There are several tips around on how to blag a free (or sometimes discounted) upgrade on a flight when checking in. Namely: be really polite to the check in staff, travel with the airline regulary or often, be part of their frequent flying program, travel alone (as they wouldn’t upgrade a whole family) and pick a time where there are few passengers at the queues to ask.
I tried to blag one once, but it was a gentleman member of staff so the flirting approach was out the window. I’m not sure he was quite sure of what I was asking, but it was a “no” anyway!
Has anyone here ever managed to get a free upgrade, excluding courtesy of your employer? And what was it like?
By: mongu - 28th February 2007 at 11:50
Don’t believe in upgrades…why should i pay $5000 for a business class fare when some one who has paid $1800 for his economy fare gets upgraded and then gets the same options as me….you get what you pay for in this world
Yes, but you could equally argue that the issue wouldn’t arise if airlines filled up their biz class cabins!
Their pricing mechanism, by effectively allowing cabin arbitrage, prices this in to your $5000 ticket.
By: symon - 28th February 2007 at 07:46
Don’t believe in upgrades…why should i pay $5000 for a business class fare when some one who has paid $1800 for his economy fare gets upgraded and then gets the same options as me….you get what you pay for in this world
Yeah, fair enough point. Though I can’t see many turning down the offer! (myself included) Hopefully one day I will be earning enough to afford the odd buisiness trip, until then I’m just going to keep my fingers crossed!
By: steve rowell - 28th February 2007 at 04:26
Don’t believe in upgrades…why should i pay $5000 for a business class fare when some one who has paid $1800 for his economy fare gets upgraded and then gets the same options as me….you get what you pay for in this world
By: mongu - 26th February 2007 at 12:49
not easy
Rich people with gold and platinum cards always get a leg up. Us mere mortals have a harder time!
I’ve been quite lucky in the past, especially on BA but also on others like SAA and VS.
I’ve never tried to get upgraded, but each time it’s happened there have been circumstances that probably helped:
– In the early days of online seat selection, I chose a seat and then decided 2 minutes later I didn’t like the seat. So I changed and when my computer was processing the change, I had a powercut. No time to go back to the website…when I came to check in, no Economy seats were left so I got upgraded.
– V busy flights where I’ve been smartly dressed and travelling alone (better to upgrade one pax who looks like they might belong there, rather than a family with kids)
– Random things like broken seats
– Sometimes an act of kindness – I’m convinced the lady at checkin at IOM tapped away at her computer a bit and got me bumped up for my flight to MEL, albeit only to Economy+ (but still a nice gesture if so)
By: T5 - 25th February 2007 at 17:57
Well, I was once told to sit at the emergency exit of a KLM A330 instead of the normal row I was assigned (one row behind emergency aisle). While boarding the steward found the two old people to be a bit of a safety risk in case the emergency exit where needed. So since I was one of the last persons standing at the time I was offered the aisle.
So the only tip I can give is to board the plane with no real hurry. If you are the last person standing, and someone needs to be bumped from the emergency exit, you might very well get it. Of course being polite and looking moderately fit does help here.
Was rather cool to have over a metre of leg space!
KLM automatically assigned me an exit row for the 40-minute hop from London Heathrow to Amsterdam in December. The extra legroom was pretty good, but the seat on the 737-400 had no recline. For my onward flight, I was sat in a bulkhead seat – endless legroom!
By: tenthije - 23rd February 2007 at 23:02
Well, I was once told to sit at the emergency exit of a KLM A330 instead of the normal row I was assigned (one row behind emergency aisle). While boarding the steward found the two old people to be a bit of a safety risk in case the emergency exit where needed. So since I was one of the last persons standing at the time I was offered the aisle.
So the only tip I can give is to board the plane with no real hurry. If you are the last person standing, and someone needs to be bumped from the emergency exit, you might very well get it. Of course being polite and looking moderately fit does help here.
Was rather cool to have over a metre of leg space!
By: Skymonster - 23rd February 2007 at 22:53
Been upgraded several times, most often on BD and UA transatlantic services – I’ve never asked, each time its happened its been done “automatically” by the airline when I checked in, although in each case I was at the time an upper tier member of their frequent flyer programs. Last time it happened was when I was about to travel on a UA LHR-SFO service, and after I’d been checked in I picked up the boarding card off the desk and noticed my seat was something-C (aisle) rather than the A (window) seat I’d pre-booked. I was just turning round to have a whinge at the girl behind the desk when I noticed it said “business” on the top of the boarding card rather than “economy”… so I decided to keep walking and not push the point! 😎
Andy
By: T5 - 23rd February 2007 at 10:33
I’ve only ever had one upgrade and that was on an EVA Air flight from Bangkok to London Heathrow (Boeing 747-400).
The whole family had already been upgraded from economy to Evergreen Deluxe (or Premium Economy) and then two of us were taken upstairs to Business Class, thanks to our inidividual screens breaking down!
The cabin was a little dated, so there were no fancy 180-degree reclining seats, but service wasn’t too bad.
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February 23, 2007 at 10:25 am