Originally Posted by
Havoc10G
I don't know how QR do it but on the older state owned Gulf carriers it was usually done by knowing someone at the airline who would do you an upgrade favour - abit of waa'sta as it were-. Doesn't work that way on EK and I doubt on QR much but maybe a little of that does happen still on QR.
A few years back you could even see gate agents/supervisors put money in their pockets for an upgrade "favor", but as far as i have noticed, QR now has a good grip on this in the system. The system purely pull you out based on QR status, but after staff with privileges. In my experience Qatari citizens are not given any unofficial priority. Only once last year did i experience a vip Qatari going back in Y and move a friend into F after takeoff. He was very insisting, and the CSD choose to let it pass. Probaly with good reason. But in general, is looks like QR now handle this fair and clean.