It is not in my nature to decline a cheap flight upgrade offer to business class. Whenever I am presented with the opportunity to upgrade, my conditioned response is to get out the credit card and pay. It reminds me of Pavlov’s dogs! See offer, pay for offer.

Regular readers will remember the time KLM presented an upgrade offer for €59 at the time of check-in. This is an excellent price and naturally I proceeded to pony up the extra cash. A recent offer provided me with a dilemma.

The British Airways Offer

I made a booking using my frequent flyer points in EuroTraveller to Luxembourg to save cash and to use less Avios. During one of my periodic checks of Manage My Booking, I noticed an upgrade offer.


These pop up from time to time when you have a booking in EuroTraveller. It is straight revenue enhancement for the airline as it gets you to fly in Club Europe and pay for the privilege. If it is your first time, you may even want to do it again.

So, I Decided to Decline

Actually, I decided not to accept the offer which is completely out of character for me. The first reason for this is in the terms and conditions of the offer. It states, “Customers who upgrade from a redemption ticket are not eligible for Avios or Tier points in either the original or upgraded cabin.”

This makes perfect sense, however it is a deal breaker for me. The overall package of benefits is worth €78 and missing any one of these elements means it is not worth the money to upgrade.


European business class features the same seat and seat pitch as economy class, usually with the middle seat free. You do also get a meal which is usually okay, plus free drinks.

While these are fine, I have tried the meals and had the drinks on many occasions. Earning extra Tier points and Avios are an equal part of the value proposition of an upgrade so without these, I am not interested. The flight is just over an hour – if it were longer it might sway me.

Overall Thoughts

The upgrade offer keeps looking at me whenever I view this flight in Manage My Booking. To decline a reasonably priced flight upgrade offer is anathema to me. I keep slicing and dicing it in my mind to try to somehow justify the upgrade without success. A couple of piccolos of Champagne, a warm Panini, a little fruit and a seat next to me free is not quite €78 in my book.

What do you think? Should I decline the offer or would you recommend taking it? Have you faced a similar dilemma before? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

Like planes? See my “Does anyone remember” series.
Flight reviews your thing? Mine are all indexed here.
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Featured image by Justin Veenema via Unsplash.