Ever been upgraded

Wanderlust91

Hey guys, wondering if anyone has ever been upgrade from pleb class ,premium economy is the farthest i'll be able to go ever I reckon.

Locker10a

It happens but on very rare occasions.
If economy is oversold, it may happen, that's it really!
Many airlines allow it as a perk of staff travel but if you're not on staff travel then there very little chance

harr

We got upgraded going on honeymoon over 15 years ago now...not sure if it was business or first class, we just chanced our arm and asked. I can't even remember what airline it was ...All I can remember it was huge seats and fancy grub and drinks...

Dingle_berry

Have gotten business on staff travel. Definitely better for long haul. Not much difference comfort wise short haul.
I think nowadays they upgrade if economy is oversold and business is under sold. But they select people based on their value to the airline - how much money you or your company spends with them, information gathered through the loyalty schemes.

conor_ie

I have a couple of times but I paid for it.. never lucky enough to get it on my own!

Fr Tod Umptious

Twice, business class both times.

Once from Sydney to Auckland at 7am on a Monday morning after a weekend drinking and no sleep.

How that happened I still cannot figure out.

Once from London to Delhi, that was a very nice experience.

FatherTed

Back in the 90's I knew someone who knew someone who worked for Aer Lingus at JFK so I got upgraded quite a bit. It was great, at least back then for the JFK-SNN flights. Real china cups for the tea and real glass for the champers, real knives and forks, none of that plastic crap. But then my contact was transferred and that was the end of that. Had the Gold Circle membership at the time, got to meet some Celebs in the old Gold Circle lounge at JFK, Brendan Grace, Brenda Fricker, Michael D and some other pols.

heldel00

Coming home from New York in 2008. Could hear my name being called out on the tannoy system, was $hitting it that they had sold my seat and I was gonna be left behind. It was my birthday so I guess that was how I was picked.

I'll never forget the air hostess asking me, after a fillet steak dinner with champagne, how would I take my ice-cream??? "Eh sure in a bowl I suppose?" says I! "No hun would you like chopped nuts, chocolate sauce, sprinkles ....?" says she! Rookie mistake! (And FYI I told her I would have everything going on my ice-cream!)

Noxegon

I got it once coming back from ICN-LHR. The checkin lady was a British import and hilariously apologetic - "I'm very sorry sir, but we have a bit of a problem with the aircraft. Would you mind awfully if we moved you up to Club World free of charge?"

My reply was "If you must..."

Irish Steve

Best ever upgrade we got was a long time ago on a Laker Mk 2 flight to and from Orlando. We were supposed to travel on a DC10-30, but for reasons that were never explained, the flight out was on a DC10-10, which meant a tech stop for fuel, and that was after a 3 hour delay at Gatwick due to a baggage screw up, a bag was double tagged, which meant that the US security bag count and the handling bag count was wrong, so we ended up having to do a complete bag identify on the ramp, and there was then another delay due to a tech snag after pushback, so we were about 7 hours late arriving into Orlando.

When we got to checkin on the way back, I asked the desk operative, "please, tell me it's the 10-30 going home", and she asked why, and I said we'd had a bad trip over 2 weeks earlier, she said "I heard about that flight, it wasn't great". She checked us in, and we didn't pay much attention at the time, she just said "it's the 10-30, so you will have a better flight back". On boarding, we were very pleasantly surprised to find that the aircraft (a charter flight) had a full 3 cabin configuration, and the check in staff had allocated us to the first class cabin, which also got a full first class service, so we did indeed have a VERY pleasant flight back to Gatwick, the service included little things like a leather pouch with toiletries and the like, the seats were leather recliners, and seat back IFE, at a time when that was very much the exception rather than standard, and the food served was very much not the same menu or quality compared to the economy cabin. It made for a nice end to the holiday.

Another good trip was a round trip from Gatwick to Windhoek with Air Namibia, we had originally booked economy, but discovered that they had a special offer that gave an upgrade to the front cabin for a very low price of only an additional ?300 for the round trip, which for a 12 hour night flight was a very good offer. I think it was a way to get additional numbers, in that if they got an upgrade, they could then sell the economy seat again, and both flights on an A340, overnight (2100 departures) were excellent, both in terms of the meals served and the general service, being night flights, we spent quite a while asleep, and as they were North/South flights, there wasn't a time zone difference, which meant no jet lag in the same way. That was an amazing holiday, and the flights were a nice touch that made the time so much better.

The Backwards Man

Place a babywipe on your face before takeoff, change your first name to 'Mister' or 'Miss' by deed poll, , and you'll fell like you're flying business class every flight

Danbo!

