Swiss International Airlines - Swiss upgrade(Help Needed)

I have a question :

If I am fly on a swiss flight in L class & the flight is full am I eligible for an courtesy upgrade as I am a senator card holder . Previously I used to get upgrades on slightly higher classes.

Thanx(in advance) for the replies.

Simple answer: No
Courtesy upgrades are not part of the SEN benefits. Oversale is a different issue. In this case SENs and HONs are top of the food chain for op-ups.

Welcome to FT diamantaire !

Yeah, but diamantaire does say "if the flight is full", so there is a possibility of an upgrade.

Welcome to FT, diamantaire!

Then he might be lucky. There is no such thing as courtesy upgrades a la the US with LX/LH.

This is to clarify the situation:

Class booked: L
Airline: LX
Miles & more status: Senator
Question: Possibility of upgrade (without using miles) if the flight is overbooked ?

Thanx.

If you are upgraded it will be an operational upgrade rather than a courtesy upgrade. The airline will only upgrade you for operational reasons (i.e. they need your seat because Y is oversold) rather than as a courtesy because you are a SEN.

I'll move this thread to the LX subforum.

Take care!

totti
M&M moderator

This is to clarify the situation:

Class booked: L
Airline: LX
Miles & more status: Senator
Question: Possibility of upgrade (without using miles) if the flight is overbooked ?

Thanx.
Welcome to FT diamantaire!

There is always a chance to get an op/up but it depends on several factors, fare class and status being just two of them.

Hi there,

So first - you do not have any RIGHT to get an upgrade!
It´s 100%tly up to Swiss... In general all "Lufthansa Airlines" (LH, Swiss, Austrian and most probably also soon Lot) do upgrades by the following ranking:
1) M&M Status...
2) Ticket Class...

With SEN your Chance is fine, with a few business Class Flights done with Swiss (very easily to check for them) even better.

I would go and kindly ask the boarding staff, if they can give you a upgrade. It worked out several times for me, even twice without an overbooked econ - but thats the ground managers decision then. My experience was, if you are nice to him, look gently (not in shorts or jeans) you have a really good chance to get it for free.

Greets
Greg


Ps.
On your birthday or honeymoon at least Lufthansa also likes to upgrade you for free, even without an overbooking!

...

I would go and kindly ask the boarding staff, if they can give you a upgrade. It worked out several times for me, even twice without an overbooked econ - but thats the ground managers decision then. My experience was, if you are nice to him, look gently (not in shorts or jeans) you have a really good chance to get it for free.

Greets
Greg


Ps.
On your birthday or honeymoon at least Lufthansa also likes to upgrade you for free, even without an overbooking!

The op-up sequence is determined by LH IT and is usually followed by ground handling staff, as they don't have the time to manually intervene unless they really want to. I would assume it is similar with LX ?

As for birthday or honeymoon opups: I'd class this as a myth !

I'd certainly ask at the check-in counter, made some good experience about it to score OP-UPs even as lowly FT. I think in case of overbooking, fare class counts less for them when you ask nicely about it at the airport crew. Or maybe I was just charming them enough :D

So at least I certainly had "manual" OP-UPs on LX.

Hi there,

Welcome to Flyertalk and the M&M fourm GregForceOne!


As for birthday or honeymoon opups: I'd class this as a myth !
I agree!

allow me to piggy-back on this thread...

we're 3 pax booked on lx40 this friday:
1 SEN (close to HON) - business award ticket
1 FTL - business award ticket
1 blue - eco award ticket
3 separate bookings

any hints & tips on a winning strategy to convince lx to op-up the eco pax to the business? (checking-in together is key I assume, what next?)

Thanks!!

No upgrades given for award tickets unless someone manually overrides the upgrade list which I don't think will happen.

No upgrades given for award tickets unless someone manually overrides the upgrade list which I don't think will happen.

Fellow member and M&M pro runabout pointed out that C awards may be upgraded if needed. Y awards generally won't be upgraded as pointed out by LeifurEriksson, so your chances are zero or at least pretty pretty close to zero no matter the strategy you use.

allow me to piggy-back on this thread...

(checking-in together is key I assume, what next?)

Thanks!!

So the three of you are going to stand around the checkin machine, making really impressively grim faces and wave your various M&M cards until the machine goes tilt?

Hmm....that will create some attention, but I'm not so sure about the desired success.

Anyway, the slightly tricky bit at checkin is not to start on the wrong foot. If all three of you are going to use the First (*Gold) counter, it's likely you've lost already some points before you can even try to tell your story, as the checkin agent might think: "Why's the one guy with the goldcard making me checkin the Y pax at my ever so exclusive desk, and then even asking for favours?"

Therefore, I'm not quite sure I'd make a move at checkin at all.
The checkin agent doesn't have the authority to upgrade you anyway. The most you could expect would be for the agent to let the person in charge for LX40 know about your wish.

The slightly better chance would be at the gate. The more friendly you appear to the person in charge, the better your story, and the better your dressed, the better your original Y Seat to trade, the higher your chances.

Overall, I'd rate the chance for success at about 2%.

I'd certainly ask at the check-in counter, made some good experience about it to score OP-UPs even as lowly FT. I think in case of overbooking, fare class counts less for them when you ask nicely about it at the airport crew. Or maybe I was just charming them enough :D

So at least I certainly had "manual" OP-UPs on LX.

Let me get this straight: so you basically go up to the CI with your Y ticket and your *S card and your best smile and ask if there are any op-ups available for you to have?
And the CI agent says: Well Mr. YuropFlyer, this is your lucky day, we have seat 4K available for you to have for free? On LX? :eek:
Or do you ask for upgrades in general?

When that works, then that would be a very welcome break on my night flight next week to JNB :D since I am not particalarly keen on 10,5 hrs night flight in Y;)

Thanks,
SuperVoid

LX usually op-ups based on status, and based on fare paid within the status.

Let me get this straight: so you basically go up to the CI with your Y ticket and your *S card and your best smile and ask if there are any op-ups available for you to have?
And the CI agent says: Well Mr. YuropFlyer, this is your lucky day, we have seat 4K available for you to have for free? On LX? :eek:
Or do you ask for upgrades in general?

When that works, then that would be a very welcome break on my night flight next week to JNB :D since I am not particalarly keen on 10,5 hrs night flight in Y;)

Thanks,
SuperVoid

I had a C ticket, and I asked if they need any volunteers to take next days flight because I knew (KVS) the flight was overbooked in C.

So, apparently volunteering for next days flight will put you in front of the OP-UP list, at least on LX. (There were many SENs in C)

If anyone doesn't believe I can scan in my BP :D

For your case, if you could take the next days flight, and you know Y was full/overbooked, I certainly would try it out again... I do it always, and had some (smaller) success too. But never for a 12hr flight into First :)