Using your Avios to upgrade someone else’s ticket

[dannyhk]

My father (who doesn’t have a BA Executive Club account) bought a Premium Economy ticket on BA. com from Hong Kong to London.
What’s the easiest way to use my Avios to upgrade him to Business? (assuming, of course, I can find availabllity)
Can I just do it directly by citing his booking reference number? Or do I need to go first through the whole rigmarole of getting him to set up an Executive Club account (with the same address as me) and then adding this to my Household account?

[AndrewT]

I think the answer is you can’t upgrade someone else’s ticket, they have to do it, so you are correct they need a BAEC account and adding to your household account (the address is largely irrelevant as nothing gets posted anyway).

Hardly a rigmarole though, should take no more than a few minutes. Plus of course he then earns avios on the cash ticket which would otherwise be wasted, added to your household account.

[NorthernLass]

I think BA did away with the requirement for everyone to live at the same address.

Of course you’re dependent on CW availability for that specific travel date – how far away is it? If there’s nothing showing atm, you could sign up to SeatSpy for alerts.

[dannyhk]

Thanks for the quick replies, and will proceed down the household account route. The flight’s in late April and yes, I’ve already signed up for a SeatSpy alert.

[sayling]

I upgraded the flight for my brother – Canadian, living in Canada – using Avios, but added him to the Friends and Family list, rather than the Household account, in order to do this.

[AndrewT]

So how did you then achieve the upgrade? Or do you mean that you booked a flight + upgrade for a F&F member?

The latter is fairly straightforward. but the OP already has a ‘third party’ cash ticket which he wants to upgrade after it has been booked.

[executiveclubber]

AndrewT wrote:

So how did you then achieve the upgrade? Or do you mean that you booked a flight + upgrade for a F&F member?

The latter is fairly straightforward. but the OP already has a ‘third party’ cash ticket which he wants to upgrade after it has been booked.

In old style manage my booking, you can click to upgrade with Avios. It’s also possible over the phone with the booking ref.

[AndrewT]

But if you upgrade via MMB you can only use your own avios, or those available to you via an HHA. The original question was can you use your avios to upgrade someone else’s booking without being in an HHA with them.

[SamG]

I’ve done it but I can’t recall how, not useful sorry 😂 but you may as well sign him up and add him to a household account as he’ll earn some points you can then spend

[LittleNick]

I’ve certainly been able to do this when both passengers are booked together in one booking and I’ve been the lead passenger.
It might be able to do this if you set up your father a Ba account and then add yourself as his nominee, giving you full access to his exec account on the phone. This would grant you permission to upgrade, hopefully using your avios instead of his

[To dare is to do]

I’ve done this. Added person to f&f list, phoned up friend did her security bit then I spoke to them job done. If that’s not viable add yourself as nominee on account and call up. It’s doable just as with anything BA might take a bit of time. Or you could transfer points to dad think this is free for golds or it will cost. There’s plenty of ways to do this it’s finding right one for you.

[sayling]

AndrewT wrote:

So how did you then achieve the upgrade? Or do you mean that you booked a flight + upgrade for a F&F member?

The latter is fairly straightforward. but the OP already has a ‘third party’ cash ticket which he wants to upgrade after it has been booked.

He had booked his own ticket on the same plane I was flying on. I rang BA and asked if I could use Avios to upgrade his ticket class – they advised to add him to the F&F, then processed the upgrade without issue