eightblack

Ok, so I'm on my regular SIN-MEL run. Of the 3 trips so far this year, 3 out of 3 comp upgrades. Look at the seat map today and yet another full flight, although not zeroed out.

Get to the airport, and rather than a SATS airport contractor checking me in, am actually processed by an Emirates employee (in uniform).

I politely enquire "is it a full flight?" and she politely responds with "yes, Mr EightBlack it is, but I've put you in business. We're actually operating business as economy tonite, but you should enjoy the seat".

I was curious. Never heard of it happening this way before. I then get to the lounge and ask about the aircraft type, thinking that perhaps EK have dusted off an old DC-10 in the hanger. Nope. Its a brand new 777-300ER.

I'm in 9K. There's no one apparently beside me, but the staff member at the lounge assures me its "economy". In fact, she has no clue.

I'll let you know what happens on-board. Dont get me wrong, I'm very grateful. Just curious to see if this is a trend on EK.

dearbee

wow, economy plus as biz class? sign me up! i'll even pay the annual fee if EK ever offered it.

ung1

Probably happened because they didn't sell any F and very few J? So maybe they upgraded all the J pax to F seats, and status pax in Y to J.

All said and done, lucky you! Hope this happens to me on the SIN - DXB coming in from MEL in three days time!

eightblack

"Probably happened because they didn't sell any F and very few J? So maybe they upgraded all the J pax to F seats, and status pax in Y to J.

All said and done, lucky you! Hope this happens to me on the SIN - DXB coming in from MEL in three days time!"

Ung1, you're probably right, because my first trip to MEL this year (ex SIN) was actually in paid J and they upgraded me to F (but handed out J menu's). I didn't think much of it at the time.

Interestingly, I've never had an op-up ex MEL (probably 20+ trips in 10 or so months), nor ex SIN to DXB.

Good luck with it.

ung1

Thanks. Though I just checked my flight, and its full in J and F and completely empty in Y. Definitely no op-up coming my way, but hopefully there'll be a row of empty seats to sleep on.

ELITEGOLDTRAVELLER

AFAIK this happens when the seating provided is business but the catering is the same as in Y.

Safe Flying

EGT

eightblack

Flight checked in full in Y. There were 14 of us in the J cabin (but none of us held J tickets) so assume all Skywards Silver or Gold and were upgraded. There were as far as I could tell, perhaps 2-3 people in F.

They ran standard Y service in the J cabin. No one cared - as the regular fliers just wanted to sleep.

Given the aggressive pricing out of Aus at present, I don't see these loads back to Aus (either from DXB or SIN) abating anytime soon. Which is good for Skywards members who are commuting between SIN-MEL on a regular basis.

EK247

Could this Y serice in C be to avoid paying additional taxes or is there no difference in tax between classes on this route?

pycut

The exact same thing happened to me in September 2009 from HAM-DXB. Although having booked Y, I was assigned a seat in row 7 when I checked in online. Interestingly, I couldn't change my seat in the online check-in process (not that I wanted to!).

We were all economy passengers in J, and I was told that the rear J cabin was being operated as economy. The catering was economy. But the great thing was that the miniatures booze bottles were from J! The gin was Bombay Sapphire and the Cognac was XO!

All in all, a very pleasant "Y" experience!