Paid Upgrade - Best Time To Book?

[Robroy]

Need some advice (again!) please from the road warriors who inhabit this Board! My wife and I are flying YYZ-LHR and on to Nice to pick up a cruise from Monte Carlo in April and return 8 days later. We are on BA and booked World Traveller + for the overseas leg.

This cost us an additional $750.00 each but I felt it was well worth it to arrive somewhat more refreshed and an overnight flight in economy would provide.

Our return from Venice is through LHR also and I'm considering World Traveller + from LHR-YYZ.

 

I'm wondering if there would be much of a saving waiting until a) we check in at LHR on the way home and ask about a paid upgrade to WT+ or b) waiting until a couple of weeks prior to our trip and check on availability and price at that point.

 

I realize by waiting close to the time there may not be any availability whatsoever. The flight in question will be a 4:20pm one on a Monday afternoon.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Globaliser]

I'm wondering if there would be much of a saving waiting until a) we check in at LHR on the way home and ask about a paid upgrade to WT+ or b) waiting until a couple of weeks prior to our trip and check on availability and price at that point.

Overall, the best time to book WT+ for money is when you initially book.

 

Now that you are already booked in economy, if you wish to change to WT+ for that sector you are probably in for a change fee of CAD 275 plus the fare difference. However, it may still be worth your while asking now, in case the current batch of fares gives you an overall total cost of change that you're happy to pay.

 

However, if you'd booked WT+ to start off with, you wouldn't now be looking at paying CAD 275 in addition to paying the whole of the WT+ fare.

 

If you leave it until a couple of weeks before your trip, the chances are that it will be much more expensive than if you do it now, because in general the lower priced availability tends to sell out closer to the date of travel. Expecting to pay less when close to the date of the flight is usually wishful thinking.

 

You may get lucky if you wait until check-in and ask whether there are any special offers to upgrade. There may be something on offer (there may even be a special offer to upgrade into business class). However, you're just as likely to find that you'd have to pay the change fee plus the fare difference to the most expensive WT+ fare, which would incur an astronomical total cost of change.

[Robroy]

Thanks for your input Globaliser. We do have bulkhead seats assigned in economy on the return and according to seatguru they are "ok" seats. I'll check with my travel agent and see if we could simply pay the additional "known" fee of $750 now and book them at this point, since we won't be actually ticketed until after final payment is due the end of December.

Appreciate your insight!

 

Thanks,

Rob

[Globaliser]

I'll check with my travel agent and see if we could simply pay the additional "known" fee of $750 now and book them at this point, since we won't be actually ticketed until after final payment is due the end of December.

So is your airline booking part of your cruise booking? Normally, if you book the air travel separately, you'd have to be ticketed straight away.

 

If you've not yet been ticketed, then there may well be no change fee (at least from the airline) for changing the booking on the return half.

 

However, did you have to pay for the seat pre-allocation, or did you get that free through one of the categories of those entitled to free pre-allocation? If you've paid for the pre-allocation, then it's possible that you could lose that fee by changing cabins now - again, you'll have to ask.

[BridgeMates]

We booked United, DFW-EZE several months ago & paid for upgrade to bulkhead seats. In checking reservations yesterday, we noticed we could upgrade to First Class using miles plus $$. We paid the money & the miles and our info now shows "upgrade requested" for the first two segments, but "R-requested" for the return flight. Checked with UA and agent said there's no problem, waitlisted" and "R-requested" are the same thing. Anyone know what the chances are we'll get the upgrade and when will we know?

I definitely don't want to lose our E+ seats if we don't. Forgive my ignorance, maybe I'm worrying about nothing. We are not that experienced in the in's and out's of all this but I know there are some very knowledgeable people on here who can give me their opinion about how all this works. Thanks.

[Ainhoa]

This is not totally relevant to the OP question, but I am flying out to Lisbon with BA from LHR on Sunday. My one way ticket cost £115. A business class ticket is priced at £459. I have now had two emails from BA, inviting me to upgrade to business class for £79. Go figure!

[Globaliser]

... I am flying out to Lisbon with BA from LHR on Sunday. My one way ticket cost £115. A business class ticket is priced at £459. I have now had two emails from BA, inviting me to upgrade to business class for £79. Go figure!

This is because if you pay the £79, you will not be getting the same business class ticket as you would have had if you'd paid £459.

 

Nevertheless, the £79 special offer is usually good value, particularly if you are not normally entitled to lounge access, if you can live with the limitations that it imposes on you.