I've flown non rev on countless flights and airlines all over the place, therefore always on the upgrade list, but behind any loyalty members who are eligible for it first.

Only once did I get it. Brand new 787, MAD-SCL. For a 14 hour flight, it wasn't the worst time to get an upgrade.

On another occasion, I was flying SIN-LHR on Singapore Airlines on a staff ticket. It was 36 degrees in Singapore, so I was in shorts. The lady at check in asked if I had trousers I could change into for the flight. Got excited and said "sure thing, did I get the upgrade?" She replied "no, staff may not travel in shorts, sir". Given I'm a pasty Irish lad, I mentioned I'm not actually staff and nobody would know. "Rules are rules I'm afraid, sir".

Steve

I used to fly a lot for work and always flew Delta or a partner. Never made platinum but was gold for many years and once you're there the free upgrades seem to roll in. When they didn't I was getting enough miles to upgrade the return trip on every second transat.

It's worth sticking with one airline if you travel a lot.

Edit, And once, I was returning from LHR on Shamrock with overweight bags and it was cheaper to upgrade to business than pay the excess, was only £50 I think .. no real difference on board but you get a free newspaper..

goingnowhere

Aer Lingus can be good for an upgrade, 4 of us en route to SEA via JFK

2 with status, 2 without. All 4 of us seated in the centre 4 seats on A330.

Tactically sit near lounge reception, well actually to sit next to Enda Kenny (who is doing his best fist pump routine), the lovely lady at the lounge walks over to us ask for our boarding cards and everyone thinks game on.

4 new boarding cards, two of us with status get upgrade, then the classic deadpan response, I've upgraded you colleagues but had to reseat you two so you are still next to each other. By the way Enda is going to Japan so enjoy JFK...

Consistently get the 'discount business' offering from Aer Lingus, empty seat next to me, staff only too happy to block the seat if the plane is not full, can be the only empty economy seat on a DUB-SFO which is fun, even got the entire row 2 to myself going to Madrid one morning (the plane isn't full...)

Peregrinus

harr wrote: »

We got upgraded going on honeymoon over 15 years ago now...not sure if it was business or first class, we just chanced our arm and asked. I can't even remember what airline it was ...All I can remember it was huge seats and fancy grub and drinks...

Upgrades to first class are vanishingly rare. The people who pay to fly first class don't expect to be sharing it with the likes of you and me.

Cloudio9

During peak months it happens to me on aer Lingus to the US probably 50% of the trips I make out of Dublin. Gold circle elite status until the change to aer club. It also used to happen a bit when I was prestige but not gold.

For some reason it doesn't tend to happen on the return legs.

Usual routine is go to check in and something on the screen prompts the agent to pick up a phone. I do a little inside scream when I see her pick up the upgrade phone as I call it. But then it's a real downer when she just hands you your boarding card. You need to be properly dressed. Not a suit but they will not upgrade you if wearing runners or look scruffy.

Other times in the lounge they might ask to hold on to your economy boarding card and then will page you a while later to hand you a shiny new business one.

Finally when you think all hope is lost and you're questioning why you do this crappy job that has you flying 7 hours on a Sunday in July with a load of annoying tourists while your family is at a bbq.....you walk to the gate, hand over your boarding card. She scans it........it beeps.......but it's a different tone of beep.........the scanner turns red, not green.........."oh there's a problem with your seat".........she rips your boarding card in two!!!!

Get the F*** in!!!

"Champagne or orange juice sir?"

The day before I fly I'll try to do a dummy booking and if it's sold out I know I'm in with a great shot. Or if there's disruption in the transatlantic schedules I'll benefit from the fallout.

Only downside is for every upgrade it gets harder to go down the back next time.

L1011

Twice as apologies, two airlines on the same holiday. Both only pleb to premium economy.

United for an insane reroute EWR-PDX via IAH and KLM on the return after being pushed from booked to standby and getting the last seat just before departure. That one included an exit row on the EI leg at the end but it was upgauged to a 321 and my to a number wasn't the exit anymore

BigMoose

I used to get a few on Virgin around 2000-2002, flying premium econ for work to Barbados, assume they'd oversell economy holidays and push some to prem and us to upper class. More recently I've had one on Etihad from AUH-KUL, I was silver on their scheme at the time, guess there were no gold or platinum on the flight (which is hard to believe). I flew DUB-KUL via AUH a lot and only happened once when I was silver, never when I reached gold! Had one random one on BA on a LHR to Toronto leg - no idea why I got that as I had no status with them. Got a few internal US flights with Delta (but that's nothing special) and one back from JFK to DUB, when I was silver or gold with them at the time. A couple of years ago you'd get almost every other internal flight upgraded as a gold member, but I've noticed a massive growth in gold+ flyers on Delta. On a recent couple of trips, especially on the US internal flights, over half the flight stood up at the gold boarding announcement so upgrades have become non existent.

