Tell me your flight upgrade success and failure stories!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My husband and I are off to New York on Thursday, my first trip to America, so I’m very excited!

We rang last week to enquire about upgrade availability and were told it would be £900 each… Gulp!

Anyone got any tips on getting last minute upgrades? Will checking in online mean we can’t enquire about an upgrade at the airport? What do you actually say, is something like ‘are there any upgrades available on this flight?’ the right thing to say or should you say something more subtle? Do you pay for a last minute upgrade like that or are they typically provided free?

2

Unless you have airline miles, you will be charged for upgrades. The only time I got a free upgrade was when I traveled on a diplomatic passport from Baltimore to Tunisia. It only happened once; every other time, I’ve had to pay or use mileage. FWIW, for a trip from NZ to NYC, I’d gladly pay for the upgrade. That’s one long-assed flight.

3

Is it really worth nearly $3000 US (for a couple) to fly in Business/First Class?

Long flight indeed, but spending an extra $3000 on top of what they already paid for their original base flights seems pretty extravagant to me for 16 hours of slightly more comfortable surroundings…

4

Unless you are a frequent flier with that airline, the chances of getting an upgrade to business class for a long-haul flight are very, very slim. The only thing you can really do is ask at the gate whether it’s possible to get bumped up, and the gate agent will in all likelihood tell you either that it isn’t possible, or that it will cost you an arm and a leg. It can’t hurt to ask, but be prepared for rejection. The whole point of airlines having nicer seats is to charge more for them.

But to the larger point, you’re probably better off trying to select the best seats that you can (for example, some Boeing 777s have two seats outboard, five seats in the middle, then another two seats outboard with two aisles – try to get those two seats!) and get up to stretch your legs every now and then. Unless you have some health issues like lower back problems, the jetlag will be worse than the ride.

5

You may want to see if your airline is listed on seatguru.com. There are charts that will tell you what the best seats are for each type of aircraft, plus entertainment options and such.

Personally the best I have ever done was on a USAir flight from Philly to Columbus. Only supposed to be an hour or two, but the gate agent points out that full price economy tickets can upgrade to first class for only $20. As I was traveling for work and hadn’t paid for the ticket in the first place, I figured what the heck. Money well spent, as the plane was on the taxiway for three hours and I had plenty of legroom and free snacks.

6

The first time she flew (with me), Pepper Mill got bumped up to First Class. It was thoroughly unexpected, and welcome (Pepper Mill gets motion sick, and a wide, comfortable seat makes it more bearable).
Hasn’t happened again since then, and I have no idea how to make it happen. It didn’t cost us anything, though.

7

I’ve gotten upgrades maybe once out of every 20 or so flights, but never once by simply asking. Continental seems (I’m not sure this is factual) to occasionally upgrade frequent flyer program members at the automatic check-in kiosks. Other possibilities are forced upgrades due to overbooking in coach. I once scored a biz-class seat that way on KLM Schiphol-Johannesburg, and it was sweet. Another time on a domestic flight with 1st class service a guy asked me if he could exchange seats so he could sit with his wife, and handed me a ticket for 1A.

I was doing a lot of business flying PHL-HOU on Air Tran a few years ago, and they had a standing deal where ‘1st class’ (i.e a wider seat and a bigger bag of pretzels) was 25 bucks per segment. I took that offer every so often, but couldn’t really consider paying out of pocket for an upgrade on a long-haul flight unless I’d just been released from a Turkish prison or something.

In my experience, if one is looking for a free upgrade the best one can hope for is to be reasonably well dressed and politely and deferentially ask whether an upgrade is available, but these seem to go to frequent flyers (of that airline) first. One of my bosses brags all the time about getting upgrades this way, but this is mostly on BA where he flies tens of thousands of miles a year, and, well, I’m not entirely sure he’s getting quite as many bumps as he claims.

8

I was upgraded once, but couldn’t actually take the next flight. We were on a family trip to take a cruise, and had to get to San Juan to catch the boat. A combination of snowstorm (airport delays)+mechanical failure(there’s no plane available whatsoever) resulted in us missing the flight to JFK for our connection to San Juan, and, consequently, missing the ship.

American Airlines offered us all (6 people) business-class upgrades from Montreal to JFK and San Juan for the next day, which was a wonderful deal until you realize that the cruise ship has left San Juan and is spending a day at sea, so there’s not much point in going to Puerto Rico. In the end they were able to get us on a flight via Miami to Aruba, where we caught up with the ship, having lost 2.5 days of cruising… that flight, though, was cattle-class.

To add insult to injury, the cruise company didn’t come meet us at the airport, despite all bookings and arrangements having been made through them and emails indicating that this would be done. So we took a cab, and my father spent the next couple of hours with the manager of the ship, carefully arranging a very generous compensation package involving free alcohol and a discount on our rooms. So it all turned out ok, I guess!

My husband once got upgraded to first class on an Air France flight for a business trip, but I don’t recall the circumstances.

9

When I was in the service and flying overseas once or twice a year, I would always ask about upgrades.I’d shell out up to 250 bucks for a business class upgrade for a 13 hour flight.

It worked on commercial flights, but contracted flights like Aloha Air or some such had no upgrade available. I would have rather traveled on a C-5 or 141 and just crawled up on the bags and fallen asleep.

10

Heh, I should probably point out that my username is somewhat misleading as we now live in the UK.

11

Yeah, that’s the sort of price i’d be willing to pay - did you ask when you checked your bags in at the counter?

