Ah! Again I was checking the wrong flight.

I was travelling on EK5 yesterday.

At 1pm, before check-in opens there were 23 unsold tickets including blocked seats.

I kindly asked the lady at check-in if there were upgrades available. She said only silver or gold members can upgrade, and that I should have upgraded 24 hours before.

I informed her that my ticket only allows me and my family an upgrade at check-in. She checked the facts again and then asked for all of our skyward cards, to my horror I learned from her that we can only upgrade if we have the physical skyward card with us.

1 passenger had theirs, the other left theirs at home and me and my brother have not been issued a card yet.

I tried persuading her to let all passengers upgrade as we have all the miles required, a lot of calls later and 15 minutes she said only the 1 passenger who has their physical skyward card with them can upgrade. At the end of the day only 1 person upgraded and they loved business class.

Until next year Dubai, I will be ready for an upgrade