Free flight upgrades discussion

Lady_S

I saw 4 people get an Ops upgrade on a A380 travelling from London to Paris last summer. Once the cabin doors were closed the head of the flight crew just asked 4 people to move up.

I also saw it happen once on a flight with Virgin from Heathrow to New York. The lad in Question was about 8 feet tall and on crutches. He went straight from Econ to Upper.

DrTerry

I feel the need to ask 'why don't you pay for the higher class'? Come on guys, the airlines aren’t here to give away free upgrades because you don't want to pay for them. I always buy my business class flights from John at the Ealing Flight Centre and they are usually £100's less than the online prices. Give him a go and stop asking for something that doesn't really exist anyway.

DrTerry

His email address is [EMAIL="john.may@flightcentre.co.uk"]john.may@flightcentre.co.uk[/EMAIL] or call him on 020 8840 9179- Give him a go and you'll never buy from anyone else ever again.

dickydonkin

DrTerry wrote: »

His email address is ******or call him on ~~~~~~ Give him a go and you'll never buy from anyone else ever again.

Give him a go and stop asking for something that doesn't really exist anyway.

They do actually!


And what is your role at Ealing Fllight Centre......John?

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

:spam:

timmo44

Me and the wife were both carrying over 80000 Virgin Flying Club miles as we'd never spent any. On a trip going from London to Orlando then returning from Miami to London we'd booked Economy out and PE back. We got upgraded without asking both ways so had Upper back from Miami. We can only put it down to the flights being full and we both had high points totals.

Note also that Virgin miles are handy for upgrading a level once at the airport at bag check in. I've gone from PE to Upper before for only 10000 miles and about £30 tax (Washington to London) and it was a work trip so the initial flight hadn't cost me anything.

Tojo_Ralph

Five years on and what have we learned? .... Not much I would suggest other than airlines look after their FF's but sometimes folk get lucky.

One area I think airlines are getting smarter is offering upgrades earlier and trying to get folk to burn off miles on upgrades on busy flights.

An example being my current travels long haul on a £1,400 near fully flex Eco ticket. Flying here with the best part of 800,000 miles in credit I was offered a miles upgrade to PE, declined and got the upgrade FOC at the gate.

For my return flight I just received an email offering an upgrade to PE and Business for £241 and £492 respectively. Again it's a busy flight.

The upshot of this is that there are less random upgrades to go around.

Where I've got smarter is establishing where the empty rows are on flights that are not so busy, an easy task with the assistance of gate staff.

budgetflyer

Tojo_Ralph wrote: »

Five years on and what have we learned? .... Not much I would suggest

Quite a lot really.
ie
if you want an upgrade ,call yourself Sir or Lady, wear a top hat and tails, ladies a ball gown and tiarra. If your brother in law knows someone down the pub who's second cousin works for BA, ask them to put you on the upgrade list, turn up at the aiport early, pretend its your birthday or honeymoon, then you may just get a 1 in 6 million chance of getting an upgrade but only if there are no "status" pasengers.

OR

You can leave here and head over to flyertalk

Pumpotista

Hi Martin, Iberia changed the dates of flights and this will rob me of 3 days from holiday trip. How do I ask for an upgrade? Have I got a right to one?

Alan_Bowen

You have no right to an upgrade, you have a right to a refund, assuming they have given you more than 14 days notice, why not consider changing your other flight so that you still have the same number of days at your destination, presumably in South America?

FruitbatFran

We have flown with Emirates several times and joined their loyalty scheme. I'm sure it pays to take that bit extra care on what you wear. Instead of jeans, go for linen trousers, chinos etc. Polo shirts and a dressier top for ladies. Try and avoid wearing flip-flops. Flying from Mauritius to Dubai I asked at the Business Class desk if there was any possibility of an upgrade even though we were only on the basic level of Skywards. I was told there wasn't so I just smiled and thanked them and walked back to my husband. On checking in at Economy we took our boarding passes and I queried that the seat numbers were incorrect whereby the desk clerk kindly pointed out that we had been upgraded. Talk about being gob-smacked! Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and sincerely hope this is not just a 'one-off'.
:T