FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Club Completely Empty but Upgrade Refused
Old May 31, 2022, 4:57 am
  #48  
12d121
 
Join Date: Jul 2020
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 78
Originally Posted by Tafflyer
Going on a honeymoon is something we usually only do once. I totally understand wanting to fly in the highest comfort possible. Why, therefore, didn't you just book it that way in the first place?

European and US airlines treat upgrades completely differently, but on neither will you ever normally get it simply by asking. On European airlines you get it through status when they must move passengers around or when you somehow pay for it. On US airlines it's traditionally been due to status to such an extent that if you haven't got an upgrade by check-in then you cannot even get one through paying because all seats have been allocated to "elites". More and more though, people are paying for upgrades in advance. Premium seats are more subscribed than they ever were and that is even pushing upgrade prices up for those willing to pay it.
We did pay for business on the LHR to CPT leg and enjoyed the CS cabin. The flight in question was a c.1 hour internal flight in SA which we didn't care about sitting in Club. At check in I thought might as well ask the question, because thought "why not, the worst they can say is no". For further context, we also flew to Mauritius as part the trip and as that was a longer flight, we did pay for Club rather than trying to get an upgrade

As noted in my original post, the Club cabin was completely empty for the whole fight so it just got me wondering what are the operational considerations at play. I wasn't expecting an upgrade, or upset when it was refused. I just wondered if anyone had insight into the decisions made by Comair. For example, Comair might have a policy that if nobody has paid for Club, they don't give any free upgrades because of the impact of staffing, which some people have covered in their replies
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