On BA is it worth upgrading to world traveller?

[rookiemere]

I started another thread recently about how best to sleep on a plane.

I'm travelling solo to US for a wedding, so there are no challenges about DCs being sat with parents etc. etc. and it's a night flight on the way back. BA are offering the chance to upgrade for £184 - this would be for the transatlantic leg of the flight, coming from San Francisco to Heathrow. I've looked at it though and whilst there appears to be a bit more leg room, I'm not sure that it would make a huge difference for the cost. Can anyone advise?

Oh and another BA question - the other option is that I pay £33-38 to get a window seat for the return so I have something to lean against, or I wait until I can book in myself and hope I can bag one. Anyone know how likely you are to get your desired seat if you wait until official book in ? I'll be fine whatever but I'd prefer not to be in the middle as I hate that.

Def upgrade.

I don't think it's worth it, traveller plus isn't great (depending on aircraft)
I'd pay for business upgrade but not £184 for WTP

How many of you travelling?

Just me mozzchops.

I'm not fussed about fancy meal options and better service, the key thing for me is how far my seat reclines, as that's the main factor if I sleep or not.

I would happily pay £184 extra to sit in that area for the return flight. If you want a window seat I would pay for that as well now, because they will likely all go by 24 hours before departure.

WTP is a smaller cabin area; its usually around 4 rows or so in a 2-4-2 configuration. It also tends to be quieter. What type of aircraft have they said you'd be on; they are still putting in the newer version of WTP into some of their fleet but the new cabin is already available on the A380 and 787.

In WTP you can take two bags with you on board (full size cabin bag plus handbag) and check up to two bags into the hold. WT only allow for one cabin bag and one bag for the hold.

I was upgraded free to world traveller plus on a flight from Heathrow to New York it was fabulous with loads more room compared to the way back where we weren't upgraded I'd definitely upgrade.

Sorry if it's just you and you're not forking out for a family of 4 then yes I'd do it

IMHO the new WTP seats are not as good as those on older aircraft
They now have footrests like a national express bus rather than one that comes out from your reclining seat
I had a whole row of WTP to mysel last year going to Hong Kong, the arm rests are fixed so despite the space I was so uncomfortable

Anyway I did my usual of getting hammered then taking a sleeping tablet so I slept for 9 hours

For that price I definitely would. Your seat won't recline that much, but you get more space to stretch out your legs. Also I think the sleeping pill and couple of glasses of champagne is the way forward.

We were in World Traveller Plus to and from Seattle recently. I paid to be able to book early as I really wanted a 2 seat by the window for me and ds, so we didn't have to accommodate anyone else.

After looking at advice online (seatguru.com) I went for the back row of WTP so we could recline without there being anyone behind us. It did mean we were closest to the front of regular economy, where the babies are put, so quite a lot of noise in both directions. On the way back we had babies at the front of WTP as well, who were dreadful - then eventually fell asleep only to have to be woken up because of turbulence and were dreadful again, I felt so bad for the parents.

Alas the fixed arm rests meant I was basically pinned in my seat overnight by the person in front of me having reclined so far, I probably could have limboed out if I was really in need of a pee but it wasn't great.

I had read WTP had its own loos but it certainly didn't on my flights. On the way out we were able to nip forward to Club World to use theirs but on the way back they roped it off so we had to go back into economy and queue up. Again, not dire but not brilliant either.

The recline is reasonable with the leg room and you will sleep better but nowhere is that quiet so I would bring good noise-cancelling headphones (you do get these in WTP and they're not bad, but not designed for sleeping in) as well as your own blanket and pillow.

On the other hand, I'm not able to compare and contrast the value to be obtained from just getting hammered in World Traveller, maybe that offsets the benefits in WTP. I had to do my journeys sober.

It's not possible to get hammered in economy or WTP on a BA overnight flight. Those wily flight attendants have that trolley up and down twice like its wheels are on fire, then it's lights out and off to the galley they go.

I tend to get hammered before I get on, then have a nightcap off the trolley and off to sleep

You don't have to wait for the trolley anyway just go to the galley & ask

My drinking capacity is quite low anyway, plus I've given up booze for the last few weeks until I go away so my tolerance will be even less than normal.
it's a Boeing 777 - not sure if that makes a difference to the desirability of upgrading.
I'm going to see if there is anything I can do with Avios points as I've got loads of Tesco points I could convert. I know £184 isn't a lot for upgrading, but it's a lot to me so maybe I'll just pay for a window seat and sit in cattle.

