FlyerTalker or Anyone BA Savy

[Gsel]

BA is quoting me almost $700 per person to upgrade our DFW to London tickets from Economy to Premium Economy. Since Premium Economy is new to us we would appreciate some input if this is worth it. Neither of us has much trouble sleeping, even in economy, and this is an all night flight. $700 sure seems steep to me and the only real perk I can see is the extra leg room and I am a very tall woman. Input please! Thanks

[quanmama]

I am not BA savvy at all but could share a bit of our experience.

 

We flew premium economy from SFO to London 3 years ago. It was a nice experience. The extra leg room definitely made quite a bit of difference. The wider seat width also made it more comfortable. It was not a full flight so my DH and DS sat on the left side (they were able to have 3 seats all to themselves) while I was able to get an aisle seat across the aisle with nobody sitting next to me. All theses factors seemed to make the long flight felt shorter since it was more comfortable. I forgot how much more we paid but I am pretty sure that it was not that much more, otherwise we wouldn't have done it.

 

I have to agree that $700 extra a person is a lot to pay. I know the food they serve are the same as the food you get at economy. They gave a glass of free wine at dinner and frequent snacks were served. We slept pretty well and the 10 hours went by quickly for us.

 

It really depends on how important it is for you to have the extra leg room and the wider seat. It is a very personal choice.

 

Just on a side note, we were upgraded to BA's business class on the way home. Due to the crazy terrorist liquid bomb scare back then, our flight was canceled but they were able to get us back to LAX and somehow they decided to upgrade us. Not sure why they decided to do it and I think it was all by luck.

[Gsel]

Thanks, I have a few days to make a decision, I am a tall, long legged person and having the extra leg room makes a difference to me. DH really doesn't care, but $700 really seems too much to me.

[quanmama]

Having said that it is a lot to pay, I do miss the extra leg room a lot. We want to use the miles we have to upgrade to Premium economy for our next summer flight, but the date of our outbound flight is considered one of the "blackout" dates so we cannot upgrade. What a bummer!

[azalice]

We are flying Newark to Heathrow on BA on 7/28 and were lucky enough to get a 99 dollar pp upgrade to premium economy (special online deal we happened to see when we checked our booking). We will see what it is like. They quote 602 dollars for return upgrade so we are skipping that. My DH says that they had a special when we first booked for 199 dollars per person each way and I refused to take it at that time. I'll try to remember to comment about the upgrade after our trip.

 

Alice

[quanmama]

I just looked at the flights that we want to fly on for next summer and were offered to upgrade to premium economy for $942 for 3 of us. So that is $314 for each which is still better than $700 each person. I would keep checking daily to see if they offer you something better. May be when it gets closer, they will consider giving a better deal?

[fbgd]

BA is quoting me almost $700 per person to upgrade our DFW to London tickets from Economy to Premium Economy. Since Premium Economy is new to us we would appreciate some input if this is worth it. Neither of us has much trouble sleeping, even in economy, and this is an all night flight. $700 sure seems steep to me and the only real perk I can see is the extra leg room and I am a very tall woman. Input please! Thanks

 

As with all these 'worth it' questions it really is hard for anyone to say definitively as we have no idea of your personal financial situation and what $700 means to you.

 

For me flying coach longhaul is not an option, my default cabin is business and if it is very expensive I'll look at WT+ prices, or more likely use miles for Club World/First. So for me $700 is certainly worth it. For some people though they wouldn't pay $10 extra for it, anything more than the bare bones economy price isn't worth stumping up for.

 

the date of our outbound flight is considered one of the "blackout" dates so we cannot upgrade.

 

Just an FYI but there are no blackout dates with BA Executive Club, just no availability when you looked. It is possible that more availability could open up at a later date. If you booked your tickets through BA.com and see availability for upgrading when you look online call BA and they should be able to upgrade you over the phone.

[Gardyloo]

I've seen BA lower the prices on these "upgrade" auctions right up to the check-in counter. $700 (One person? Two?) is a lot; I've always assumed $250-$300 was the typical WT > WT+ price, but I've seen $150 (aka around 100 GBP) too.

 

I'd say it also sort of depends on how full the flight is. If it's not full, then an empty seat between 2 coach pax with armrests folded up allows you to sit a little sideways and therefore have more legroom.

 

The WT+ cabin on BA planes is also smaller, and can be quieter, if that's a consideration.

[quanmama]

Just an FYI but there are no blackout dates with BA Executive Club, just no availability when you looked. It is possible that more availability could open up at a later date. If you booked your tickets through BA.com and see availability for upgrading when you look online call BA and they should be able to upgrade you over the phone.

 

Thanks for the information. We were a bit surprised to see that the date we want was not available since our travel won't happen until next June. So we just assumed that it is a blackout date. I should go on the website now to check to see if anything opens up.

Thanks again.

[Gardyloo]

Thanks for the information. We were a bit surprised to see that the date we want was not available since our travel won't happen until next June. So we just assumed that it is a blackout date. I should go on the website now to check to see if anything opens up.

Thanks again.

Next June? Most airlines don't accept bookings until 330 days before the flights, so it might not be blacked out, just not open for booking yet. Do the math.

[jetwet1]

$700. no way to much,as others have said, $300 or so is more like it and even then, WT+ is not a great premium economy like QF, NZ or even VS.

