On board upgrade to Club

[Sark]

Travelling recently on BA LGW-TFS, on boarding a passenger in my row moved forward and was seen to engae the cabin crew in conversation. They pulled out the credit card machine and processed his card. He then sat down in Club and stayed there for the whole flight.
Anyone know how much he would have paid for this on board upgrade?

[apaddyinuk]

Not sure what the cost to upgrade is on shorthaul but BA do indeed have the facility to upgrade passengers onboard the aircraft where space and meal quantities permit!!!

[Curious Pax]

That's the heart of the matter - is it cheaper to pay on board for an upgrade than to book in advance? Always a gamble on space being available of course!

[galanjal]

not sure how it stands now but years ago when I worked for AML ( difficult to explain but basically we operated high density DC-10s and later 777s in BA colours) we had an onboard upgrade pack. Amongst all the other necassary stuff was a price list detailing what you would need to charge per sector per person. It was normally eye watering amounts of money and I personally never had any takers

[slim_slag]

From what I've read elsewhere it costs in the £500-1000 range to upgrade from economy to business on board if flying long haul. Might once have been considered a 'bargain', but BA has significantly cut the prices of it's business class seats over the past few years and it probably isn't such a good deal anymore. Haven't heard the cost if flying short haul, but if short haul I cannot see the point of upgrading on board unless it was was something like £20, you would mainly have to put a value on the additional booze/food, cannot be worth much. IMO of course, others might have a different valuation method, people are funny like that :)

Those who study this sort of thing seem to say the best value way to get into business class on BA is to buy a WT+ ticket and then use miles to upgrade. Or get somebody else to pay, that's what the mrs does :)

[Atishoo]

I want a free upgrade on mu Singapore alirline flight to Singapore. Do you reckon they will say "yes ofcourse Madam" lol

[Salusa]

I want a free upgrade on mu Singapore alirline flight to Singapore. Do you reckon they will say "yes ofcourse Madam" lol


If you have 45000 FF miles yes.:)

[PAXboy]

I agree with Slim, upgrading to C on short haul is only worth doing if someone else is paying. For long haul, there are many options and specialist web-sites if you have the time to wade through them. I agree that buy Y/Y+ and upgrade to C/Upper with FFMs is best.

Any price I have ever seen for a s/h upgrade, has not been worth it. My guess is that - in order to claim the expenses - the bloke you saw would have spun a story to his boss about crowded flights and this being the only way to get home blah. blah. :hmm:

[Saintsman]

So you're travelling long haul and you approach the cabin crew about an upgrade and offer £100 cash in hand. Do you think that you will get any takers?

[PAXboy]

Saintsman Assuming you are serious, the answer is NO. For the cabin crew it is not worth their job to do that.

Whilst there may be some carriers in some corners of the world that might consider it, I have to say I doubt it. Don't forget, you would have to pay off ALL the cabin crew as your change of seat would be obvious to all. So you have to hope that all of them will be ready to take the cash and none to spill the beans?

[Atishoo]

LOL Salsa,

Was just kidding, i know there will be no hope in hell, but just having a jest ;)

[CHIVILCOY]

Many BA flights from LGW when booked in ET give you the option of upgrading to CE online before you travel from about £59 OW.
Depending on how long the flight time is it may be a good buy as you can get lounge access if your status doesn't grant you that plus extra room and service in the air.

[groundhand]

Likelihood is that most of the spare seats in Business and First on Long Haul flights go to BA staff who are on their rebates. Nothing more galling than having paid monster money to travel up front to get a numpty's mother next to you who tells you all about how little junior is doing well in the accounts department!
I'm sure GB/AD could re-look at the whole area of staff travel schemes and benefit in kind as I know of a family of a junior BA employee when all 4 were upgraded to first on their return - equated to about £12k in value. How can this be justified?
As they were upgraded it prevented any of the fare payers having the opportunity. just think of the marketing/goodwill factor lost.

[20driver]

A reasonable ""tip" to a certain Skycap at Newark has obtained an upgrade for yours truly on one occasion. Small deals with gate agents have also being done.
This was some years back and I suspect this is not so easy anymore.
20driver

[manintheback]

Cant say it bothers me if staff get upgraded - reasonable perk of being employed by that company. I get similar in my own field not avail to joe public.

[Leezyjet]

Completely agree with you MITB.

No different from bank staff who save thousands on their mortgages.

Considering the unsocial hours, responsibility and amount of :mad: they have to put up with from SLF, as well as wages much less than your Tesco's checkout operator then giving them a few cheap flights is a pretty good way to reward them IMHO.

:)

[PAXboy]

I have been thinking about groundhand's view and can only conclude that: the company (whichever carrier it might be) will know with a remarkable level of accuracy, what amount of Walk-Ups and No-Shows they will have. They will know the value of the 'perk' to their staff and the relative cost to themselves (certainly not 12k). They will also know the number of times that upgrading staff backfires on them and causes a problem for a client.

If they know all of that and still do it - then they know that the balance is in their favour. Many threads in here remark on the accuracy of the bean counters in modern commerce and they would not allow this to continue, if it was not sustainable.

When I was working in IT, I got certain perks of the job that others in the company did not, equally, there were some perks that front line staff received that I did not. The employer knew what the perks were and the value to the employee and themselves. Some folks join airlines solely for the perks, fair enough. If staff were found to be abusing their perks, or providing unjustified ones to friends, then it would be found sooner or later. How? Computers can do that for management.

Of the irritating pax that I have sat next to over the past 40 years, airline staff do not feature!

[Final 3 Greens]

Costs about £70 if you buy special offer at LGW.

A little more on board.

Is it worth it? Matter of opinion.

[MuttleyJ]

Sark, it really depends on the route and on the time of year (CSD is given the costs with their pre-flight paperwork), but on longhaul it is definitely cheaper to upgrade on board.... however you obviously run the risk of having no seats available on the day to upgrade to.

(I'd love to take cash in hand but really not worth my job for a hundred quid my salary's not that bad!!!:))

[Bluejay]

groundhand - I am sorry if you think that is is wrong for staff and their nominees to be upgraded when on rebate travel - just to make a few points.....firstly it is a perk as others have highlighted and what is wrong with that, when upgraded staff are appropriatley dressed and discreet, there are certain rules that have to be followed. Secondly the staff member on rebate travel that you are seated next to in Club/FIRST etc may actually be entitled to that seat subject to space availability due to length of service or level within the company.

There are a few exeptions to the rule and I am sure that if noticed then the CSD/Purser is informed and the matter dealt with.

Please do not begrudge us hard working staff one of the very few perks we have left

[slim_slag]

I think what some frequent fliers object to is staff on subsidised and confirmed economy tickets being upgraded in preference to frequent fliers. There is a suspicion that employees are using their discretion to look after their colleagues better than their customers. If the staff member has a 'right' to economy travel then that is fair enough, but some frequent fliers might consider they have more 'right' to any op-upgrades. The perk is the economy travel, not the upgrade.