Originally Posted by
kanamurva
I've been thinking: it seems that nowadays almost all LH ugs clear or not clear at T37. While of course I would like to get mine cleared earlier, could we thing that this system is in fact better for higher tier members to get those ugs through? If previously even silver members could get some ugs clear, then golds at some points etc, nowadays everyone gets to line and there are more spaces available at T37 and so more spaces for plats?
Of course if one will not be willing to fly in Y in any case, this is not that nice. What do you think?
I think in theory yes and in some marginal cases it may benefit higher tier members, but realistically, I don't think there are many people below Gold who upgrade long-hauls regularly. I guess maybe people like my parents (if I hadn't gifted them a gold) who retired from regular business travel and lost status but kept their huge points balances and who earn enough points to upgrade from credit cards, but my guess is that these kinds of flyers are very rare (and my parents just pick the cheapest option instead of flying Finnair for the option to upgrade anyway). I'd also want some sort of systematic analysis of how well upgrades clear per tier before necessarily concluding that plats or golds are favored. Edit: Unless by higher tiers you mean plat and lumo only. I guess Golds probably do upgrade a bit and hence do lose out with the current system.
To me the only real problem with the current system (to me) is that they often leave multiple seats open at t-37 instead of just properly clearing the waitlist. Or that they stop(ped?) processing upgrades at check-in even with empty seats, which led to a comical situation this summer where my upgrade was denied, no possibility to upgrade at check-in but then I was op-uped at the gate.