Bid to upgrade on Aer Lingus

DM addict

Myself and the husband have just been sent an email from Aer Lingus giving us the chance to bid to upgrade ourselves for our DUB-BOS flight.

Has anyone else had experience of this? How likely are they to upgrade us if we offer the minimum extra?

Cheers

coylemj

Heard that on the radio just now, I think the individual said that the minimum bid was €250.

How likely are they do accept your offer? Depends on how many empty seats there are in business and whether there's pressure on the seats in economy.

I doubt they will give them away too cheap, they don't want to p1ss off people who have paid full fare.

DM addict

Yeah, there's a minimum of €250.

On the one hand, the flight is in ten days, so odds are they're not going to sell loads more seats. Looking at ExpertFlyer, they've only sold 5 seats in business (out of 24) and 25 left in economy (out of 248). To be honest, that doesn't hugely help me.

Kittkath

Was your offer accepted?

DM addict

Yes, we did. Paid 400E for the privilege, but meant that we were super-comfy.

ithread

Hi DM Addict,

You mentioned you paid 400E – was this 400 per person? I am just wondering if you felt it was worth it? I am flying out on the 30th April with my mum and thinking of surprising her,

Any feedback appreciated.

Thanks

DM addict

Yes, that was per person.

For us, it was worth it. But it's hard to say. We were relocating, so we didn't actually pay for our original flights - they were paid for and organised by my husband's work. So we weren't taking into account how much was originally paid, if you follow.

It was a LONG trip for us, as we're actually on the west coast and only flew with Aer Lingus as far as Boston. So being spoiled on that first leg made a big difference in terms of comfort and so on. And it was a very emotional time, moving away from family and friends, and I'm a nervous flier (husband isn't great either) so the extra space and service really made a difference to us.

Saying that, I'm sure there are better business class experiences out there. I'd say look at what your budget is and have a think. Hope that helps

ithread

Hi DM addict

Thanks for replying with your feedback! I have been thinking about it and they are looking for a minimum bid of 300E each. When I put this on top of what we paid already for the economy plus hotel, spending money etc etc., its not going to be worth it for us.

Hope you are settling in!

red robbin

Hi DM,
just wondering what you actually bid? Was it 400? What made you choose that figure? Obviously I don't want to bid too much but don't want to miss out either!
Any other information or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks a mil!

DM addict

No problem - I thought we were bidding 300E, but at the last minute my husband decided to up it to 400E. It was a somewhat arbitrary figure.

I had checked how busy business class was before bidding, and saw that they had over 2/3rds of seats empty, with most of economy sold out - so figured they might want to move some people. I cannot remember the name of the website I used. . .. .

Good luck.

milltown

Just got one of these mails for a flight to JFK in the new year. Minimum bid of €300, which the website tells me is weak. The difference in fares on the AL site is about €400 and the bid range is €300 to €900!

Michael O'Leary would be proud!

No option for upgrade on the return (overnight) flight unfortunately.

davedub2015

Hey lads i paid 400 each for flights for me and my girlfriend and have been offered an upgrade at 400 euro a pop? is it worth it? does this price drop the nearer we get to the flight??

eagerv

Over the last year or so on another airline I have bid on 5 flights.

I got upgraded on 4 out of the 5 flights What I always do is offer the minimum price plus the least amount extra.

I was flying alone which may have helped.

davedub2015

eagerv wrote: »

Over the last year or so on another airline I have bid on 5 flights.

I got upgraded on 4 out of the 5 flights What I always do is offer the minimum price plus the least amount extra.

I was flying alone which may have helped.

The lowest i can offer now is 400. Im wondering will it drop nearer the time ? Or is that the lowest it will be

davedub2015

davedub2015 wrote: »

The lowest i can offer now is 400. Im wondering will it drop nearer the time ? Or is that the lowest it will be

Also is it worth it 400 one way to new york?

eagerv

davedub2015 wrote: »

The lowest i can offer now is 400. Im wondering will it drop nearer the time ? Or is that the lowest it will be

I have never seen the price being lowered, but as I said it was not Aer Lingus. My most recent upgrade a few weeks ago was on a 2 hour Malaysia Airlines flight. Cost an extra $36 and was worth every penny. If even just for the airport lounge.

eagerv

davedub2015 wrote: »

Also is it worth it 400 one way to new york?

