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Plane seat upgrade to Business Class?

Posted by on

Hello! My wife and I will be flying from Chicago to London with British Air. As of now, we are booked in Premium+ class. I know there are business class seats available for sale ($7000 hah!). I have enough Avios points to upgrade to Business class for the 2 of us (eventually) but this class is not open for folks upgrading.

Do any of you familiar with British Air or American know WHEN they usually open those 'unsold' seats up for upgrade?...like how long before your trip? We are 4 weeks out.

Thanks for your help!

Michael

Posted by
388 posts

Unfortunately since we don't have any experience booking flights and upgrades, we are not sure when these seats are available for an upgrade. Sorry we couldn't help.

Posted by
28 posts

Thank you for the links! I will try to make my way through their forum info.

My hopes were to find someone that might just know off the top of their head..."yeah, thats usually done a week out" (or whatever it might be).

I appreciate your help!

Posted by
5326 posts

They can open up at any time, but try every day from about 14 days out.

Posted by
3095 posts

To upgrade using your Avios, your WT+ ticket must be an upgradable one. Then, you have to find award seats available. There are lots of complaints on Flyertalk about BA not releasing more award seats in biz class before the flight even when seats are unsold. And there appears to be no pattern to the timing of release if more seats are released. But it is worth checking every few days.

The best way to use Avios to upgrade a WT+ ticket is to do it at the time of purchase, but unfortunately it is too late for you to do that. If you do not find an upgrade for this trip, keep that in mind for next time.

Posted by
3095 posts

I will add that the last time we flew back from London on BA ( last fall) our cabin in biz class was only half full. Lots of empty seats, suggesting that they did not release any of them for upgrades at the last minute.

Posted by
10176 posts

I can't speak for BA or AA, but for AF and Delta, you ask to be put on a list. They will then email/call you a day or so before the flight. With AF and Delta one pays money plus miles.

Posted by
5697 posts

On our United trip SFO-Paris last fall the flight attendants made an announcement for anyone wanting to purchase an upgrade -- and made it clear that nobody in coach was going to get upgraded for free, no matter how many empty seats there were. I would guess that the airlines all have the same method of maximizing cash (or at least FF mile usage)

Posted by
28 posts

I will keep checking their site for availability. I hope they open them up soon :)

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