British Airways Brings Back The “Free Upgrade To First” Promotion

a close-up of a seat

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British Airways has announced that it’s bringing back its “free upgrade to First” promotion for select Club World (Business Class) bookings. The terms and conditions of this promotion are very specific when it comes to both the qualification criteria and how the fares must be booked so make sure you read them thoroughly before making any bookings.

British Airways Free upgrade To First Promotion

The Offer (emphasis is mine)

Your upgrade to First is free when you book an eligible published semi-flexible R, D or C class, or a fully flexible J class, Club World return ticket by 2 December 2016 on selected flights*.

You can upgrade on the outbound or return part of your journey – whichever you prefer, and you can book as many upgrades as you like on eligible flights. They are on us. Upgrade to First is also available on American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia and OpenSkies operated flights on eligible routes to the US when booked with a British Airways codeshare flight number.

This offer is available when you travel outbound by 23 December 2016. Please note this offer is very popular and upgrades are subject to availability. This offer cannot be booked on ba.com

British Airways First Class 747British Airways First Class on the 747

Headline Terms & Conditions

  • Not all countries are covered in this promotion (not by any stretch of the imagination!)

This promotion is only open to Eligible Participants. An Eligible Participant is a person resident in selected countries in Europe and North Africa, aged 18 years or over, who books and travels on a Qualifying Flight.

Participating countries in Europe and North Africa are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.

Residents of Russia are [also] eligible [for] this offer for fights from Moscow to London.

  • Qualifying flights include bookings in semi and fully-flexible Club World fare codes (R, D, C & J)
  • Bookings must be made between 6 September and 2 December 2016.
  • Travel must take place between 6 September 2016 and 23 December 2016
  • Bookings must be made with a travel agent or by contacting the local BA Call Center. This promotion does not apply to bookings made on ba.com. No pre-registration is required for the upgrade
  • Eligible Participants must request the upgrade at the time of booking.
  • All Qualifying Flights must start and finish in the selected countries as mentioned above and all tickets must be purchased and ticketed in one of those countries.
  • Flights on BA’s franchisees, codeshare partners or oneworld alliance members are excluded with the exception of American Airlines, Finnair, Iberia and OpenSkies operated flights to the US & Mexico.

Those are just the more important T&Cs (in my opinion) but you make sure you read the full Terms & Conditions before booking to make sure that you don’t accidentally rule yourself out of a free upgrade to First Class.

British Airways First Class 747The British Airways First Class seat on the 747

Thoughts

There are quite a few things to be careful of when considering this promotion….like ensuring you don’t book through BA.com, making sure you request the upgrade at the time of booking and making sure that you’re not booking a discounted Business Class fare – so watch out.

It’s a shame that this offer doesn’t apply for travel originating in the US but this is BA’s game so they get to make the rules.

Don’t forget to make sure you read up on the British Airways Triple Avios promotion that launched yesterday but, as I mentioned in the blog, don’t rush to register until you’ve considered just what flights you will be flying and know which ones will maximise your Avios earnings.

Note: For reasons best know to BA’s IT department the T&Cs on the UK page seem to be at odds with all the other county pages (they say the offer is only eligible for UK & Ireland residents) so, throughout this post, I have linked to the English version of the British Airways France page.

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