nologic

So the plot thickens. At T-73.5 hours, I just received an email that I have been upgraded for my 8AM connecting segment KEF-CPH.

My bid was $225, which as you can see from my post above, is in the middle of the "yellow" zone, and the lower middle of the total Saga bid range from $150-370.

At the time just before my bid, there were 7 seats bookable in Saga Class on this flight. Now, 15 mins after my upgrade has been confirmed, I can see 6 Saga seats bookable on this flight. So, so I think we can safely deduce that either no one else besides me on this flight bid to upgrade to Saga, or the airline was only accepting 1 upgrade seat and is holding back a minimum of 6 seats for sale between now and the 8AM departure in approx 73 hours.

I'm surprised that I would have been the only one to bid to upgrade; perhaps, in retrospect, I should have bid minimum ($150)?

I recall someone posting somewhere that few people traveling on Icelandair actually do bid to UG. Given this flight experience, this may indeed be true, which means you're not bidding to UG that much vs. other passengers...mostly vs. the minimum bid vis-a-vis the space available, assuming they actually accept the minimum bid (why publish it as a minimum if it's not a bid they would accept, although putting the minimum bid is a red zone seems is indicating that it's unlikely to be accepted).

My basic question remains: do they generally accept the minimum bid if they have seats and no one is bidding higher than you?

I'm on a $409 round-trip economy fare to CPH for 3 nights w a free 4 night stopover in KEF (my real destination is KEF -- CPH is a detour). Turns out the weekend in KEF is very busy due to the Northern Lights, and the country itself is very expensive, but that's an aside.

But 3 out of my 4 FI flights are very open in Saga, with both transatlantic segments showing 9+.

So, while this may be among the worst international "longhaul" business class flights in the world, with only 40" pitch AA-type domestic F seats...for $225-275/segment, it seems worth taking advantage of the extra Saga space and amenities, etc.

Looking at the total cost, I'm in for $409 + $275 + $225 + $275 (if my return KEF-BOS segment clears), so that's $1,184 for 4 segments BOS-KEF-CPH-KEF-BOS, with 3 out of the 4 segments in Saga.

I think that's a pretty good deal, net net, although I would certainly prefer a lie flat seat...but for 3-5 hours per segment, maybe I won't try to sleep much...instead, enjoy the meals and the movies and some wine, and relax and have fun...because the reality is that I wasn't going to spend $3K+ on a mainstream business class seat to take this trip, and frankly, I'm not a big fan of traveling like a sardine in economy, so I'll generally UG when I can for a "reasonable" amount.

Of course, flying trans-Atlantic BOS-KEF at 8:25pm for 5 hours and then connecting for another 3 hour flight from KEF-CPH at 8AM without much sleep is tiring...guess I'll hit the mattress hard in CPH (no plans that day).