OttoMH

This is fantastic news. I'm desparate for the E miles, so I didn't bid, but would've loved J to Shanghai. Even worse on the return, 14h50 from HND to FRA on NH :'(

Unfortunately I saw it too late - fingers crossed for the bavarian upgrade gods to pity me

irishguy28

I'm travelling on a booking made with miles for this coming weekend, ATH-AMS, for which only Economy was available when I made the reservation. I checked what the upgrade bid amounts were last week - the minimum was €95 - but when I checked yesterday, the minimum was down to €80, with an option to upgrade instantly for €200 (which I don't recall seeing last week).

I bid at €85, and it was cleared this morning

ntzanos

Well I wish Aegean would upgrade to earning class instead of free award flights class.
Flying KLM quite often in the past I was able to upgrade during check in on their app.
AMS - BUD for 80€ with all business class perks included.

vectrox

Interesting I've never seen the Option for a direct upgrade before on A3.
​​​​​Additionaly I'm not sure if upgrading a mileage ticket is allowed (eventhough they do offer it).

irishguy28

It is allowed.

(You might be thinking of applying Gold Upgrade vouchers...they cannot be used on Award tickets)

irishguy28

An amount of €200 was listed under the "Instant Upgrade" header, though I selected the other option - "Your Offer" - and moved the slider up from its minimum of €80. (Strange they would even bother to allow you to slide it up as far as €250, when on the same screen they are offering an instant upgrade for €200)

Had I had a revenue ticket, this almost certainly means that a seat was immediately available for upgrade, for which I could have applied a voucher. That's difficult to come by on the AMS route.

unusualtravelblog

DUS-SKG bid is only €60 for my upcoming flight next week.

giorginho

That's a steal! I have a feeling the minimum upgrade bid depends on the time of year, during high season it's a bit more expensive.
I've mentioned once or twice before, that I've upgraded award tickets a couple of times in the past. But yeah, I hadn't seen a direct upgrade option up to now either. I've also never seen a minimum bid getting lower as the flight's date approaches, even though I have kept checking out minimum buds up to almost the day of the flight, when it has originally been too expensive for me to bite the bullet (but it stayed as expensive as it was, like ATH-DUS for min 95€!).
Nice to know things could be changing.
And yeah (^^^), when business class costs 200+€ more and you are able to upgrade for just 80€, it makes sense to not get the miles for a paid business class fare. On the AMS-ATH route that should be a 2000 tier miles difference, give or take a few miles, which Aegean sells for... 200€! (without selling you a plane ticket at the same time)

the810

I absolutely love the way upgrades work at AFKL OLCI. You essentially pick a seat in business during the seat selection and pay. That's it. The added benefit is that you actually know you'll get a seat you like before you pay. I don't understand why other airlines do this.

irishguy28

Except for the XPs (KL's equivalent of "Tier Miles") which remain at the original Economy level. There's also a risk - particularly if you do this on the day of departure (you can do this right up until moments before boarding starts) that there won't be a Marcel Wanders box of pastes and goos loaded for you to pick through and decide not to eat.

(If you received XPs for business class after upgrading during OLCI, then you were very lucky as you experienced a glitch that went in your favour. This is not how it works)

intuition

I'm not sure it is intended, but from a marketeer's viewpoint it is good practice to show the alternate price.
Either if you are going for the instant you will be "reassured" you are not overpaying as bidding might end up as high as 250€. Or if you want to bid there is a clear signal that low/medium bids are likely to fail because they are offering instant at 200€ and why would they do that unless they think someone will take it?

So some pricing psychology right there (intended or nor).

irishguy28

"Might" indeed - but realistically, who might bid €250 when they have been told they can have it for €200 instantly?

I also think it's safe to assume that if they're happy to accept €200 instantly right now, that there are no outstanding earlier bidders of €200+ currently waiting to find out if their bid will be accepted...

In the end, the flight went out full. For the second time in a row, my pre-ordered dish wasn't available (or had been given away? Unclear what was going on - this was my first A3 flight with an inept crew). I also didn't get my choice from the "regular" menu items and had to accept the last dish that was left...and somehow, the guy in the aisle seat in my row managed to have 3 main courses (one was from his partner opposite) so sampled all the choices on board.

KLouis

A very hungry passenger, indeed. But the price to pay was a, most probably, very bad sleep after arrival...

maciuj

Yesterday got email about my flight on Friday WAW-ATH with option to bid, minimum was 55Eur, selected 60Eur and just a moment ago it was accepted so paid 120 for 2 pax. As we are traveling in 4, 2 of us were earlier upgraded with seat coupons but there was no more I available so I choose to bid for remaining pax.

tenerani1

I thought minimum bid was based on distance, but for my flight FCO-ATH on friday the minimum bid was 65