Goldorak

Despite I didn’t take any paid upgrade for several months, it seems I am back to purgatory with an offer at 249€ or 15.600 miles for CDG-Italy on E190, so without seat blocked.

But here are some interesting datapoints to feed the discussion on the different prices proposed to different persons and possibly depending on status.

Three persons traveling together, 3 independent bookings made the same day (within 30 min).

• pax 1 (me, C2000 Ultimate) : upgrade price = 249€ or 15.600 miles. Ticket price was 268€ (weekend card fare).
• Pax 2 (Platinum) : upgrade price = 109€. Ticket was a Senior card fare paid by a mix of miles and cash (58€ and 46500 miles).
• Pax 3 (Explorer) : upgrade price = 109€. Ticket was a Senior card fare paid by a mix of miles and cash (58€ and 44500 miles).

Interesting, isn’t it ?

DiamondSM

It is not better to book without any FB # , (if you did not need seat selection), and wait for the upgrade price offer ?
Or they (AF/KLM) also check with your name & birth date (with other ID info.)

Sybela

A few monthes ago, I made a booking for my step-family no fb’s account in W. I was curious to see if the upgrade price offer and none came. I was wondering if AF don’t make offer for no FB’s customer.

DiamondSM

I have receive offer when I put my Skymiles #...

RabbitIYH

Ditto on the outbound, did a mix of cash & miles (299 euros + 12kish miles, don't remember the exact amount). For a 14+ hours day flight, that's a steal IMO. Round trip in J ended up costing me ~1650 euros after accounting for the upgrade costs.

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Fabo.sk

If you are that desperate for the upgrade offer that you forego all other advance benefits, you can do that...

DiamondSM

I ask this as general question...

Personnaly, I put my Skymiles # to receive good upgrade offer, after I have receive the offer (not always).
After I have decide to take or not the offer, I change the FF # for my FB one...
Because my Skymiles # have never accept any upgrade, I think the offer are better.

nldogbert

KL611 to Chicago
a friend was in the same flight without status and had a basic ticket.
Y to Eco comfort - 69€
Y to Premium Economy - 269€

Managed to snag later on a seat just behind Econ comfort and had a seat empty next to him. So not too shabby.

Cheers!

DuyT

If possible, it would be very helpful as a datapoint if in the next flight you do this, you can post here what the upgrade offer on Skymiles is vs FB.

I agree with another comment above that even if official policy is that status is not factored in, there seem to be too many anecdotal datapoints that indicate that the travel/spending profile of someone who also has FF status has significant disadvantage in upgrade offers. And I don’t care about intra-EU upgrades, but this also seems to be the case on long haul when upgrades from Y or PE towards J can definitely be interesting to consider in a night time leg for instance.

DiamondSM

Most of the time I use my miles to upgrade. (1 x 42,000 Skymiles from AMS to TPE, and 1 x MNL to AMS 20,000 SM (PE "S") & 40,000 SM (PE "A") (more seat available in J from MNL to AMS)).
When I use my FB and have take PE to J upgrade before, price is always over 1,200 CAD.
After talk to a Delta agent (a friend) who told me, AF/KLM keep a track if you have take upgrade and adjust the price in consequence, something he say me Delta did not do.
I now put my Diamond SM # on booking, and have receive one time offer 620$cad (415$usd), also AMS to MNL.
This is why I put my Diamond SM at booking and change it to my FB just before checkin (but after I receive upgrade offer). Doing this, it is like I never accept any upgrade with my SM # (because before accept upgrade, I change it to my FB #)
From my little experience, I believe AF/KLM did not really adjust the price of upgrade depending of your status. But, I think, "Yes" AF/KLM adjust upgrade price depending of your past history of upgrade experience (what my friend at Delta told me).
As I write this is my personal experience (not so many flight with AF/KLM, around 6 to 8 flights (inbound & outbound) / Year, all of them from YUL to Asia: Singapore, HK, Shanghai, Manila & Taipei).

albireo

Just checked in Y (reward ticket) at the start of the 30hr OCLI window for AF0636 CDG-IAH tomorrow. The flight seems wide open in all booking classes. Was offered a J paid upgrade for 714€, which I (somewhat hesitantly) declined. But I saw that the business cabin has lots of empty seats (10 at time of writing).

After check-in I am reminded that I still have the option to buy an upgrade (currently Y->W for 334€ and Y->J for 714€). Does AF have a practice of adjusting the rate as OLCI progresses, if it did not manage to sell its empty seats ? In other words, is it worth returning regularly to the AF web site to check for a potential discount offer ?

BobTL

No, the fare only increases when more seats are sold, either on regular last minute tickets or on paid upgrades. Let’s say that there are 6 seats still available. Could be that the 3 of them are available to upgrade for € 714, and the other remaining 3 for more.
BTW, a seat map isn’t a representation of available seats. Not all rev pax have selected a seat at that point and some seats might be reserved for deadheading crew.

albireo

Indeed. Just to add a data point, we are now 17 hours before departure, and the option to upgrade (either to W or J) has disappeared altogether (it was there two hours ago).

DuyT

on a day flight I would perhaps consider the PE, but if the flight were reverse (overnight) then that 714 would definitely be worth it (even if not the best offer it is decent enough for a flat bed and good night sleep to start the day much fresher going into EU

Bullspread

I just called FB this morning to upgrade with miles my ticket from economy to business .

I’ve been told that bucket « O » needs to be available on my flight. Availability is null for upgrade on my flight according to the travel assistant.

Looking at straight award tickets in business, O class is proposed and Expertflyer shows availability

Has someone already experienced the same ?