A couple of years ago I got to the middle tier of the Aerlingus Gold Circle but never saw a sniff of an upgrade with them!

Cloudio9

BigMoose wrote: »

I I was silver on their scheme at the time, guess there were no gold or platinum on the flight (which is hard to believe).

Most of the top tiers are probably booked in business anyway and they may have upgrade 10 people for all you know.

Cloudio9

Peregrinus wrote: »

Upgrades to first class are vanishingly rare. The people who pay to fly first class don't expect to be sharing it with the likes of you and me.

The vast majority are not paying for it themselves. It's either their employer is paying for it or if tourists they're cashing in air miles.

Peregrinus

Where there's a first class distinct from business class, tourists rarely use it, and few employers are willing to pay for it. It costs about twice as much as full-fare business class. The people who fly first class are, basically, very rich or very famous and a big attraction for them is privacy. Hence, no upgrades for the plebs.

Dial Hard

Got upgraded to business on an Aer Lingus flight to and from JFK years ago. My sister was the marketing manager of a company who did a lot of advertising in Cara magazine so her contact there put her on the upgrade list whenever she was going anywhere. She was devastated when he left!

There were three of us travelling that trip and we all got upgraded. On the way back we checked in at the gold circle desk and the agent was like "I'm not sure we can do anything for you this time but you can use the business class lounge anyway. While we were in there my sister got paged to go to the desk and came back with three lovely business class boarding cards.

It's a great experience but as others have said, it makes it very hard to go back to steerage afterwards!

lawred2

harr wrote: »

We got upgraded going on honeymoon over 15 years ago now...not sure if it was business or first class, we just chanced our arm and asked. I can't even remember what airline it was ...All I can remember it was huge seats and fancy grub and drinks...

We had numerous flights on our honeymoon - tried each and every time - knocked back on all occasions.

knipex

2 or 3 times a year or a two to 3 year period... always to business class.

BUT

I was at that point a gold club doing 100K plus miles a year.. (did 200K first year).

Generally if you are traveling alone, have a gold club or platinum or whatever is the top loyalty mile card with your airline (or airline equivalent) , and travel business heavy routes you will get bumped a couple of times a year..

Other than that... increasingly rare...

Le Bruise

Got upgraded to business class one Christmas when heading out to Indonesia but it turned out to be a curse in disguise.

Flight from Dublin to Amsterdam was delayed so missed my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur. Was offered Business class with KLM to Dubai and then onwards to KL in economy with Yemen airways or just the same Malaysian airways flight the next day. Of course I jumped at the chance of the upgrade, at least for some part of the journey!

The business class leg had Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit as travelling companions as I sipped champagne and browsed the movie selection. The Yemen airways leg had a bad hangover, an Adam Sandler film and a strange man sitting in my seat when I came back from the toilets...never again.

homerjay2005

got upgraded with Emirates last time i flew with them, was just walking through the gate and my boarding pass didnt scan as it had been deactivated and they told me the reason was id been upgraded.

i didnt ask why but i assumed there was 1 seat left in business class and they didnt want it empty. id flown alot with them in 2016 so i guess i was next in line in terms of airmiles for the upgrade.

it was the last leg home of a 30 hour trip so it was well appreciated and have to say, you feel like Royalty in there - endless supply of champagne and anything you wanted plus the extra peace and space to sleep if you needed it.

the thing is though, it would have cost me about €1000 to get the upgrade and its not something id pay for out of my own pocket!!

plodder

Useful tip I heard, is to wear business attire and politely ask about the possibility when checking in. They are very unlikely to upgrade anyone that looks scruffy.

Charles Babbage

Peregrinus wrote: »

Where there's a first class distinct from business class, tourists rarely use it, and few employers are willing to pay for it. It costs about twice as much as full-fare business class. The people who fly first class are, basically, very rich or very famous and a big attraction for them is privacy. Hence, no upgrades for the plebs.

Well I've been upgraded from Business to First on Long haul, probably because there weren't many people there and they wished to move someone into Business from the lower orders (and I fit in among the famous :pac:)

First has somewhat lost its market, very rich and very famous people do not fly on these scheduled aircraft at all.

Captain_Crash

Its happened a few times for me in the past traveling with my parents on a staff ticket. One was with BA to HKG (Kai Tak), CO from DUB-EWR-MCO and a couple of times also across the pond with EI (one was a jumpseat, which to me is better than any upgrade).

