jpschoubert

Should be interesting to see what these fares will be - JFK-CDG next week on the A380, RT was heavily discounted approx $400. Will check T-56. Thanks Goldorak

San Gottardo

Still not entirely clear. Say I have a CDG-HND in J. Checking my reservation 56 hours before departure, would I then suddenly see Premiere seats offered at a price that would be less than the "normal" ticket fare? And the same at OLCI, would it be offered at an upgrade price that is less than the normal ticket fare? And when I arrive at CDG, could I just walk up to the Premiere check-in, say that I have seen on expertflyer or the AF website that there are free seats in P, and pay an upgrade price rather than a full fare upgrade?

Yes, you're right. What I was thinking about were the upgrades that were offered by email, I think they were sent out before OLCI opened. And I don't think OLCI upgrade possibilities included Premiere? At least I have never seen it.

Not sure where we actually have the same thing in mind. What I was thinking of are that the five possibilities offered for *one specific* flight were five prices, where each price corresponds to a form of payment. For instance (numbers made up), an upgrade for this flight offers the following five upgrade fares:

Flight AFxx, IAD-CDG, on September 21, upgrade from J to P:

Fare 1: 1500 USD
Fare 2: 1200 USD + 30,000 miles
Fare 3: 800 USD + 60,000 miles
Fare 4: 400 USD + 90,000 miles
Fare 5: 140,000 miles

Now, what certainly will be the case is that these prices can vary *from one flight to the next*, depending - as you said - on availability. Hence the same flight AFxx, IAD-CDG, on September 22, could look the following, simply because it has less availability:

Fare 1: 2000 USD
Fare 2: 1600 USD + 30,000 miles
Fare 3: 1200 USD + 60,000 miles
Fare 4: 800 USD + 90,000 miles
Fare 5: 180,000 miles

I don't think that you have 5 different fares for one and the same flight, with each one offering 5 different mixes of cash and miles. What would those 5 different fares be based on, if not on different forms of payment? Availability of *a* flight is what it is, the fares get fixed 56 hours before departure, so what would be the difference between the five fares, if not the form-of-payment mix?

Therefore I think that every "fare" in fact corresponds to a certain mix of cash and miles.

caliform

I appreciate them working a bit on this, because it seemed odd that you previously had to rely on DoD upgrades to do a miles / cash / miles split.

We should see lowest prices at T-56 hrs and T-24 hrs (when the remaining upgrades likely adjust price to the lowest due to revenue mgmt).

bodory

Agreed on the variable prices from one flight/date to another.

Original fare bucket?

Goldorak

Interesting comments
I have another information : the news I have quoted for this thread has disappeared from the AFKL travel agent portal
I don't know how to interpret it : glitch ? posted by mistake or too early by AFKL?

Thanks for the info

It changed a bit for a year or something like that. Indeed, I haven't received an e-mail for upgrade proposal for a very long time but was seing regularly some possibility to upgrade from Y to J medium-haul in the AF app during OLCI (or even after if you return to the check-in part to change your seat or just look at the seat map). Regarding the new system, I don't know if everyone will see an upgrade possibility. I have the feeling that it won't be the case because, as you rightly said, they don't want pax to buy a lower cabin and expect "systematically" to be able to pay for a cheap upgrade to the upper cabin. But I might be wrong.

Unknown for the 1st question. For the 2nd, you rightly understood.
And about why they do that ? Simply to generate more revenue by introducing dynamic pricing as for revenue bookings.

I'm not sure there will be UG e-mails anymore, unless those are still targeted.

I'm sure there will be a fixed conversion rate between cash and miles, like for the option payments (lounge access, extra luggage, etc).
For your question about DL flights, I wanted to include a part of the AF announcement that I haven't quoted in my original post, but as the news has now been removed by AF...

Yes and yes.

OK understood Thanks

I believe it will be yes, yes and no. But do not expect big discounts for J to P (depending on the flight it will likely be from EUR 1500 to 2500, based on the current paid UG data points we have seen posted in the other thread).


There were some (I have received in the past UG e-mails for CDG-PVG and return from J to P for EUR 2500 each way).

