Thanks everyone for chiming in so far. Yes it was booked with Skywards miles directly into Business and yes those are currently eligible for further skywards miles upgrades under the current program rules.
Originally Posted by
thijsseh
Unfortunately there is no EK lounge at EWR, otherwise that would have a possibility.
The EK-employed supervisor at check in would have been the best option but it would appear he / she was either not interested or not successful.
There seems to be a misunderstanding with 'space available' here: In my (limited) experience with upgrades at check in at outstations, the supervisor has always requested the upgrade and I have been given the BP either by the lounge assistant when the flight was closed (T-1 hour) when the 'space available' upgrades get released or even at the gate (that wonderful 'double beep and red light' when the original BP gets scanned). Mrs t once had a Y -> J upgrade issued at check in, presumably because there was no chance that the J cabin would fill up. But to me, that is rare.
It would appear that in the case above, the cabin was expected to fill up (as it did) and therefore no upgrades were issued several hours before departure. So I am not surprised by the initial problem at all. F availability can change a lot just before departure, not everyone flies on upgrades which are paid for with credit card points etc and some pay bug money for Flex+ F tickets and change flights when there business is done! I have a paid F ticket next week, the seat map on the A380 sector currently shows 2/14, on the 77W sector 2/8. I am sure there will be very few if any free seats when we leave LHR/DXB!
But what should have happened above is that there was a 'request' and if there were seats available tat T-1 they should have been issued. It is not entirely clear what the picking order in such a scenario is, status or 'first come first serve'.
Appreciate the thoughts, a few good ideas I hadn't thought of. I will say the check in staff was quite insistent that F seats were available, quoted me the exact amount expected in miles, and were glad to sell them for $2,400 each (point taken as to whether or not they would have cleared). Incidentally the other agents down the line were quite loudly advertising business class upgrades to the economy line.
I had read that in DXB what you describe about "requesting" upgrades that then clear shortly before boarding on the basis of some kind of priority list is common. I had read that at outstations it is not that involved, open seats are simply offered to any eligible flyer who wants them. First time personally flying EK, so I expect actual flyers here on FT know better than the copy-cat internet articles I read in advance.
In any case probably I should have been more insistent that the actual EK supervisor on site be requested to look at the situation, only thing I can think to have done to understand what was happening.