Originally Posted by
porsche911
I know its crazy and the J section is 3/4 empty by the sounds of things - It makes commercial sense to maybe try sell same at the last minute at a discount to get more income. Maybe they wont put same on their website but do a half decent upgrade cost at the desk.
As
subject2load alludes to, it would be commercial suicide to offer cheap upgrades in a predictable way, as it would destroy normal business class revenue.
AFAIK most airlines, including Emirates, only offer cheap upgrades when Economy is overbooked and Business has empty seats. They'll try to sell upgrades to some punters (often infrequent customers so as not to erode revenue) to try and make some extra revenue from the situation. They'll also open up miles upgrade availability to get frequent fliers to spend miles. If there aren't enough takers then they'll have to op-up passengers for free, usually in order of status (or, in the case of Emirates in the past, in alphabetic surname order).
So unless economy is oversold then a cheap upgrade offer is a rare beast.