Upgrade Flights

tummy_tank

We have managed to accumulate enough emirates miles on previous trips (economy discounted tickets) and have up-graded to business class guaranteed on the last leg of our Oz trip from Duabi to Glasgow. hopefully with our trip to Oz will have enough miles to up-grade again on our next trip to Dubai.Many perks with emirates frequent flier club including luggage tags, certainly worth doing considering it takes two minutes on-line.

diamond57

My sister got upgraded once, because she was one of the last to check in and travelling on her own - probably being about 20, blond and pretty may have helped. She had very little luggage, and had left it to the last minute to get to the airport. When she got there the flight was overbooked, but when they found out she was on her own they said one seat left in business class and she was upgraded - despite being in very casual clothes (was at uni at the time and did not know how to dress smart but probably was not wearing much!!)

freegenie

Tall men?

By law, if you stand over 6ft 6, they are OBLIGED to give you a bulkhead/emergency seat. My bf is 6ft 6 and it is legit.

However I have found that often, when travelling alone, and standing at just 5ft 1, I get offerred the bulkheads anyways! I dunno if its just because I am nice or smiley, or what... :A

Am about to embark on a multi-stopover trip back to Oz in November, so fingers crossed something lovely happens

pin

By law, if you stand over 6ft 6, they are OBLIGED to give you a bulkhead/emergency seat. My bf is 6ft 6 and it is legit.

Hmm, first time I've heard of this. Care to provide us with which legislation this is mentioned in?

mystic_trev

pin wrote:

Hmm, first time I've heard of this. Care to provide us with which legislation this is mentioned in?

I've heard this before and never seen the "legislation"

Anyway - as for bulkhead seats they're given priority for parents with babies / young children, and are certainly seats to avoid. Nothing worse than being stuck with children crying on a longhaul flight - they usually start up as you're trying to get to sleep!

Sam_Bee

freegenie wrote:

Tall men?

By law, if you stand over 6ft 6, they are OBLIGED to give you a bulkhead/emergency seat. My bf is 6ft 6 and it is legit.

I'm 6ft 6, a regular long haul traveller, and know this is patently untrue!

However, check-in people are not evil, and look favourably upon you for more spacious seats. Especially if yo umake things easier for yourself - by getting to the airport early etc etc.

Murphy_The_Cat

Sam_Bee wrote:

I'm 6ft 6, a regular long haul traveller, and know this is patently untrue!

However, check-in people are not evil, and look favourably upon you for more spacious seats. Especially if yo umake things easier for yourself - by getting to the airport early etc etc.

........ by being polite, asking nicely and giving a big smile.
It doesn't always work, but I've a good record of getting them (I'm a big bloke as well )

MTC

oldhamexile

Having been in the travel business for many years and having flown with eight different airlines long haul back and forth to Australia in the last three years . I think I can speak with some authority on ''up grades''

Accept that the days are gone when ''if your lucky'' then you might get an upgrade. There are strict criteria employed by most of the major airlines such as Singapore, Malaysian, Cathay, Quantas, BA etc. Smiling at check out or wear Gucci or Prada will not help you one bit. Dressing casual in jeans and T shirt will not be of any detriment either. As long as you look clean and tidy clothes do not come into it.

This is like stating the blindly obvious however....
Economy seats are the easiest to sell. Therefore in the event that the airline has several seats unsold in buisness or first class they will move people who have already booked up the ladder...

Depending on the seats unsold this is often done a few days before and not on the day. So your upgrade may have been decided as much as a week or two before you fly. If a flight has 20 first unsold 10 business class unsold but almost all its economy allocation is sold, then, it will move as many business class as it can to first and then move as many economy seats as it can up a grade to free the cheapest seats.

Those who will get the upgrade will ALWAYS be travelling staff of the airline followed by staff from other airlines who have code sharing agreements with them IE Quantas/BA

Next in line for upgrade is and ALWAYS is frequent flyers.

After that they will look at what people have paid what price in economy and make a decision on upgrading from there. The fact is that nowadays thanks to the growth in air travel and lower prices there are fewer opportunities for upgrades as modern reservation systems are able to ensure flights run to capacity and thats why, at a glance its possible to see how a flight is filling up days before departure and allocate upgrades to certain clients even before they enter the terminal.

Travel agents themselves do not get any favours and flashing a buiness card or abta number at check in does not have any sway at all.

As for arriving very early for check in helping ??? why would that help?? The only chance Mr economy has of an upgrade is if he arrives at the LAST minute for check in. With a bit of luck they may have released his cheap seat by then and unfortunatly only be able to offer him business or first. What a shame !!

Staff at check in are only interested in doing their job, They have no interest in your status either proffessionally or socially. Claiming to know the head of operations or anyone else in the airline is one they here every day. They just want you to get checked in and take your boarding pass and move to the gate thank you mr customer. They have a criteria and they have to stick to it. End of story!!

If you are travelling to Australia - Always go for Malaysian or Singapore airlines. Even singapores and Malaysians economy class have great leg room.

KUL is a dead easy airport to transfer on from and its a very inexpensive place to spend a few hours ( cost me more to take my money out of an ATM than the meal itself ! )

Singapore Chiang has a great outside bar so you can get some REAL air between flights.

Finally if your trip to Aussie means internal transfers in Aus then look at paying for them locally when you arrive. Onward flights are like getting on a bus and as the £ is good against the Aussie $ its often cheaper than paying for a Virgin Blue in the uk.

Sam_Bee

oldhamexile wrote:

As for arriving very early for check in helping ??? why would that help?? The only chance Mr economy has of an upgrade is if he arrives at the LAST minute for check in. With a bit of luck they may have released his cheap seat by then and unfortunatly only be able to offer him business or first. What a shame !!

Quite simply if economy is overbooked & C & F Classes aren't, they know about it several hours in advance, and will move people up accordingly.

I have been upgraded on Emirates, Etihad & Gulf by doing this. But you are right, I definitely didn't wave my business card in their face (I work in travel) as that would guarantee no upgrade!

zolablue25

A friend of mine is VERY tall and last year he was travelling Heathrow to New York quite a lot. He never subscribed to any frequent flyer schemes but was ALWAYS upgraded by BA and NEVER upgraded by Virgin. Needless to say he encouraged the company to get hi BA flights wherever possible.