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Can anyone advise on how to maximise the chance of complimentary upgrade from Premium Economy to Business and/or Business to First when traveling on BA. Is is better to check in at the airport or check in online? Other tips?
I don't believe there is any definitive answer to this, but in an earlier thread the ever-knowledgeable VK suggested doinig on-line check-in, but not printing your boarding pass and collecting it at the airport instead
You can normally see if they will be doing upgrades based on the seats available in each booking class. 9 Seats free in even the cheapest economy fares means no upgrades Y->W and a knock on effect for upgrades W->J. And this can vary from day to day on the same route or different flights on the same day (if they fly twice a day for example). You can even deliberately book flights you know will be busy.
I always do online check in but don't print my boarding pass. In that way you can keep looking at the seat map and change your seat yourself (up until the BP is printed). I have seen upgrades processed about 2-3h before departure. If upgraded you will see this if you try to check-in again and you will find your cabin changed and a new seat assigned. You can then change your seat in the new class if you like (eg to upper deck on 747).
I assume you know that ordering a special meal will put your upgrade chances to 0%.
And of course if you are a new gold card holder or have just scraped past the 1500 points, you will be down the list. There are a lot of gold cards around these days and usually preference will be given to the big spenders!
My recommendation, assume you won't get an upgrade, prepare yourself to have a good flight in the cabin you have booked and be eternally grateful if you get moved up! Far less stressful.
Also you could pay to upgrade. On a recent flight LHR to BOS at online checking I was given the option to upgrade CW to F for £399 which i took! Prior to online checkin opening the price was over £2,500. I think in that case the flight was overbooked and The airline looked to get some additional revenue rather than just give free upgrades? Maybe this is the new approach to upgrading ....... See who will pay before you give out the freebies???
I read a story a while ago about an airline in the USA and the check in machine at the airport will ask you "how much are you prepared to pay" for an upgrade. The system then makes a kind of auction and upgrades people based on their bids. You cannot change your bid later though so it's not quite the free for all that it sounds. But US based airlines are notorious for filling up their front cabin even if the back of the plane is not full up.
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