!

    • Genghis says:

      7 Sep7 September 09:01

      I think HEITUF needs to be a new accepted acronym

      • roberto says:

        7 Sep7 September 09:19

        FT refer to these as APPups

    • Billy Buzzjet says:

      7 Sep7 September 09:14

      OT. But I think i’m going to have fish fingers and chips for dinner tonight.

    • zsalya says:

      7 Sep7 September 10:06

      To/from LGW or STN a bag costs £36, but from LHR/MAN/LCY etc it’s £60!
      And if you want 64kg, that would mean paying an extra £120 on an ET ticket.

      Unless one person on the booking is Silver or above, in which case you have 2 * 32kg already.

      Last time I was facing the £60, it was cheaper for me to use Airportr to get the bag to LGW, from where Easyjet only charged £22.

      • the real harry1 says:

        7 Sep7 September 10:53

        guilty m’lud 🙂

        just grabbed a figure from thin air

    • Drav says:

      7 Sep7 September 17:09

      and i imagine there are few times many of us need 2x23kg for a Euro Trip

      and I know that you know how to get a lounge pass for cheaper than £35 harry 😉

      • the real harry1 says:

        7 Sep7 September 17:21

        it would take a lot for me to pay for CE 🙂

        maybe if I were moving abroad, the extra luggage (it is actually 2x 32kg, not 23kg) would be good, combined with lounge & drinks on the plane

        nearly had to pay for a RFS redemption in CE for my wife this Xmas though as she can never get her act together so left it until this week & that’s all they had left (cash tickets in ET already £200+), but just grabbed her a 21st Dec RA ticket for £65 today!

• Jon says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:35

  Is the app upgrade after check-in primarily for Gold/GGL or also for Silver/Bronze/Blue/all?

• Russell says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:41

  You can use it a week in advance (for some flights anyway) – not just after check in. For my EDI-LHR flight next week I can upgrade via the app for £65 each way. Via the iPad app or webpage an upgrade is £238 each way!

• Derek says:

  7 Sep7 September 07:46

  Based on the stipulation that the upgrade option would be available up to 45/60mins before take off, then surely the Catering Carrs can be amended before he truck heads for the aircraft? All it takes is a printout at the loading bay of numbers to add/remove meals as necessary?

  • Rob says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:08

    The next logical development hopefully would be the ability to use Avios points to upgrade as an alternative to cash.

• hackinjack says:

  7 Sep7 September 08:03

  Subject to availability this ‘functionality’ has been available via gate agents (and BA lounge helpdesks) for some time. I’ve used it a couple of times when I’ve been short of TP’s for a year and have been quoted various amounts ranging from about £60 up to £300+ one way. Note to anyone trying that in LHR T5, ONLY the Galleries South lounge desk has agents with the ability to do this though. If you ask at Galleries North they can check availability but cannot upgrade or rebook you.

  I’ll be interested to see what sort of prices get quoted via the app.

• John Thompson says:

  7 Sep7 September 08:08

  I’ve had this twice now on LGW – ALC. On both occasions I tried and it didn’t work!

• Andy S says:

  7 Sep7 September 08:10

  I’ve got a bit confused with the BA buy on board fiasco – do you have to pay for refreshments in club europe too or is this still included? That with the extra avios/TP could make it worthwhile

  • Ian says:

    7 Sep7 September 08:18

    No, you don’t pay in CE, the food & drink are still included. There are these persistent reports about certain pax not being offered food, though I’ve never personally encountered this problem.

    • the real harry1 says:

      7 Sep7 September 08:29

      if you are a free upgrade to business @ check-in, you may easily not get free food as not loaded – you should still get free drinks and can BOB from the trolley, you surely have no complaint here

      if you have paid to upgrade and BA do not load enough food in business so you miss out, you ask the cabin crew to award you 3000 Avios on their iPad there & then, which they should readily do as it is an ‘automatic’ or standard service recovery award that they will know about – if somehow you get refused, you claim it later (3000 Avios) online & it will certainly be given

      • Drav says:

        7 Sep7 September 17:12

        that’s not bad and good to know… if i ever have to fly club europe again, i’m gonna be hoping that they dont load enough food for me and take the avios.

• Nick says:

  7 Sep7 September 08:41

  Quick question. Does anyone know if you gat a BA app notification if/when this offer is made, or do you have to monitor the app to see if it appears? Thanks.

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