Hiya

I flew DEL-DXB-BHX on 3 March and always fly economy. When it was booked in early Feb, there were no upgrade J seats on the DXB-BHX leg (there were only 3 seats available in J at that time so it makes sense that there weren't, in the 2 class A330). So instead I booked an upgrade on the DEL-DXB flight. PS - At the gate on that flight I was upgraded to F which was very nice.

Anyway while in India I both rang and checked online a couple of times, still no upgrade available for DXB-BHX. I had one last stab at it on about 28 Feb - and there was now an upgrade available, so I upgraded to J for the BHX leg.

So, it's worth looking online to see if you can upgrade right up to the flight - I guess they had some cancellations in J.

Incidentally, there were a couple of silver card holders gate upgraded to J on that flight, so seats obviously had become available. And as a gold card holder, i'd probably have been upgraded free had I not used my miles! And on the DEL-DXB leg too probably, as economy was overbooked.

A good thread would be on whether to use miles to guarrantee an upgrade, or hope for an upgrade at the gate.

Martin