Airside Avios Upgrade HKG?

Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:06 am
  #1  
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Airside Avios Upgrade HKG?

Hi all,

Rather unusually I will find myself back on BA travelling CGK-LHR as my default choices are fully booked. Rather happily though I'll be on a Premium Economy ticket that was cheaper than Economy! I have a large amount of never used Avios and just realised it's quite cheap to upgrade from WT+ to C. A call to BAEC told me that there was no availability at her end BUT that I should check at the airport on the day because the flight was quite empty (36 x empty Clubs seats). My question is... I'll be checking in at CGK and transiting in HKG... where in HKG airside would I need to go to request a BA Avios upgrade? It all seems rather unlikely.

All advice greatly appreciated.
dinbangkok is offline  
Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:10 am
  #2  
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I have never seen an airside upgrade with AVIOS - I don't think BA can do it within 24 hours - unlike Virgin where you can use your miles to upgrade on the day.

I am sure someone more knowledgeable on the subject will come along though so I am happy to be corrected.

Regards

aks120
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:10 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by dinbangkok
Hi all,

Rather unusually I will find myself back on BA travelling CGK-LHR as my default choices are fully booked. Rather happily though I'll be on a Premium Economy ticket that was cheaper than Economy! I have a large amount of never used Avios and just realised it's quite cheap to upgrade from WT+ to C. A call to BAEC told me that there was no availability at her end BUT that I should check at the airport on the day because the flight was quite empty (36 x empty Clubs seats). My question is... I'll be checking in at CGK and transiting in HKG... where in HKG airside would I need to go to request a BA Avios upgrade? It all seems rather unlikely.

All advice greatly appreciated.
how much time do you have?
If you arrive HKG 2025 you'll have plenty of time to clear immigrations and go landside. Checkin deadline should be 2210
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:10 am
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It's not possible to upgrade using avios airside. You can either pay cash airside or call a BA call centre to use avios.
TabTraveller is offline  
Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:19 am
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Keep checking BAEC.Reward flights get released at random sometimes,but best time to check is 00:15 UTC.
I think AKS120 is correct,you cannot use avios on the day of travel
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 2:24 am
  #6  
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Yes you can use Avios on the day of travel, you can't however change existing Avios bookings in the final 24 hours. I've seen mixed reports of changing an existing booking on the same aircraft to a higher cabin (and clarification of that would be good). But this is an initial UuA off a revenue ticket, so that can be done up until 2 hours before departure, or thereabouts.

I see Avios availability in CW on both HKG-LHR flights today. You would need to call BAEC ASAP to secure them. Hopefully you haven't done online check in already, if you have you will need to ask the agent to offload you first. It will cost you 30,000 Avios and about 3.
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Old Aug 21, 2017, 3:17 am
  #7  
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Thanks

Great answers everyone (as always), so thanks for that. I'm travelling on the 4th September (CGK-HKG on CX), and have a 3 hour stopover in HKG so plenty of time to exit if necessary. I will first call back on the day of the flight and see what I can do. I was told by BAEC that 'the eticket people are great' with last minute changes but couldn't fathom what that was all about. Will let you know what happens.
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