I couldn't believe it when one of the IT guys at my work actually worked on the ground for JAL and he told me about their Op Up procedures. I'm still shocked i didn't know he worked for them.

Anyhow he said JAL is very traditional and they more certainly upgrade based on status and then even when people are waiting at the boarding gate they look at the people and decide who is dressed like someone boarding business class to ensure that if they need someone to op up who isn't an elite at least they look the part. According to him they always make notes on passengers whilst they are at the boarding gate. Anyway the idea behind this is that JAL under no circumstance wants to op up some random people who doesn't look the part so this would indicate that dressing in a suit could assist with an op up with JAL.

He also said they remind the op upped guest not to go and tell people that he's been op upped to other people in business class. This is for obvious reasons but interesting. He also said that JAL oversells often sometimes by 30 people and the difficult thing is catering as sometimes they have to wait for the meals for the op up to arrive as that's the most important thing as they even under cater for meals.

Then if a plane is late they have to write a huge report as to why the plane was late. It's a huge deal with JAL.

Next week i'll try and pump him for more information.