Funny thing about upgrades is, despite popular belief, you are more likely to be upgraded if you have never flown Business/First with an airline before than if you have previously. The thinking behind this is that people who have previously paid for the experience, will likely pay again.

If you have to upgrade because of an oversold economy cabin, it makes more sense to give it to someone who has never flown there before, as it will increases the chance of them paying the higher fare in future. Airlines already know their loyal customers with status will pay.

goingnowhere

EI IT isn't exactly modern, so it really is down to status and the lounge staff recognising you from you regular visits (hence Dublin is always a better starting point). The more awkward and complex the itinerary the better.

BA has a process where it is tracking passengers who don't even have a frequent flyer number and even those that do are ranked even within the program levels. They do certainly play a game of profiling for upgrade. Also the more you paid the better, if you are on bottom A/Z fare bucket you ain't getting upgraded, on Y/B/M odds much better.

In the US the whole system is so automated its insane on domestic routes

BigMoose

plodder wrote: »

Useful tip I heard, is to wear business attire and politely ask about the possibility when checking in. They are very unlikely to upgrade anyone that looks scruffy.

I was also told this years ago by a family member who worked for BA. Back around 1999 I oddly had a business class ticket for a work flight (no idea how/why they booked that!) and turned up in jeans etc and the BA dude looked at me snootily and said "someone thinks highly of you!"... However my more recent BA upgrade going to Toronto I was traveling in jeans and a hoody and had no BA status. Guess they've realised most people dressed smart are on flights paid for by companies who will either pay business or not and no experience will change that. Where as scruffy looking folk might have money...

Marcusm

Peregrinus wrote: »

Upgrades to first class are vanishingly rare. The people who pay to fly first class don't expect to be sharing it with the likes of you and me.

I wouldn't say astonishingly rare. While it's true that airlines such as BA upgrade only when overfilled (as opposed to oversold), I'd say my club work to first upgrade was about 1/10. On Qantas, American and Cathay, it was higher than that and based on BA status.

artanevilla

Best I've got is the check in lady blocking off the middle seat. Been offered the exit row when boarding a few times as I'm quite tall.

Dial Hard

plodder wrote:

Useful tip I heard, is to wear business attire and politely ask about the possibility when checking in. They are very unlikely to upgrade anyone that looks scruffy.

Those kind of "on spec" upgrades are almost entirely a thing of the past now.

goingnowhere

Official EI policy is there is a dress code for business class upgrades

Its kind of crazy as if you are heading to SFO its full of IT types millennial dress sense (ughh), but you got to have a shirt and jacket and no trainers to be considered for upgrade

Cloudio9

plodder wrote: »

Useful tip I heard, is to wear business attire and politely ask about the possibility when checking in. They are very unlikely to upgrade anyone that looks scruffy.

Doesn't matter what you wear if you don't have status in the loyalty program.

Cloudio9

Captain_Crash wrote: »

If you have to upgrade because of an oversold economy cabin, it makes more sense to give it to someone who has never flown there before, as it will increases the chance of them paying the higher fare in future. Airlines already know their loyal customers with status will pay.

That makes no sense. An economy passenger might fly with an airline once a year or even once in their lifetime.

Some passengers spend tens of thousands every year. They still fly in February when the planes are half empty. They are most certainly the passengers who get looked after first.

plodder

Cloudio9 wrote: »

Doesn't matter what you wear if you don't have status in the loyalty program.

It depends on the airline, and maybe the day as well. But, you don't necessarily have to be in the loyalty programs.

My daughter's BF got one on a trip to Asia recently.

Creamy Goodness

Just make sure you bring a change of clothes to change into, wouldn't want to be at the back of the plane in a full suit

BigMoose

goingnowhere wrote: »

Official EI policy is there is a dress code for business class upgrades

Its kind of crazy as if you are heading to SFO its full of IT types millennial dress sense (ughh), but you got to have a shirt and jacket and no trainers to be considered for upgrade

That'd explain why I never got one on EI despite having good status, but have got them on other airlines!

ironclaw

When I fly business, I fly in shorts and a hoodie. Its ludaciously comfortable. Can't understand why anyone would want to fly in a suit or shirt for 12 hours. (Reminds me of that laughable LinkedIN post going around where it shows 3 lads in full atire and waist costs in premium economy, saying first impressions are important. Hate to tell you lads, the people who make real decisions don't fly commercial and some of the riches guys in the world sport trainers)

Anyway, was all the better when I was bumped to first class on a LH 737 out of Mexico City to Frankfurt. You know when you are asked what gin, followed by what tonic, you want in your G&T that you are in a different league. The line couldn't understand why some 20 something year old was being escorted up the queue to the top of the plane, I didn't want it, they just spotted the red tipped boarding card and the masses were parted for me.

