Originally Posted by
flywithmiles70
I'm flying from JFK-CDG next month (3rd week in Dec) and trying to upgrade to business class either with miles or cash. I currently hold premium economy ticket with fare code W. I'm a Flying Blue member but don't fly them often so don't hold any premium status with them. I just started using Expert Flyer and the availability in ExpertFlyer shows this:
P3 F0 J9 C9 D9 I9 Z0 W5 S1 A0 Y9 B9
M9 U9 K9 H7 L5 Q2 T0 E0 N0 R0 V0
When I check the seating chart for this flight, business class shows 58 seats available out of a possible 82 seats.
When I call AF they tell me there is nothing available. I've also been told that fare code "O" is what I should look for in Expert Flyer but I don't even see that being listed as a possible fare code. Being relatively new here I'm seeing 58 seats available in business class and Expert Flyer is telling me there is at least 9 seats available in various business class fare codes. Can someone help me shed some light on this and let me know if there's a good chance I'll be able to upgrade? Curious why they won't let me upgrade now given how open the flight looks. Any tips are much appreciated. Thanks.
O is now used for both revenue and award tickets (upgrade with FB and award with SkyTeam FFP). So be sure to use the award search function of ExpertFlyer.
Seat map is also an indicator of how full the cabin is, specially in J where as opposed to Y the seats can be reserved for free at the time of booking.
Now because the loads are lights (and the cabin seems empty) does not mean the revenue management is not expecting the flight to be full in the end. They have tons of data to predict that, actually it is their job. So there is a pretty good reason they did not release a single O seat for that particular flight. Not to mention that, as explained by others, FB members can redeem any available seat as an award (at hefty price though). So releasing O is only to allow partner's frequent flyer to redeem a award on that flight or for a FB member to upgrade.
Should the cabin remain relatively empty during the days before the flight they might release from 1 to n O seats.
Now your best bet is to set an alert in ExpertFlyer. Those work very well in my experience. Be prepared to jump on the phone as soon as you receive the alert.