mccartje

Usually get the email within a day of the booking. Sounds like business is sold out maybe even oversold so no availability. Not sure how familiar you are with the process but the minimum bid is a set price (usually around €400 mark depending on route). You can't see any other bid that may have been made and are bidding in the dark effectively against other possible bids. Also the bidding window closes 5 days before the flight and you will only find out if you are successful maybe 24/48 hours beforehand.

UnitedConnection

Flight is J7/Y7 and biz seatmap only has 3 seats occupied, so don't think oversold. Maybe it just takes a day to get into the system?

mccartje

Just checked some old flights there, I always got the email the next day but within 24 hours (i.e. maybe 18 hours later).

UnitedConnection

Appreciate it- I'm not quite to 18hrs yet so will keep checking.

DELLAS

Sometimes its a good idea to call reservations as they can offer cheap upgrades depending on the loads.

UnitedConnection

How far out should this be done in your experience? This flight is 3 months out

DELLAS

2-3months in my experience but there is no real pattern to it. If you call and they say no then call back a month later. The last one I know of was for a MIA-DUB flight which a friend of mine upgraded last week for October. They were offered a upgrade for EUR650.

mb48

Can you only upgrade before the journey begins? I had been hoping purchase an upgrade for the inbound flight but now that I have taken the outbound flight I see that I no longer have that option on the "Manage my booking". Dummy booking shows plenty of availability in business.

mb48

I can answer my own question here. According to EI call centre staff, paid upgrade on inbound is not possible once you have taken the outbound flight.

user2018

Does the phoning the reservations still works? Is they can offer better deal than on the website? Does any have any experience recently?

uncleruckus

If I bid on an upgrade and win, do I get the additional tier points as well or am I only given the amount for the originally booked fare class?

mccartje

Only for the original fare class

clarrkkent

Where is this minimum bid of 400-ish? I received an "upgrade yourself" email today and minimum for each outbound and return SEA-DUB was 1070 per person. Uh, I think I'll pass Aer Lingus. With only 3 seats occupied in biz, per expert flyer, I'd think they'd be a little more flexible on the minimum bid. Especially considering they can simply decline.

elsenor

My thoughts exactly. Just opened the "UY" email and was suprised to see the lowest offer I could make on LAX-DUB and return was $900 and $950. Had I maybe booked the flight for $10 each way, I would have put in a bid. But my flight wasn't $10, it was $1000. Which makes it feel like EI is merely forcing you to pay what you would've paid for J had you booked that class originally... Pass.

pubsmeister

My mother and stepfather are going to Ireland (JFK-SNN) on EI; they bought cheap seats from an online travel agency. I wanted to upgrade them to business (both are in their late 70's) for the overnight flight to Shannon. Went to bid page but option not available- flight was only a few days away. I then realized I have a chunk of avios, and saw that 89,500 avios would move both of them to the front. Calling EI is a waste of time; I got through once, after 40 minutes (and they gave me bad advice- told me to call Avios. com, but upgrades are processed by Aer Lingus, not by Avios.com) while never got an answer on other calls. I moved the avios from BA to avios.com, sent a request via e-mail to Aer Lingus ([email protected]), and two days later (about 60 hours before the flight) voila, upgrades processed! Of course, I did look on expert flyer prior to making request- they listed 4 empty seats. Since you can turn points from Chase, Amex, Iberia, or BA into avios lots of options available.