TravelUp - Insane "penalty" to upgrade

proformance

Hi guys

My girlfriend booked flights to NY with these guys (via Skyscanner) in economy.

Upon enquiring about quotes for Premium upgrade (special occasion), they informed us that there would be a £1500 (yes that's fifteen hundred, or one thousand, five hundred) PER PERSON "penalty", on top of the price difference.

Just for reference, on the same dates premium economy is £720 pp

Is this common practise?

Many thanks

Z

z1a

How is it a penalty? It's optional.

jpsartre

Just a guess but it may be that your economy ticket has to be reticketed into a more flexible booking class before it can be upgraded. That can be expensive. Of course, Travelup is probably also adding a fee of their own, that's a downside of booking from a 3rd party that you'll just have to live with.

zagfles

Spend the money on a posh hotel, meal, helicopter trip etc, or all of them, that's likely to be a much better value extravagance for a special occasion than a flight upgrade!

dawyldthing

Or ask on the day when you get to check in if there’s any upgrades you can pay for. There might be, esp if it’s quiet

gettingtheresometime

zagfles wrote: »

Spend the money on a posh hotel, meal, helicopter trip etc, or all of them, that's likely to be a much better value extravagance for a special occasion than a flight upgrade!

dawyldthing wrote: »

Or ask on the day when you get to check in if there’s any upgrades you can pay for. There might be, esp if it’s quiet

Tbh, for NY, I wouldn't bother paying for an upgrade.

As zagles said, I'd spend the money on memories in ny rather than getting there.

(Would throughly recommend though booking tickets to the crown of the liberty statute statue as soon as you can)

tacpot12

An upgrade on the return flight would be more valuable as it might improve the sleep you get.

Voyager2002

tacpot12 wrote: »

An upgrade on the return flight would be more valuable as it might improve the sleep you get.

And this can probably be arranged by contacting the airline once you are in NY.

proformance

Nice one guys, thank you for the replies! I agree about the class of travel. I've never done anything other than economy previously, but thought it might be affordable sans the penalty.

Many thanks!

Z

Placitasgirl

A penalty is by definition "a punishment imposed for breaking a law, rule, or contract". You're not being penalised for an upgraded seat, but being proposed a premium for doing so.

The upgrade cost is not a penalty but rather a premium charged for the higher class of travel.

Having flown both BC and Economy to NY a number of times I'd agree that there are far better ways to spend the extra making memories once in New York than upgrading your travel class to Premium.

malkie76

I never understand this logic???? Why would spending extra on flights limit your ability to ‘make memories’ at the destination?

The OP is getting diddled buying tickets via a third party which limit the flexibility to make changes - you might not be in this situation had you booked direct.

Other option is to wait until you are at the airport and ask for a cash upgrade then which (subject to availability) could be extremely affordable.