Sticking with one airline is handy as you get to know how an airline operates when it comes to ticket pricing. British Airways sometimes offer cheap upgrades to business class, so playing upgrade roulette has its advantages.
In this instance, I did a lot of slicing and dicing of flight combinations to try to eke out the best value for me. It has paid off but not so much that it is a huge saving, as you will see.
Upgrade Roulette – The Story
I have to fly from Dublin to Sofia one way, and booking it straight up comes out at €272. Knowing the pricing reduces when bought as a return ticket, adding an economy class return brings the total price down to €255.
Upgrade offers generally only pop up when you have one flight each way. Connections, such as Dublin to London to Sofia, won’t bring up a reduced price offer on any of the segments.
The other thing to know is that the segments price up at €69 and £114 when booked as part of a return trip. That is just a data point, as of course, I’m only going one way.
The Offer
Logging in to manage my booking brought up offers on both segments. The Dublin to London offer is €69, which would bring the total for me to €83.08. As the one way price is €120, that is a nice saving of €36.92.
For London to Sofia, the offer is not quite as good, being £99, which would bring the total to £139.77. With the one way cost at £163, it is a saving of £23.23.
All in, if I accept the offer, it would be €246. That is a €26 saving overall versus the €272 one way business class pricing, or €9 if I had bought one way in Club Europe and return in Euro Traveller.
Overall Thoughts
Playing upgrade roulette with British Airways does result in a saving. In this instance, it’s not exactly earth shattering value and you have to wonder whether it was worth all the time for a total saving of €26 or €9.
Even so, a saving is a saving, since it is still the exact same flight. Some of the saving is lost as UK air passenger duty, which you avoid on a connecting ticket, comes into play when commencing in London. Despite this, you can make some real savings on some tickets, especially when upgrading on long haul.
Have you taken advantage of upgrade offers on British Airways? Which is the best one you’ve had? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons.
Interesting. Any experience doing this on long haul flights where the seats are different from coach?
I haven’t used it myself on long haul as my flights are always connecting, however there is a thread on FlyerTalk here – https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2031632-pro-active-online-upgrade-poug-tracking-discussion-2021-thread.html – which has a Wiki at the top listing the BA destinations and the amounts people have been charged.
And what happens when BA misconnects you in London and tells you to buzz off?
They won’t, it’s an overnight connection as the flight to Sofia leaves in the morning before any connecting flights from Dublin arrive. All is well from that perspective. I would usually leave quite a bit of time between flights if doing something like this, for that exact eventuality.