Originally Posted by
Jaenks
The current situation takes a lot of personnel time to deal with tickets rebooking, cancelling etc. Therefore voucher upgrades most likely would add even more work when/if the flight changes occure..
Although the upgrade does take some time to process, I very much doubt that this is the issue. What is more likely is that, once upgraded, TK must re-book you in Business Class after any flight changes / cancellations. (which are obviously very frequent these days) This can convert a "J inventory unlikely to sell out giveaway" into an actual semi-flex Business Class ticket. Certainly when I was IRROPed on an upgraded ticket pre-COVID, the airport ticket agent had no difficulty whatsoever with rerouting me in Business Class, so I don't buy the argument that's it's too much work to deal with flight changes.
What TK may be misunderstanding is that many E+ members:
- won't actually fly TK at all unless upgraded
- often pay more for semi-flex Economy fares to earn 100% mileage credit
So that's a decent chunk of revenue completely gone, simply to avoid giving away too many Business Class seats on flights they didn't intend.