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Apparently, I was the 1st person to score this upgrade out of LAX
BA has offered paid upgrades out of various locations, but according to the desk agent at check-in, they just started offering them out of Los Angeles and I was the first one to do it. BYAH! I’d have rather used Avios to upgrade, as I was already booked into a paid Club World seat, but there was no available space. Let’s take a look at the offer and why I decided to pull the trigger on a British Airways First Class upgrade for $709.
En route to the airport I noticed that 3 seats became available in First Class
Even a few hours ahead of the flight, with 3 available seats, no Avios space was showing up. I went ahead and called in to ask if I could upgrade my Club World Business Class seat to First. Sadly, the agent to me, there was no Avios upgrade space avail – which I already knew by checking expertflyer or just the AA website, but I was stuck in LA traffic and figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.
Knowing 3 seats were available I asked again at check-in.
The agent told me that Avios upgrades weren’t possible at check-in, but that they had JUST started, today, offering paid upgrades from Business to First. In fact, he had a whole sheet of upgrade prices from various cabins. ( I snagged a pic of it). The price to upgrade from business to first? $709. That’s a lot of money, but I’ll explain to you my reasoning
- I was crediting to Alaska ( Check out their insane partner earn rates)
- I’m interested to see how this ultimately credits. The check-in agent was confused as to how it would end up booking – into business or first…
- If it ends up booking into First it’ll credit quite differently than Business
- First – 150% Cabin bonus ( both RDM and EQM) + 200% promotional bonus (RDM)
- This equates to almost 14k EQM and over 31K RDM ( including my 125% MVP75)
- Business – 50% cabin bonus ( both rdm and eqm) + 100% promotional bonus ( rdm )
- Equates to 8250 EQM and 20,600 RDM
- First – 150% Cabin bonus ( both RDM and EQM) + 200% promotional bonus (RDM)
- $709 is only a few hundred more than the taxes and fees on an award ticket
BA charges a lot of taxes and fees on award tickets so the incremental cost of doing it now vs then isn’t that extreme.
- I may also earn extra miles off of that upgrade compared using miles on an award ticket
- I was feeling a bit under the weather and wanted more privacy, guaranteed aisle access, and hopefully a better night’s sleep.
- I’ve never flown BA first myself so this would be a great opportunity to review it, and report back on how the miles ultimately credit.
So that’s it. I pulled the trigger, and went for it. A full review will be out shortly, but I definitely enjoyed my time. As did Miles =)
Here’s the snapshot of the upgrade rates
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.