Upgrade with cash for flight purchased by company (getting status)

[grahamrb]

I’m Bronze status at the moment and it’s currently looking like I’ll be short of getting Silver by around 50 points at my year-end. I’ve got some short haul trips for work (Economy) and was thinking that it would be cheaper to pay to upgrade these to business rather than do a dedicated points run. The work flights are booked via Concur (Amex GBT) – is anyone aware of a way that I can pay for an upgrade to business class separately to the Economy flight cost (e.g. at the gate/check-in). Also, anyone think this is a silly idea and that I should be doing something different to get myself up to Silver then I’m keen to know that too of course!

Thanks!

• This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[DaveB]

Hi Graham,
I have done this in the past (flights booked on Concur)- and even been offered some upgrades via the BA app when checking in.
Not sure if my memory is deceiving me – I even think that once I was offered an upgrade on the app when I was in T5. I was able to pay via my own credit card for the upgrade.
Its possible a mileage run would have been a little cheaper though a lot more costly in time!

Dave

[grahamrb]

Awesome, that sounds easier than I was expecting. I’ll have a poke around in the app once I’ve booked the flight through work.
Agree entirely on the mileage run, time is a big factor, and also once you factor in getting to and from the airport etc. for a milage run this felt like a better option.
Thanks!

[Biki]

My wife was in a similar position a couple of years ago, being slightly short of gold. There are sometimes upgrade offers that pop up in manage my booking, plus at 24 hours before the flight you often get upgrade offers too. If not you can always ask at the airport, but they tend to be a little more expensive.

[Tariq]

I used to do this all the time – as others have said, offers tended to pop up in the app or MMB on the website.