Also swapped seats with a certain UFC fighter and his wife coming back from Newark on United. Nice guy

Captain_Crash

Cloudio9 wrote: »

That makes no sense. An economy passenger might fly with an airline once a year or even once in their lifetime.

Some passengers spend tens of thousands every year. They still fly in February when the planes are half empty. They are most certainly the passengers who get looked after first.

Trust me, many airlines are changing their tune... think of it this way, the below numbers are made up of course

-you have flown business 10 times in your last 40 flights
-I've never flown business in 25 flights

They know that there is a good chance you will pay for a business ticket or upgrade, so why give you something when down the line your going to be paying for it? you say you wont... but you will and they know it.

With me they see an opportunity to convince me to pay for a J ticket in future where normally I may not. Upgrading isn't always about being nice to a customer because they've flown a few times, its often about providing someone with an experience in the hope that they enjoy it enough to pay for next time. Free advertising.

The only people who get looked after more based on loyalty/status ect are people who wont be down the back in the first place. Now this isn't to say you don't get a odd treat from time to time... but next time there is an overfilled cabin and one business seat left, if its between you and some regular flyer who has never been up front but may pay for the opportunity in future, it'll be him/her who gets it, you'll get pissed off and pay for an upgrade next time. The airline are trying to sell seats at the end of the day.

I'm speaking only in a situation where a cabin is full and an upgrade has to be given regardless. Upgrades for the sake of it are nearly always given to FF members yes, in that case you'd get it not me! Staff come last on the list.

Riskymove

I got upgraded from Premium Economy to Business twice now

BA and Cathay

I still think it is the best chance you have if flight busy or oversold, they will move up people from PE first


I wa salso upgraded to Business from Economy once, with KLM, which was after I volunteered to miss an overbooked flight and I was put on another routing but in Business

JillyQ

Got upgraded once on snn to jfk
flight with are lingua, it was back in the days when they were flying the 747's. My upgrade was to first class.

Danbo!

ironclaw wrote: »

When I fly business, I fly in shorts and a hoodie. Its ludaciously comfortable

I got a tour of the lounges in SIN, business class was nice, but quite big and busy given it's their hub. Everyone in suits.

First class was quieter and very plush. Some suits, mostly just casual wear.

But then they have the Private Room, for those flying Suites. Obviously only available on some aircraft to the select elite, so there were only about 4 people in there. One dude in his 20s, barefoot and in shorts, strolling around filling a plate and facetiming someone. And an older dude shouting on the phone to a hotel about a $40,000 bill. Also in shorts.

artanevilla

Danbo! wrote: »

I got a tour of the lounges in SIN, business class was nice, but quite big and busy given it's their hub. Everyone in suits.

First class was quieter and very plush. Some suits, mostly just casual wear.

But then they have the Private Room, for those flying Suites. Obviously only available on some aircraft to the select elite, so there were only about 4 people in there. One dude in his 20s, barefoot and in shorts, strolling around filling a plate and facetiming someone. And an older dude shouting on the phone to a hotel about a $40,000 bill. Also in shorts.

I'm sure there's an net worth related bell curve when it comes to giving a **** what you wear.

Noxegon

If there was I should by rights be a gazillionaire.

smurfjed

As an airline employee I became eligible for confirmed class travel about 10 years ago, first flight I was happily booked to London, got to the airport and told, sorry your seat has changed to business...... humbug... got to the boarding gate and once agin told, sorry we have changed your seat to economy..... totally not impressed.

My employer has just introduced first class suites on some aircraft, but we aren't allowed to book them, we can only be upgraded at the airport if they are empty.

Cloudio9

smurfjed wrote: »

My employer has just introduced first class suites on some aircraft, but we aren't allowed to book them, we can only be upgraded at the airport if they are empty.

of course. what other way could it be.

I remember seeing a documentary about Garret Fitzgerald. He worked in Aer Lingus back in the day and canceled a Shannon-Paris route because in the first month of operation the only passengers were staff travelling free.

jimmycrackcorm

I got upgraded once flying back from India. The reason was I had bought a suitcase full of cheap but heavy IT books while out there (They were a fifth of the price here).

I was so happy at getting such good value that I didn't consider the weight cost for baggage and ended up paying almost as much as the books would have cost me here, in excess baggage.

The check-in guy felt sorry for me and upgraded me.

athtrasna

I've been upgraded by using miles, by paying for it, by volunteering off, by status and by meeting a senior executive of the airline by accident, and by fluke. Loved every minute of it!