When to Use Miles to Upgrade a British Airways $1,600/$1,700-ish Business Class Fare to First?

Plus, how to leverage the BA Six-Strategy Upgrade.

This is for those of you who know about super-cheap Business Class fares to Europe, which FCF tracks closely through Newsroom Alerts, but also for those who can’t find a low First Class fare to Europe.

Our Pitch: When Business Class fares are this low consider using British Airways (BA) Avios points to upgrade to First. Forget free mileage awards because they don’t earn miles, plus you’ll pay dearly in award taxes ($1,000+).

The Upgrade Program

British Airways’ mileage program requires just 22,500 miles (off-peak) to 25,000 (peak) one-way from Los Angeles, and 18,000 (off-peak) to 20,000 (peak) from New York each way—and is valid with the lowest Business Class fares (I), which many airlines do not allow upgrading.

When First Class fares are high, upgrades can offer a great return and make this program a deal.

As we wrote in FCF last month, all indications are that Business Class fares to Europe are now dependably low. Over the last few months, we’ve seen Europe from the U.S. starting at $1,750 (East Coast) to $2,200 (West Coast), on many different dates and routes.

See math below using New York-Dublin’s normal First Class $8,045 fare as an example.

The BA Six-Strategy Upgrade

1. Special Low Business Class Fares: Right now you can get Business Class for just $2,152 on many routes.
2. AARP Discount: Use it and save another $200 (ages 18 and up; $12 membership fee).
3. BA Visa Discount: Buy the ticket using a BA Chase Visa card to get another 10% off.

~ Your Business Class ticket price is now $1,766 ~

Now add:

4. BA Mileage Upgrade: Allows you to upgrade lowest Business Class fares to First from the U.S. to London for 18,000 miles (off-peak) or 20,000 (peak) one-way from New York. Upgrade beyond London requires more miles.
5. Now, use the Current Amex-BA Transfer Bonus: It’s 40% and is valid through Sept. 17. That reduces the cost to 13,000 miles (off-peak) to 14,500 (peak) each way.
6. Upgrade Availability: Know the routes and seasons when deals are prevalent. (See FCF Cheat Sheet below.)

Bonus: BA does NOT charge a co-pay to use your miles to upgrade, whereas American and United charge $1,100.

BA Six-Strategy Summary

To recap, you can buy a $1,766 r/t Business Class ticket and use 26,000 points round-trip for an upgrade to First Class on a ticket that usually costs $8,045. Even if you have no Amex Reward points, you can buy the miles from BA for only $740 or from Amex for $650—which still yields a savings of $5,629+ (70%).

Below is chart with eight routes that offer U.S. to London upgrade space at press time.