Upgrade To BA Biz Class For Only 10,000 Avios

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I’m looking into a possible trip to South Africa and was reminded of an incredible British Airways value. On direct flights from the East Coast to Europe, you can upgrade from World Traveler Plus(their Economy Plus) to Business class for only 10,000 Avios points each way.

World Traveler Plus is still expensive, but this option lets you save you at least several hundred if not several thousand on a business class fare. The trick is to make sure you have a direct flight, otherwise it’ll cost significantly more miles.

How to book an upgraded fare

Visit this page on the British Airways website (you’ll probably need to be logged in) and select the book and upgrade tab.

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Fill out the desired dates and make sure you select Premium Economyotherwise you’ll be paying alot more than 10,000 miles each way to upgrade from regular economy. If you have flexibility with your dates, do a search first on matrix.itasoftware.com or kayak.com to find the cheapest dates within your range for BA premium economy.

Via an ITA search, looks like Labor Day would be cheapest for a weekend getaway (if I had $2K to spend).

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Now comes the really frustrating part of the whole process. The 29th isn’t eligible for an upgrade.

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 The next/previous week functionality was broken when I was trying it, so I had to keep hitting back and re-inputting my data, but if I really want to fly business class, this would be worth it. Fortunately there were seats if I was ok leaving and departing a day earlier.

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 Another thing I love about this deal is that you can still book a ticket and upgrade with miles, even if you don’t have enough in your account. They let you buy the miles on the spot, which in my case would be an extra $465.

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So is it worth it? Assuming I really want to be in business class it is. The ticket above would cost me $2745.45, buying a business class seat outright would be nearly twice that. And using miles would be 80,000 Avios plus $867.40 in taxes and fees.

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I can see this being particularly worthwhile if British Airways is running a sale on premium economy.

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7 Comments

  1. I like the analysis, but have to ask – who can really afford this ticket? Who is the audience..what would be the average income for a person to be able to consider this value?

    I think the original thought going into the post is awesome, and keep it up – I just wonder who the audience is?

  2. @John — yikes, that was a bad typo, thanks for catching!

    @Matt — I agree, unless a sale happens to put the fare at <$1000, it's not for me! I do like this as an option when you *need* business class and can't wait for a sale. For example, if my parents ever want to take a big trip to Europe, etc this would be one of the best ways for me to send them comfortably.

  3. How is this a good deal? If the mileage ticket costs $867 + 80K Avios, versus $2280 +20 K Avios, you’re essentially paying 2.35 cents/point – which definitely isn’t a great deal. Or am I missing something?

    1. I think the key was her last sentence, if you can find a good fare. I think 10k is really reasonable for one way upgrade. (Whether the fare is reasonable at the time is another story 😛 )

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