How to get a flight upgrade article discussion

hardworkingmummy

Hi,

We flew to Prague a few years ago with KLM and we asked politely at the KLM information desk, the lady there (Schipol) was really nice and said she'd see what she could do.......Anyway we were both upgraded to First Class, china plates, swish menu, etc.

We'll be flying with them again to America in September and i doubt we'd be able to get a long haul upgrade, but its worth a go.

J

amf

hardworkingmummy wrote: »

Hi,

We flew to Prague a few years ago with KLM and we asked politely at the KLM information desk, the lady there (Schipol) was really nice and said she'd see what she could do.......Anyway we were both upgraded to First Class, china plates, swish menu, etc.

We'll be flying with them again to America in September and i doubt we'd be able to get a long haul upgrade, but its worth a go.

J

You did unbelievably well getting an upgrade to first on KLM on a flight from Amsterdam to Prague.....well done:T Tell me.....were you flying on a 380?

richardw

http://klm.com/travel/gb_en/travel_information/on_board/travel_classes/index.htm

Can't see European business class there.

Tojo_Ralph

amf wrote: »

You did unbelievably well getting an upgrade to first on KLM on a flight from Amsterdam to Prague.....well done:T

Tell me.....were you flying on a 380?

To the best of my knowledge, KLM are only ever likely to have flown the likes of the Fokker 70s, Fokker 100s, A320s (Czech codeshare) and 737s between Amsterdam and Prague in recent years, so the revelation that there are First Class seats up for grabs does indeed come as somewhat of a suprise.

GlennTheBaker

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, KLM are only ever likely to have flown the likes of the Fokker 70s, Fokker 100s, A320s (Czech codeshare) and 737s between Amsterdam and Prague in recent years, so the revelation that there are First Class seats up for grabs does indeed come as somewhat of a suprise.

So cynical!

amf

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

To the best of my knowledge, KLM are only ever likely to have flown the likes of the Fokker 70s, Fokker 100s, A320s (Czech codeshare) and 737s between Amsterdam and Prague in recent years, so the revelation that there are First Class seats up for grabs does indeed come as somewhat of a suprise.

Came as a surprise to me too.....and I held their Royal Wing card for quite a number of years:D That was in the good old days of Air UK, of course. I wonder why I was never upgraded on my regular GLA-LGW flight. May have had something to do with it being a single class service, s'pose. No doubt someone will be along shortly to tell us (s)he was upgraded on this route;)

emgi

First post - be kind!
I work for an airline - if you have a medical condition please check with the airline you're travelling with that you are okay with them to travel (not just your doctor). If you asked for an upgrade due recent DVT and produced a letter I would have to deny you travel and ask you to seek clearance from the airline's medical department (who would send a form to your doctor to complete).
As you can imagine asking for an upgrade due medical condition causes lots of problems at the airport and lessens your chance of flying, let alone getting an upgrade!

flyperson

Hi there, Many thanks for the excellent article. I am not a frequent traveller so please excuse this question if it is a daft one. I am due to travel to San Francisco by Virgin Atlantic in a few weeks time. I intend to put your ideas into practice on the small chance of a free upgrade. I see from the Virgin website that I have the option of "checking-in" on-line with a simple "bag-drop" when I arrive at Heathrow. My question is this: by making use of this service (which I suppose is a time saver) do I lose any chance of a free upgrade? My thinking is that the upgrade can only come about at a proper check-in desk and not at a bag-drop area. Is this a legitimate concern, or does it make no difference, in that a bag-drop operative has as much discretion as a check-in one? In a similar vein, is it a bad idea to choose a seat on-line before travel? Many thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this one, Richard.

rlc22

flyperson wrote: »

Hi there, Many thanks for the excellent article. I am not a frequent traveller so please excuse this question if it is a daft one. I am due to travel to San Francisco by Virgin Atlantic in a few weeks time. I intend to put your ideas into practice on the small chance of a free upgrade. I see from the Virgin website that I have the option of "checking-in" on-line with a simple "bag-drop" when I arrive at Heathrow. My question is this: by making use of this service (which I suppose is a time saver) do I lose any chance of a free upgrade? My thinking is that the upgrade can only come about at a proper check-in desk and not at a bag-drop area. Is this a legitimate concern, or does it make no difference, in that a bag-drop operative has as much discretion as a check-in one? In a similar vein, is it a bad idea to choose a seat on-line before travel? Many thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this one, Richard.

The bag drop is just the same as a check-in desk. If I were you I'd check-in online and choose your seat then as the chance of getting an upgrade is very slim. You can always ask about paying for an upgrade at the check-in desk if there are seats available...

HDRW

flyperson wrote: »

Hi there, Many thanks for the excellent article. I am not a frequent traveller so please excuse this question if it is a daft one. I am due to travel to San Francisco by Virgin Atlantic in a few weeks time. I intend to put your ideas into practice on the small chance of a free upgrade. I see from the Virgin website that I have the option of "checking-in" on-line with a simple "bag-drop" when I arrive at Heathrow. My question is this: by making use of this service (which I suppose is a time saver) do I lose any chance of a free upgrade? My thinking is that the upgrade can only come about at a proper check-in desk and not at a bag-drop area. Is this a legitimate concern, or does it make no difference, in that a bag-drop operative has as much discretion as a check-in one? In a similar vein, is it a bad idea to choose a seat on-line before travel? Many thanks in advance to anyone who can answer this one, Richard.

I've flown with Virgin several times a year for the past 10+ years, and I've never managed an upgrade, so I wouldn't worry about it. More often than not (on LHR-LAX and LHR-JFK flights) Premium Economy is full anyway, so there's nowhere to be upgraded to!
Anyway, the bag-drop is very much a check-in desk, but with shorter procedures and a much shorter queue - there are still formalities to go through, even if you do everything including printing the boarding pass online beforehand, but I recommend always checking in online if you can - especially if you're into brinkmanship and arriving just in time - the queue length can put you "just too late"!

Incidentally, these days if you ask for an exit-row seat on Virgin (which on a 747 has a large empty space in front, with cabin crew sitting facing you opposite) they want to charge you £50 for the privilege! And since there's no seat in front, there's no seat-back pocket for all the accoutrements that I carry: water bottle (taken on empty and filled onboard), book, magazine, music player (usually MiniDisk), noise-cancelling headphones etc, so for me sitting there is a Bad Thing!

Virgin aren't as good as they were when I first started flying with them, but I still prefer them to any American airline or BA!

Happy Landings,
Howard