As you're travelling without kids you could get one of the emergency exit rows with epic quantities of legroom.

Sorry I also meant to say thank you to everyone for your input as it's helped with decision making. Sadly I seem incapable of making decisions .

Good idea tribpot - but emergency exit seats already gone, apart from the middle one of course.

I would definitely do it but I would actually think about having an aisle seat instead of window seat.

If you are in the window seat and need to loo you may have to wake strangers to get out. I would rather be woken than have to wake others!

If you have the aisle seat though you risk being the one woken by night time weers, though. I'd rather nip to the loo after dinner and then settle in, but as I am never allowed the window seat because ds always wants it, I will never know (Another reason for me to opt for WTP because I am NOT sitting in a middle seat on a transatlantic flight).

Ha ha, all for naught.

Rung up BA to see if there is anyway I could use Avios points - which I couldn't by the way as I'd used part Avios points to book the flight, which is worth noting as I only saved £100 on the fare, but it might have saved me more on upgrade.

Turns out that £184 upgrade had already sold out and I ended up holding for 40 minutes in total to be told that it would cost £1500 to move to WTP or incidentally Business Class.

That's definitely not in budget so I'll be booking a window seat at £38 instead. Hereiam - I've always gone for aisle seats on the basis I go to the loo a lot, but I've been reading up on the topic of sleeping on airlines and pretty much all sites and people recommend going for the window seat so you have something to lean against. Hopefully my sleeping tablet and glass of wine will mean that I'm not making many loo stops .

Ah. Well, window seat it is, let's hope you can sleep. Key thing now is a good pillow and blanket. And ear plugs/headphones!

Thanks tribpot - I now have a weirdy phallic looking J pillow which is apparently great for sleeping on planes and I bought a blanket on our last transatlantic flight.

Kind of relieved the decision has been made for me - didn't really want to spend so much just for one nights chance of slightly better sleep.

I bought a J Pillow for ds but he flatly refused to use it, so I bought him a donut-shaped one instead. He then flatly refused to use that too and took my Travelrest pillow.

I ended up not sleeping at all on the way back, which I thought might be a plus, in that I would be so knackered by the time we got home (7pm UK time) I would be able to sleep even though it was only 10 o'clock in the morning in Alaska. This was true but overall my jet lag was shocking anyway, I had alternate nights of great sleep and nights of dreadful sleep, culminating in having to do a conference call when I hadn't slept in 30 hours. That didn't go well!

I am confused as to why you need to pay to book a window seat - we only ever fly economy and always manage to get aisle/window/whatever seats by checking on online 24 hours before.

Also, the headrests can be moved to support your head on both sides which helps. On a flight back from NYC last year, I slept most of the way back - BA flight, aisle seat.

Don't say that bigTillyMint - I've paid my money now ! Anyway hopefully that means I'll be ok for the way over - I don't need to sleep as it's a daytime flight, but would much rather be in an aisle seat than anywhere else.

Tribpot - I'm not a great sleeper on flights. Usually I don't bother trying and just have a few low impact days at the other side - I find if I have a couple of hours snoozing when I get in, then go to bed at a normal-ish time after taking some melatonin, and sleep in the following day then I'm fine. However I'm conscious that DH will have handled the fort on his own for a week and I probably won't get much of a lie in, so trying to prevent being too knackered.

Just wanted to update on my trip.
I didn't upgrade in the end - I asked at the desk on the way back and it would have cost $350 to upgrade to WTP so I passed on that one.

I was glad I'd pre-booked my window seat. On the way over I was allocated an aisle seat which I was happy with as got up and stretched a lot, but there were no other spare window or aisle seats to change to, had I wanted to - and this was logging in within about 5 minutes of the 24 hr advance slot. For coming home I was with relatives so there was no guarantee I'd have been able to get to the computer so fast.

Looking at WTP on BA, I'm glad I saved my money. The seats and the space were bigger, but not hugely so.

By taking a sleeping pill, having a mini bottle of wine and resting against the side due to my window seat I managed to sleep well anyway.

We got an upgrade from economy to WTP on a night flight from San Diego to LHW - I found it less comfortable than economy, something to do with the pitch of the seat making my legs really ache and the foot rest just didn't work for me.