12

I was upgraded once with my now husband. After being seated in a row in coach with (relatively) lots of leg room a flight attendant approached us and asked if we would be willing to swap seats with an elderly couple who could really use the room. We gladly complied figuring they needed it way more than we did. We barely got settled into our new seats when we were bumped to first class as a thank you for giving up our seats. The flight attendants up there pampered and fussed over us the whole flight even more so than our fellow first classers. They even gave us a full bottle of wine each to take with us. That was one nice flight. :slight_smile:

13

You pay for upgrades with $$$ or with airline miles. The only time I think I got an upgrade for free was because the airline overbooked and had no place to seat me but in an upgraded seat. Otherwise, it’s gonna cost and any available upgrades are going to go to the airlines’ most frequent flyers first.

14

I once got a free upgrade in the weirdest most unlikely circumstance - flying out of Rockport, ME, which is a triple wide trailer airport, after a week on a schooner. With one shower the whole week. I told the guy I was a little worried about a close connection in Boston, he worked on it a bit, told me the flight out of Maine was overbooked anyway, and he sent me and another lady in a cab to Augusta and flew me first class all the way home. Watched my bag while I took a whore’s bath in the bathroom, too. Seriously, I smelled like a week on a boat and they upgraded me to first class! I actually got home earlier than planned!

15

Yep, after I was issued the ticket, I would inquire at check in about upgrades. It can’t hurt to ask!

16

Blog post on it by a woman who works for a major travel company (like Travelocity but the name’s escaping me now) and who travels very frequently for work. Also plenty of good tips (beyond “use a quart bag”) for flying comfortably, especially on long haul flights.

17

So would I, but that’d be rare to find as the cost these days.

Ever get a free upgrade from flying in uniform? I’ve seen that happen.

To the OP: International first class is THE most profitable product any airline has and there’s a reason they price it the way they do. Your other problem is that any free/cheap available upgrades will first be offered to the airline’s frequent flyers in most instances. Even there, airlines that offer generous upgrades to FFs on domestic flights (comparatively generous – Continental has “unlimited elite upgrades,” but good luck getting one as a gold elite on a transcontinental flight) are not inclined to give upgrades away easily on overseas flights.

I have been upgraded exactly twice on overseas flights. One was some weird oversold situation on Virgin coming back from London (wow, that was nice). One was Europe-bound when the GF sweet talked the gate agent into doing it because it was my birthday. So, if it’s your anniversary or the like, have a go at telling them a sympathetic story, it can’t hurt. But overall bear in mind that nobody who has a choice would sit in economy if they did not have to, and that half the people at the gate will have been badgering the beleaguered gate agent for upgrades, many of them (the elite freq. flyers) with better claim to it than you guys might have.

For trans-Atlantic, the upgrade is certainly nice but not critical to me the way it would be on a 12+ hr. trans-Pac. flight. I think your flight will end up being about seven hours. That’s long, but unless the seat pitch (distance between the seats) is super punitive (check the various websites that can tell you this, Google seat pitch and the name of your airline), you won’t be miserable. First class gets you edible food (coach will be indifferent), lots of free booze, and the ability to sleep (I can’t sleep sitting up, so that makes a difference for me on the jetlag front).

In asking for an upgrade (and again, it can’t hurt), mention any special claim you might have (I’m a member of the FF program, I’m celebrating my birthday, I have a medical problem) and if all else fails just politely say “Any chance of an upgrade?” If they’re willing to do it for free, or for a reasonable co-pay, that’s when they’ll tell you so. Oh BTW, checking in online doesn’t affect your odds, you’re always free to approach the gate agent even with your pre-printed boarding pass.

18

Forgot about being a frequent flyer. For some airlines, when you reach a certain number of miles they raise you to “gold” status or some such. My wife used to get free upgrades all the time with hers. But maintaining that status can be tough, and she lost hers when she quit traveling on business.

19

For any and all questions of this nature, I should take the opportunity to refer you to www.flyertalk.com. Probably one of my five favorite websites, and the old hands there are pros at every scheme and scam known for getting free or discounted premium travel. The archived material for whatever airline you’re flying (the boards are broken out by carrier) will likely contain some very on-point (if likely discouraging) intel for all the ways people have thought of for gaming the upgrade process.

20

As mentioned, getting bumped up to a higher service class on a long haul, international flight is a LOT different than getting bumped up in domestic US (even if it’s a really long flight).

I fly a lot, and have flown quite a bit overseas. I’ve been bumped up to business from economy twice (that I recall). Once was fairly unexpected, on a flight from Amsterdam to the US, and I assume it was because coach was oversold. On another flight, I took a bump the day before, and brought fresh made chocolate chip cookies to the service personnel who were pretty nice about it when I came back the next day (I got bumped at my home airport). Some combination of the two (bump and cookies) got me up to business class on Delta, which at least at the time had eliminated first class on US-Europe flights.

I did luck into a “under the table” bump from business to first on a flight to Europe. I got on the plane and found an older man already in my seat. He had a first class ticket but preferred to stay back in business with his wife, so he offered me to just take his seat. I checked with the flight attendants and they didn’t have a problem with it. Nice to have a lay flat sleeper for that flight.

On United you can combine miles and money to upgrade your seat. I was going to do this on a flight to Singapore, forget how many miles but extra dosh was $500 when my company made me switch to another flight/airline.

As a FF with United I can use miles or systemwide upgrade that they give me to upgrade on an international flight. You might be able to BUY these on Amazon (or from me, send me a note :wink: ) but there is a chance that even with these you won’t get an upgrade.

Even though it may seem random, most upgrades are part of a process. Continental’s domestic process is to offer to sell upgrades, then offer them to their Platinum members, then to whichever of their FFs has paid the most for their seat. For United they do it based on Global Services members, then 1K, then Premium Exec, then Premium. They break ties based on who was on the list first and who has the most lifetime miles. I’m sure that other carriers are similar.

I’d rate the chance of a random couple getting an upgrade as being extremely low, especially if the airline has people who spend a lot of money with them every year that they could take care of first. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but…