Overall, there are a lot of uncertainties at that stage, the 1st one being is this implemented (see my introductory comment about the news being removed from the TA portal). Reporting here will be valuable for everyone. I oppose the following template for collecting info for the H-56 to DoD upgrades (any comment/suggestions are welcome):

- route :
- which class were you booked in (eco/PE/Business/first and if known fare booked) ? :
- was any upgrade proposed and if yes, to which cabin (PE, J, P) and at which moment (H-56 to H-30 in MMB, H-30 to H OLCI, airport counter) ? :
- at which price ? :


It will be also important to report if you are proposed UG at every flight or just sometimes (as today).
Have fun

nldogbert

Hi,

My experience last saturday,23-sept. Managed to upgrade my flight from Prem. Eco to J from CDG-IAH. They were still using the old system as I'm used to i.e: based on purchased fare sub-class.
Paid with my miles, did not ask how much it would be if I had wanted to pay cash.

So, at least for now, nothing seem to have changed - i did not ask if there was something new coming up.

Cheers!

Goldorak

I have a medium-haul flight coming soon and I have in MMB the usual link to upgrade with miles, but nothing happened at H-56 and since that.

KL803

The MMB has changed somewhat: when I click on the link to see availability for upgrades this is what appears:



Maybe a glitch or no more availability?

SFOAMS

I flew JFK-AMS on KLM yesterday and this policy was in effect (and they explicitly told me that there was a new "formula" since Monday).

I usually fly high-fare buckets (Y/B/M) and was on a B fare yesterday. The all-cash upgrade was about 640USD (which is more expensive than usual), the next option was about 450USD and 13k miles, and the all-miles option was 45000 miles (which is much higher than the published 25k upgrade from B->J). I don't remember the numbers for the other intermediate options.

They also didn't process the upgrade immediately: I asked for it at the check-in counters, they made me an offer, and then told me it would be confirmed at the gate. The gate agents at JFK were all Delta gate agents and it seemed to be handled like a US-style upgrade process, clearing all upgrades at the very end, not first-come-first-serve. They mentioned it was prioritized by status and not fare bucket.

This makes KLM much less attractive for people in a position to buy high-fare economy tickets.

irishguy28

They want you to act normally - i.e. buy the cheapest-available economy ticket

CosmicGirl

Is it just me, or is the upgrade calculator down?

1973 Ford Pinto

Has anyone upgraded from W (or S) to J using this?

Sketho

I‘m aboard a KLM flight from AMS to PVG.

Tickt was booked today in N class wich is very very poor. Asked the Platinum desk via telephone about 10 hours prior to departure about an upgrade. Agent said, poor booking class, 90.000 miles (or even 95.000) to upgrade to C. Declined.

Started another try at the gate. Very nice lady was calling Ticket office and gave me 5 options:

375 EUR without miles
289 with 11.000 miles
190 with 22.500 miles
90 with 35.000 miles
0 with 45.000 miles

I choosed 45k miles. But now I think the 375 EUR upgrade is much more better. Kiosk offer upgrade to C for 1299 EUR.

Will fly back from PVG to CDG on Sunday. Booked in B. Let’s see what they can offer then.

Goldorak

I think the system is still not in place on the AF side.
I flew CDG-TXL this week (booked in Y). Nothing happened at H-56. At OLCI in the app there was an offer for a paid upgrade to C for €89 (which is not too bad IMO for a 2hrs flight) with 7 seats indicated as available. No possibility to pay with miles or a combination of cash and miles. Over time until close to limit check-in time, the number of C seats available for upgrade decreased to 3, but the price stayed the same at €89. I didn’t take it.
I fly back tomorrow and no upgrade is proposed and this is normal as all flights tomorrow show J0 Y0 !!
It seems that there are a lot of millenials flying tomorrow between TXL and CDG

UPDATE : looking again at the seat map for my tomorrow’s flight, a paid upgrade offer poped-up (3 seats available), but €119, while it was €89 for my inbound flight
still cash only.

Mirk

You are right 375€ is VERY nice for a N class ticket. Good to know that there are some good deals to get, I will probably ask at the gate more often since I usually travel in low bucket fares.