 

I would be inclined to wait and see what you can do at the airport. More than once I have seen CW on sale at the airport for $799 ow

[fbgd]

I would be inclined to wait and see what you can do at the airport. More than once I have seen CW on sale at the airport for $799 ow

 

This might work at outstations but not likely at LHR.

 

At my local BA airport (US East Coast) I will occasionally note a sign at the check-in desk advertising WT to WT+ upgrades for anywhere between $100-$250 one way, I assume trying to milk some cash from an overbooking situation.

 

At LHR I don't think cheap upgrades are offered at the check-in desk with anecdotal evidence (my status with BA allows me to use premium check-in lines and I rarely fly economy) suggesting that passengers enquiring about upgrades are directed to ticketing of a regular re-fare to higher cabin.

 

If the OP wants to fly WT+ and is looking for a cheaper way I'd certainly not suggest holding out for something at the airport. BA used to offer onboard paid upgrades for a relatively fixed cost pending seating and catering availability but that went away a couple of years ago.

[Gsel]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. This isn't really an "economic" problem as we figure we are going anyway and will probably upgrade the seats one way or another. We just thought the $700 per person was a bit outrageous. We could "almost" upgrade to Business for that! The person we talked to on the phone was not really helpful so I went to the online sight and got a bit better rate. I think I am going to wait for a while and watch the fares and see what happens. Since it is basically the same food, etc. just a better seat and space we have to weigh how much comfort means to us. Appreciate your help.

[quanmama]

Next June? Most airlines don't accept bookings until 330 days before the flights, so it might not be blacked out, just not open for booking yet. Do the math.

 

FYI-BA is one of the airlines that has opened up booking way earlier than the others. Lufthansa is the same. I saw some of the dates in June were available while the others are not (apparently the dates we wanted were not). We are not dead set on flying BA and are still waiting for other airlines to have their fares out before we make the final decision.

[fbgd]

FYI-BA is one of the airlines that has opened up booking way earlier than the others.

 

The others being? Southwest?

 

A cursory look on BA.com suggest the furthest ahead I can book today is July 9th 2010, more than 330 days but not way further than the rest of the 330 bunch.

[quanmama]

The others being? Southwest?

 

A cursory look on BA.com suggest the furthest ahead I can book today is July 9th 2010, more than 330 days but not way further than the rest of the 330 bunch.

 

Both BA and Lufhansa have opened up their June 2010 booking a while back and I could not remember exactly when. It did seem to be quite a while ago and I could be wrong. I was not referring to Southwest (it was not even in my radar since we need to go from SFO to BCN). Almost all the other major airlines at that time did not even have pricing for May 2010 out while I was able to see pricing from BA and Lufthansa for June 2010. To me that is "pretty ahead" and may be I should not have used the word "way earlier". As of today, United, Delta and AA only have the pricing for our outbound flight but not the inbound and we are still waiting.

[quanmama]

P.S. My apology if I did not make myself very clear on my posts. I do not know about airlines all that well so my perception of what is considered "early and ahead" could be quite different than the very experienced folks here.

[Globaliser]

BA is quoting me almost $700 per person to upgrade our DFW to London tickets from Economy to Premium Economy. Since Premium Economy is new to us we would appreciate some input if this is worth it.

I've seen BA lower the prices on these "upgrade" auctions right up to the check-in counter. $700 (One person? Two?) is a lot; I've always assumed $250-$300 was the typical WT > WT+ price, but I've seen $150 (aka around 100 GBP) too.

As fbgd says, the only person who can really say whether it's "worth it" is you, after you've done it. Then you'll know for next time.

 

But FWIW, $700 is not outrageous. That translates to £426 round-trip or £213 each way, which is smack bang in the pricing area that I'd expect to pay over the economy price for a WT+ seat confirmed at the time of booking.

 

Yes, if you wait until you get to the airport, you might sometimes be offered a cheaper upgrade on the day. But if you wait until then, you might find nothing on offer at all.

Next June? Most airlines don't accept bookings until 330 days before the flights, so it might not be blacked out, just not open for booking yet.

BA bookings open at 355 days before departure.

[jetwet1]

This might work at outstations but not likely at LHR.

 

 

Very true.

 

 

 

But FWIW, $700 is not outrageous. That translates to £426 round-trip or £213 each way, which is smack bang in the pricing area that I'd expect to pay over the economy price for a WT+ seat confirmed at the time of booking.

 

 

I agree, I guess the problem I have with WT+ and the pricing is what you actually get for your money, in this regards BA's premium economy sucks.

 

VS, NZ and QF do a far better job of it, hence my reluctance to advice spending $700 on it.

[Globaliser]

I guess the problem I have with WT+ and the pricing is what you actually get for your money, in this regards BA's premium economy sucks.

 

VS, NZ and QF do a far better job of it, hence my reluctance to advice spending $700 on it.

On most routes where QF operates alongside BA, QF's price is now distinctly higher than BA's. Whether the extra warrants the difference is again one of those things that everyone has to judge for themselves. Like many premium economy regulars, I have a sense of how much extra I will pay for BA's premium economy, and how much more than that I will pay for QF's.

 

I've heard from a number of places that VS PE is better than BA's. If that's right (and I've got no reason to disbelieve it), and if you can get VS premium economy for the same price as BA's, it may be better value - VS flies alongside BA on virtually every VS route, so the prices will usually be aligned.

 

Unfortunately, BA's WT+ was due for quite a significant "refresh" about now, but like so much else it has been put on hold because the airline has turned its focus onto simple survival.