Only you can decide that. Personally I would not pay that much for a fairly short flight. Unless it was overnight and sleep was important.

Last time I got an upgrade on Etihad IIRC the minimum price was about €250 from Kuala Lumpur to Abu Dhabi. That was an overnight flight of about 7 hrs and I considered ok value at the time.

mloc123

Minimum bid now on DUB>SFO is 880e

Deagol

mloc123 wrote: »

Minimum bid now on DUB>SFO is 880e

I'm presuming EI are testing to see how high they can push the minimums and still have people bid.

I just paid €360 for BOS-SNN, was lowest amount allowed. But, that was at the outer limit of what I'd bid, anymore and I wouldn't.

I guess, as long as they are getting more bids than they have seat available they'll push the minimum amount up to get a decent balance.

mloc123

Was willing to go to 400e on return flight, still 5 weeks out... I guess I'll see if they drop the minimum at all in a few weeks.

J.pilkington

For couples be aware you may (more than likely) not get to sit together. Bids are for the final unallocated seats where 2 side by side (pods with the shutter) will be lucky.

When we first did this and ended up sitting apart it did take a little bit of the shine of the experience away from my partner and myself.

spurious

God be with the days when they would choose you from the herd in Shannon.
Got two business class flights that way.

Wanderer2010

J.pilkington wrote: »

For couples be aware you may (more than likely) not get to sit together. Bids are for the final unallocated seats where 2 side by side (pods with the shutter) will be lucky.

When we first did this and ended up sitting apart it did take a little bit of the shine of the experience away from my partner and myself.

But you have the rest of your lives together! Would it really be that big a deal if you enjoyed the luxury of 1st class in separate seats? Personally that wouldn't be an issue at all.

ted1

I really think Aer lingus are missing out by not offering a premium economy option.

J.pilkington

Wanderer2010 wrote: »

But you have the rest of your lives together! Would it really be that big a deal if you enjoyed the luxury of 1st class in separate seats? Personally that wouldn't be an issue at all.

As I said it's about managing expectations, we got our upgrade for €450 each for a 10 hr flight hoping we'd be sitting beside each other, transpired we weren't so 10hrs sitting on your own / next to a stranger / next to a large partician isn't that much fun even with plenty of tech to play with, yes you can walk over to each other but that's not the same as sitting beside each other and the design / structure of business seats make it awkward to hang around another seat

dudara

I'd personally only bid about €100 for the DUB outbound cross-Atlantic trip, if I could . It's just not worth that much on a (relatively) short flight that's usually fairly OK on the whole in coach. I would consider bidding for the SFO or LAX flights as that's long enough and gets unpleasant in coach.

AineK77

mloc123 wrote: »

Was willing to go to 400e on return flight, still 5 weeks out... I guess I'll see if they drop the minimum at all in a few weeks.

Out of curiosity did the minimum drop closer to the time? My sister is travelling to SFO with Aer Lingus in September and the minimum is now €950!!!! I think the business class fare is about €1700 her economy fare was €270 (great value in fairness) but it's not that much of a bargain really if you bid the minimum

Stationmaster

Just got offer to do this for transatlantic flight in a few weeks. Lowest bid is €370 per trip. Kind of tempting. Definitely for the return journey.

Ed_Stephens

Having just returned from economy to DC I would have to say it's not worth the extra money for a shortish flight. You can buy access to the lounge in Dublin for €25 or €35 if you want the 51st and Green lounge which is after American immigration pre-clearance. Compared to some of the more premium Middle-east airlines it didn't look anything special. No anytime dining, entertainment was certainly tame in economy, no chauffer service either. For a 7 hour flight over and less than 6 on the way back it's not worth 2k or the guts of 2k.

Economy was on the whole very average, the only real plus is getting to fly direct. On the plus side the lounge in Dublin T2 was nice, a fiver more than the DAA lounge but it has nicer views(upstairs). Everything else was very similar.

gmisk

I booked two flights in June to Toronto and got this email....minimum bid is 380 euro.....doesnt sound like it is worth it?

I have flown business class a few times with Singapore and Ethiopian airlines and thought they were terrific...but they were longer flights.

ted1

It’s only a short flight. Not worth it.
Unless it’s a night flight and you need to get some sleep it’s not worth it
I find Aer lingus have diluted their business class. You don’t even get hot food in some of the lounges.