Have you ever been upgraded on a flight? Poll results/discussion

babybaker · 4 June 2008 at 12:18PM

Chance would be a fine thing - it seems strange how check in personnel/ cabin crew view people with small children as if we have some infectious disease!!!-Even on long haul flights and premium economy/ first class are virtually empty

Though it is interesting to note that when my wife and I flew to Mauritius on our honeymoon three years ago - the only person getting "special treatment" in first class along with us was a certain lead singer from Spandau Ballet.

Smiley_Mum · 4 June 2008 at 1:25PM

We got upgraded to First Class on a flight - domestic US. We gave up our seats to another couple after the flight we were due to take had been overbooked. Nice to have the extra space, bigger seats etc.

CaseyJay_2 · 4 June 2008 at 1:27PM

...not on every flight every day, but it is a common occurrence for commercial reasons (ie overbooking).

The probability of it happening to 'you' will remain pretty slim as I am sure your poll will tell you.

Take for example BA - if they do need to move passengers, they will have a hierarchy - the most valuable/VIPs first, Exec Club next (Gold/Silver), Full fare paying passengers and so on. Which represents a small proportion of the population. And factor this in on a planeload of say 400 people means the realistic chances of this happening to the regular leisure traveller are very limited.

Worth researching the airline to see what tips can be used to get you to the head of the suitable list - ie choose the busiest flights, don't select special meals, don't online checkin and so on - varies from carrier to carrier.

I am lucky in that I've been upgraded six times this year (flying weekly and the Gold card do help). The point is never to expect it and you appreciate it more when it comes...

klane · 4 June 2008 at 2:08PM

I fly UK to US 4 or 5 times a year, sometimes a bit more often sometimes a bit less. Maybe an occasional Euro flight. That's for work - plus another international flight for a holiday. I've been upgraded twice (in about 5 years) - once was completely random. The other time I was coming back from my hen weekend with a good friend, and our connecting flight was cancelled, and the one after was full, meaning we'd be stuck there overnight. We were doing the red eye anyway and going straight into work on landing from the airport, so were a bit flustered about how to get in touch with our boss and what he'd say etc, and said we'd take anything they could give us to get us home in time. The check in person did some typing, printed boarding cards and told us she'd managed to squeeze us in... and that we would be VERY comfortable. We didn't twig til we'd thanked her profusely and walked off, and discovered she'd upgraded us from economy to exec first class! We were so chuffed we then didn't sleep a wink on the entire flight (had to take advantage of it!) and were really tired by 4pm in the office... haha. I have hoped every flight since...

I should mention, I am also a frequent flyer member, rarely travel on any other airline (if I do, it's usually in the same group... so I get the airmiles) and am usually a silver or a gold card holder (I have around 250,000 airmiles at the moment). If I could afford it, I would totally fly business/first EVERY time.

nephilim · 4 June 2008 at 2:22PM

I got upgraded once last year when I went to visit my brother in Australia with my GF, and I said we were going on honeymoon, and Virgin upgraded us from Premium Economy to Upper Class, and again when I called to book over the phone they upgraded me without question when I used the honeymoon line again!

JMG4321 · 4 June 2008 at 3:32PM

We were upgraded to premium economy on a Virgin flight to New York last week. We'd booked the cheapest economy tickets so we were really pleased.

I spoke to the lady on the tickets desk (not check in), mentioned that it was a trip to celebrate our tenth anniversary (which it was!) and said that while we knew it was very unlikely that they'd be looking to upgrade anyone, we'd love to be considered if they were. She very sweetly said that she'd see what she could do. As we were at the gate having our boarding pass scanned for one last time, we heard the magic beep. I have to say that premium economy was lovely, lots of leg room and nice food and drink.

Sadly, it only emphasized the difference when we came back in economy but we were v thankful to Virgin.

(On an entirely separate topic, when you book Virgin and choose your seats in advance, it's worth using the online check-in facility otherwise your allocated seats tend to have been changed by the time you check in (didn't realise this until I queried why our seats had been changed at check-in).

Northstander · 4 June 2008 at 5:33PM

It has happened to me twice.

The first time I was flying London to Toronto and Air Canada had overbooked the flight. They were looking for volunteers to come off and offered the inducement of flying business class. Unfortunately it also meant flying via St Johns and Halifax.

BA upgraded us last year from economy to premium economy but that was only because my girlfriend knows somebody who works for BA and pulled a couple of strings!

jazimews · 4 June 2008 at 5:40PM

In 2002 me and my husband flew to the states from Heathrow with United Airlines to visit friends in Des Moines. When we boarded, we found that the headphones wouldn't plug into the socket in my seat, so I couldn't hear the film. As the plane was full, the cabin crew upgraded us to two seats in business class, we weren't sat together, but behind each other, but it was lovely - although nerve-racking as we didn't expect all the attention we got from the cabin crew. I embarrassed myself even more, when my plastic fork broke during dinner!

Coming back, we asked for an upgrade and we were upgraded from economy to premium economy - not as good as business class but we had a bit more room in our seats.

This is the only time that we've flown since we've known each other - 13 years.

We were very happy with the service we received.

arealbasketcase · 4 June 2008 at 5:49PM

I've flown a fair bit over the years but the only time I ever get an upgrade is when travelling with a group of colleagues... The 6 of us have worked together for (had to think about it) about 8 years and of the other 5 the shortest is 5' 11" and the others are all varying dizzy heights above the, I always wear high heals to travel with them (don't worry I am female in case you were wondering)!

On one occasion we were travelling from France to the US and then doing a couple of internal flights before flying back to France and we were upgraded on every flight, it was so cool. :cool:

I have to say it always feels a bit like an episode of The Professionals or something when we all strut our stuff through the terminals, I love it, posers, who us?:rotfl:

vikingaero · 4 June 2008 at 6:04PM

I used to fly 3 times a week either to Glasgow or to Amsterdam with BA and KLM. I mostly travelled economy on these routes and never got an upgrade. However when I moved jobs and had to travel greater distances I would often get upgrades with BA/KLM mostly because of my flying club memberships (Silver on BA and Platinum with KLM). I estimate that on 20-40% of medium and long haul flights would get me an upgrade without asking. This depends on routes though as some flights are chokka and others always have light loads.

But in the last few years there seems to be article after article in the media on obtaining an upgrade that everyone seems to be after an upgrade. Because of this airlines have brought in guidelines to prioritise upgrades.

Have you ever been upgraded on a flight? Poll results/discussion

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