Family and Friends – upgrading a flight for someone else with my Avios

[Mbaldrick]

Hi, this may well have been answered before but finding it difficult to find. I am looking to purchase Economy Plus seats for my daughter and her fiance to travel to ST Lucia for their wedding. I am thinking to then use Avois to upgrade to Business Class. Firstly, is this doable? I suspect I may have to ring to get the upgrade. Also, you gurus out there….. if this course isn’t what you would do for best value what would be the best way to book/pay for the tickets? Any ideas woud be apprecaited. Thanks

[NorthernLass]

What a lovely wedding gift. There is a way to book this online (book with cash and upgrade with avios), but more importantly you need award availability in Club World so you need to be able to book early as it’s a very popular route. This way of doing it can also be very expensive, cash wise. When is the wedding?

Only certain classes can be upgraded as well, but hopefully someone who knows more about this will be along soon. If there’s no availability when you book, you could keep an eye out in case any seats become available later.

TBH with a Caribbean route, if you have enough avios the best way to secure seats would be to jump on an award booking in CW as soon as they are released.

[Froggee]

It’s definitely doable. However booking can be a pain. If you look to upgrade from a cash fare when you book it tends to produce silly prices so don’t do that.

Book the WT+ seats first and you should then be able to upgrade using Avios via Manage My Booking.

This used to be a sweet spot for redemptions but I don’t think it is as good now. I believe the pricing will be the difference between WT+ and Club at max Avios pricing.

What you can do is book the seats for a date with Club Avios availability and then see how much BA want to upgrade. If you don’t like the price then you can cancel without charge within 24 hours.

[Mbaldrick]

Hi, thank you for your answer. I don’t really have enough Avois to sort out their flights totally with Avois. I will be travelling also but not at the same time. I will be using companion voucher – i have enought o fhtem I just wish i could use one for my daughter and partner but I am almost certian I can’t. So I am now just trying to find the best way to get them there and back. Thanks again 🙂

[Mbaldrick]

Froggee wrote:

It’s definitely doable. However booking can be a pain. If you look to upgrade from a cash fare when you book it tends to produce silly prices so don’t do that.

Book the WT+ seats first and you should then be able to upgrade using Avios via Manage My Booking.

This used to be a sweet spot for redemptions but I don’t think it is as good now. I believe the pricing will be the difference between WT+ and Club at max Avios pricing.

What you can do is book the seats for a date with Club Avios availability and then see how much BA want to upgrade. If you don’t like the price then you can cancel without charge within 24 hours.

Thanks for the answer – what do you mean in the last sentence? Book the seats for a date with Club Avois………. – are you saying try doing a trial booking then see how much for the upgarde then cancel?? Sorry a bit dim me LOL

[Froggee]

Yes – I’m pretty sure you will get a different price if you “Book and Upgrade” in one go rather than book for cash and then then later upgrade that booking using Avios. But because BA allow you to cancel a booking within 24 hours of making it for free then you have a window where you can see what the actual pricing would be.

As you said you won’t be able to use your voucher for your daughter and partner unless they are on the same flights. I take it you’re too late for them to get their own 241?

[NorthernLass]

It would help to know when the wedding is. @Froggee, does the 24-hour cancellation rule apply to cash-only bookings?

@Mbaldrick – how many avios do you have? You could look at the cash price of PE (which is likely to be pretty high to St Lucia), then compare the cash plus avios options you get on an award booking to see if one of them would work for you. At peak times PE prices can be not far off CW so this could well be a better option and get you the CW seats.

[Froggee]

NorthernLass wrote:

It would help to know when the wedding is. @Froggee, does the 24-hour cancellation rule apply to cash-only bookings?

Oh yes.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/03/20/24-hour-refund-british-airways-virgin-atlantic/

[AJA]

If you have two 2-4-1 vouchers earned from the BAPP card you can use them at the same time for 4 people to travel. The issue you have is finding 4 seats in Club for your dates and it requires uou to have enough Avios for 2 seats.

Otherwise booking any WTP seat for cash will work for upgrading to Club. Book online for xash then phone to upgrade as it is cheaper than booking and upgrading at the same time.

[Mbaldrick]

Hi thanks all, ok so they would fly out May 27th and return June 6th 2024. I know that i can’t book before 355 days out so I am watching Seat Spy and Reward flight finder each day to see how things are booking for May 2024.
If i book that outbound flight for May 27th on the day to ensure they have the flights Prem Economy can I then ring up when the flights for June 6th are released and add the return leg without being charged for 2 each way flights?
I assume I can’t book the CW flight for May 27th with Avios until I have booked the return leg. Does that sound right?
All getting rather complicated LOL – but thats life – I am sure I will get it sorted eventually.
Any further help would be much apprecaited.

Thanks
Michele…

[NorthernLass]

So is the plan to book cash flights then upgrade with avios? You can’t book one-way cash flights without being charged a huge premium on long-haul routes, sadly. You’ll be taking a very big risk here hoping that CW avios seats will still be available by the time you can book a return flight, especially as that’s half-term week when demand will be extra high.

[Mbaldrick]

NorthernLass wrote:

So is the plan to book cash flights then upgrade with avios? You can’t book one-way cash flights without being charged a huge premium on long-haul routes, sadly. You’ll be taking a very big risk here hoping that CW avios seats will still be available by the time you can book a return flight, especially as that’s half-term week when demand will be extra high.

Ok thank you – I think the most improtant thing is to get the Premium Economy booked first then do my best to sort out upgrade once i have book the seats. Thanks for your help

[NorthernLass]

For a cash booking you should be fine – also bear in mind that prices can be very high when flights are first released and often come down a bit after about 4 weeks. My SeatSpy membership has just lapsed but you can see the pattern of demand over 12 months.