romka_zrh

Hi everyone, after reading through the forum for months finally my first post.

I became A3*G about 20 months ago, flying 1-2x/month in Europe with LX/LH and 3-4x/year intercontinental with LX/LH/UA/AV, always in cheap eco. Last week it finally happened: I was upgraded on an LX flight out of MAD for the first time since I became gold ^. Several times I saw M&M FTL being upgraded when flying LX/LH, so it seems obvious they privilege their own status members over *G from other programs. I got upgraded once with QR and once with WY not even being member of their respective FF programs.

I was wondering if this restrictive upgrade behavior is airline dependent? Any experiences?

benberg2013

Were you upgraded by check-in or way before the flight?

romka_zrh

At the boarding gate when my BP was scanned... it beeped and the gate agent assigned me the new seat. At ZRH/MUC/FRA they have this little printers spitting it out.

benberg2013

Did you ask for an upgrade or they gave you without asking? Maybe the flight was full, so they bumped you up to business due to the full economy, and you were *A gold so you were the one they chose to bump up?

romka_zrh

Yes, the flight was full and that was most probably the reason. As I was on a lot of full flights recently I just wondered why I got bumped up this time. On most flights I saw several getting upped to biz, sometimes being SEN, sometimes FTL…

I am wondering if other A3*G ever got upgraded and on what airlines… LX/LH seem to apply a very strict upgrade policy favouring their own members…

flymexico2010

As I *G with A3 I got upgraded on a LX CDG-ZRH flight, due to overbooking in Y. I was really surprised. As a FTL it happened maybe 1 in 5 years.

alinghi90

I was upgraded on a DUS-ZRH flight with LX just before Christmas (Flight was still overbooked at time of boarding). It was my 3rd week as A3*G (which of course has no connection to the fact that I was upgraded, but still it was nice for myself). Together with me there was also a FTL bumped-up. Was a nice experience as my usual intra-europe C-flights between ZRH and FRA are too short for a decent service...

Xandrios

I flew to ZRH with LX last Sunday. At check in they voluntarily asked me if I was traveling alone and if I would mind if they would upgrade me if needed. Economy was overbooked but they were not sure yet if everyone would show up. She wrote down my name. So I had the upgrade in my pocket, or so I thought..

At the gate it turned out they upgraded a FTL instead. I was sitting at the first row of eco, with clear view of the business situation going on. The guy was part of a large group as well, and he explained to each member of the group what happened when they passed by. I was not amused, especially because this was out of ATH.. You'd think the agents there would be leaning a bit more towards Aegean Golds instead of FTL's...

EAPflyer

LH/LX: Upgrades are not handled in the same way within the LH-group: When Y is oversold, LH upgrades according to booking class, so theoretically a non-status pax buying a high fare would be upgraded before a LH HON in a lower booking class. LX upgrades according to status, and since X-mas my upgrade rate between Switzerland and Spain is at 40% (4 out of 10 flights).

During my time as LH FTL (8 years) I had only one upgrade on LX at the gate, as an A3*G this number has multiplied.

It is unusual that at check-in they would mention something about an op-up, because finally it is the gate agent who gives away the upgrades, but if I remember right the rule for LX is *G > FTL, so it is hard to speculate what happened in Xandrios' case.

My most interesting and funniest upgrade was my second one. When I decided to give up LH FTL and go for A3*G, I was upgraded on a LX flight ZRH-BCN as a low A3*S. When I told the story to the gate agent, she apologised and said that I am the only pax with status on this flight :-)

sokolov

As A3 *G, I was once upgraded on AC (YYZ->MIA) to Business Class, which was not full. It might have been that Economy was overbooked, I did not count them.

On UA, I have been upgraded from Economy Minus to Economy a couple of times when I still was A3 *S. It is nice, but not a massive difference.

jerry_greece

As *G, i was upgraded once on A3 (CHQ-ATH domestic) and once on LX (ZRH-BRU). In both cases i was notified at checkin. In the second case, i think there were 3 upgrades (in total).

Interesting case is that A3 credited me miles for flying business but LX for economy.

frenchft

One upgrade to premium eco with LOT, they told us they wanted to introduce they new product to pax with status. Not bad, but nothing crazy.

On european fligts, i don't care upgrade but really love when seat is blocked next to me (the main advantage of business class in europe). A3 does not do it but when you asked they do it, but LH and TK does it automaticaly when available (not sure about this, but from various experiences, was the case).

djjaguar64

We both got upgrades on LX from ZRH to BKK as A3 Golds 2 years ago.

benberg2013

Was economy full?

romka_zrh

Thanks for the replies. So far, it seems that gold counts towards a higher upgrade probability if flying LX but not LH.

Any experiences with SQ/TG/AV/UA or other star airlines? What about intercontinental?

I agree that intra-european biz is not much, but a free middle seat on a full packed flight is marvelous. Seat blocking in eco almost never worked for me as I prefer front rows and many passengers ask for new seat assignment at the gate, even if they have to catch the middle one.