Airline workers pls dish the dirt

MSE_Martin

Calling all airline workers. Do you work at an airport or are you a flight attendant? I want your top insider tips on how to save money when flying.

What should people do when trying to get an upgrade? Do you have any tips for what to do if you're bumped off a flight? Is there anything else we should know?

Please post below to share your expertise.

phatbear

If this did'nt have martins name attached to this I would have thought it was a wind up, anyway maybe he's off on his hols soon.

Speaking to a couple of young ladies I know, 1 of whom is cabin crew for virgin and the other works for BA, in recent months about the myth of upgrades they both confirmed what has been said in multiple posts and that is there is no science behind it, unless the flight is over booked then you have more chance of winning the money to pay for the upgrade than actually getting the upgrade for free, the companies attitude is they dont want to upset the real money spenders on the flight, they are'nt that fussed about Mr & Mrs Bloggs who have paid £400 for a flight to NY when they get 10 or 20 times that from Mr Largespuds sitting up front, so why would they want to upset these people, after all I would be miffed if I found out the person sitting beside me had paid 10 times less than me for the same ticket.

My top tip for saving money, and this only really relates to budget airlines, is buy all of your sweets and drinks at boots etc before you board the plane and get ripped off for a can of coke etc.

all the best

the bear

davetrousers

Oh no I can see this descending into "how to get an upgrade" thread, and we all know how they end up.

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

I agree there is no science for it however having worked on check in for united airlines who also dealt with many others such as jet airways, bwia, air china and air new zealand, the best tip is dont be an over jokey idiot who jokes and begs for an upgrade with the check in staff as nine times out of ten we are the ones who put your name forward.

With most airlines if it is not oversold in the back you will have to pay for your upgrade with points or cash. In this day and age airlines can not afford to be giving things away.

If the back is oversold they will be looking for people to upgrade but it is nearly always done to frequent flyers obviously the higher ranking ones first and work the way down, failing that on airlines who dont always have lots of members (for instance in the days of BWIA) we would be asked to comment SFU (suitable for upgrade) and at the gate they may get one, we would be asked to look for smartly dressed nice polite people. If we were oversold and looking and we had a half decent nice couple who were honeymooners or if someone mentioned it was their birthday or I noticed in the passport they were off for a special birthday etc then I would point that out to the supervisor too and comment it....apart from that unless you were an exceptionally handsome business man..not a lot of hope lol....I would also comment if we had other airlines staff travelling as they would also be quite suitably dressed on the whole.

On united if we were oversold, then they may well have special offers on for next cabin upgrade so maybe economy to business for £300, or business to first for £300 etc and they would always ask us to try to sell them to make the airline some money and failing that would upgrade at the gate if that hadn't worked.

As for getting bumped off a flight and making some cash or upgrade that way on the whole you may not be bumped even if you volunteer for it if you have a connection, you dont as routine on the whole get awarded an upgrade as well as a payment (some airlines may differ but none of those ones listed did it as standard and AA didnt when we offered as a family of 5 to be bumped...they wouldn't even promise some seats together so as we had children we decided not to take that risk), get to check in early if you think this maybe te case as if they get a few offers of bumps they would then tell us not to ask any more.

hope that helps

M4RKM

CALLING MARTIN LEWIS....

it is spelt "please"

not pls


not everyone talks in text language!

Moo

benjus

I'd be interested to know what the norm is for bumping - or does it depend entirely on the airline?

My wife & 2 kids flew long haul last week with Delta and AA and were bumped from the AA connection from Miami. AA paid them $1,800 (half cash, half cheques) and put them up in a posh hotel until the next day's flight. I thought that was pretty good, especially as it covered almost half the total cost of the flights.

donny_osmonds_mad_fan

dont think there is a norm, but that sounds like quite a good deal.

dmg24

I know two people that get regularly upgraded, they are (respectively):

* A top level loyalty card holder.
* (In)Famous.

Common sense really?

benjus, some friends were talking to a couple at the airport who had been upgraded on their way to Singapore. They were given the same package as you (but were then gutted to be in economy on their way home!). Not sure about other airlines x

Tojo_Ralph

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Calling all airline workers. Do you work at an airport or are you a flight attendant? I want your top insider tips on how to save money when flying.

What should people do when trying to get an upgrade? Do you have any tips for what to do if you're bumped off a flight? Is there anything else we should know?

Please post below to share your expertise.

Martin,

I know you are revamping your "How To Get An Upgrade" article, but is this REALLY the way to go about it? If this is what passes for research these days, then God help journalism.

If you really want an answer from people who really do work for airlines, people who currently work for airlines, and therefore people who can answer your questions, why not simply go and spend the day at the airport and speak to check in staff, speak to those managing ticket counters and speak to those manning the transfer desk?

I know it's easier just lobbing a thread up here, but all that will achieve is a random selection of responses recalling experiences dating back decades and very few of them will be from folk who have even worked for an airline company.

Good articles require good research.

Tojo

duchy

Or better still take a wander over to flyertalk.com.
I've been upgraded domestically fairly often in the US as a frequent flyer but only once for transatlantic............bumps on the other hand are a different matter. I've earned more in bumps than the transatlantic ticket cost on a couple of trips.
Hoping to do the same again next month-watch this space

small

duchy wrote: »

Or better still take a wander over to flyertalk.com.

Rats!!! You beat me to it. www.flyertalk.com is an excellent website.