June 26th
NZ5
LAX > AKL
Skycouch bid $305 + Gold uplift
Denied 20 hours out
Booking Class S

I'm here to report that the OneUp system is still as frustrating and broken as it has ever been.

I far prefer a Skycouch to PE because the level of service in PE has fallen dramatically in the last 5 years so I'd rather be horizontal than get a slightly better meal and service. When I looked at the flight there was the option to upgrade to a SkyCouch and the min. bid was $245. I upped that to $305 and I have Gold. The flight looked quite empty and it showed an average chance of getting the upgrade.

The result, denied 20 hours before departure.

When I got to LAX I asked the ground crew at checkin how much to upgrade to PE and it was around $1200. She then offered me a skycouch and I said, "Wait, aren't those totally full?" She checked and said, no we have several rows of skycouches available. I asked her why she thought my OneUp wasn't granted and she said maybe it was just too low? She then recommended that I switch to an exit row seat for free as that would be the best option. I will never accept an exit row on a 777 again. That seat was damned awful and far more uncomfortable than a regular economy seat. I did look back after boarding and confirmed there were skycouch rows open, but by the time we got in the air, everyone had shifted around and grabbed them.

To top it all off, there were nearly 30 empty seats in PE. However, because the OneUp system is so messed up, if you want to prioritize a Skycouch bid, there's not option to fallback to PE. I would have easily given 550+ APD + G uplift to get into PE than be in a supremely uncomfortable Exit Row seat. So AirNZ lost the chance to reduce the huge amount of APD I'm sitting on, I got stuck in a lousy seat from bad advice from ground crew (lesson learned) and a good number of people in economy got a skycouch row for free.

I've always despised the OneUp system and even more so now.