Upgrade disappear and check-in "locked"
 

Hello FT,

I just wondering if someone can explain me how things works, because i'm really surprised by what happened to me today.

Context :
I am FB Silver and decided to book, with my account :
- 1 normal ticket for me, got a reference (let's say AAA)
- 1 reward ticket for my wife, paid with the miles I have on my own FB account, so got a different reference (let's say BBB)
Both tickets are attached to my account.

Today, at the OLCI (on the AF app), I look at my booking (ref AAA) and got offered upgrad to J. Well, let's go check if wife can have an upgrade too... Yep it's ok !
I look at expertflyer to check if more than 1 seat was available, because we want to travel together. Got this :


Well, it looks like there is seats available in business so let's go for it.

I paid the upgrade for my ticket, everything goes right.
Then, when i switch to my wife's ticket, i can't upgrade her anymore... But, more "interesting", i was not able to change her seat, wherever in the plane, like if the plane was totally full ! (But you can see on expertflyer result, the plane is like... empty).

First, do you know why everything looks like "locked" on my wife's check-in options, and why upgrade offer disappeard ?

I decided to call AF hotline. I skip the 2 first persons who literally got nothing to care but just "let's call another service", but the third person tried to help me. She said everything is locked on her side and she just can't do anything. She tell me she linked our tickets so my wife inherit from my status, and that way we have priority at airport to get upgrade offer for her.... hmmm... I know that's not true. If anyone gold/plat come before us, he can take the only J seat left on the plane.

What can i do ? I guess, going 3 hours before flight at the airport to have 100% chance to get the last J seat (if upgrade is available, which is not sure !). But do you know another solution ? And, espacially, why this kind of "everything blocked for everyone" appeared ?

Thanks in advance, and sorry for this long post :)

Regards

It's not possible to know for sure what's happening here, but for the upgrade, it could be simply that someone else took the 2nd J seat available at the same time you were processing the 1st one. You can try to arrive at the airport early but there is, for sure, no guarantee that you'll have one.

Maybe not too relevant but try app on phone too, go for it via AF website (or KL if the flight is AF). Sometimes in the past I had problems that upgrade was not available on OLCI desktop but on the phone was, the same with changing websites....

Too late for my advice, but in such a case best is to upgrade by phone.

They send the upgrade offer to a lot of people (not just you two), so you don't know if anyone else got it. Furthermore, they might have allocated only one seat for upgrades and kept one in case a pax wishes to book J in the final day.
Also, the number of J seats on a European flight is variable. They can move the curtain up or down affecting availability at any time.

Regarding blocking Y seats, that is not uncommon for pax without status or low fare. FB G or P and full Y fares could have access to a wider selection of seats. And your statement that the plane is like empty cannot be derived from the EF info you posted.
It's too late now, but it is usually possible to get better seats by checking periodically closer to departure.

Something big happened between checking your wife's upgrade availability and you going ahead and attempting to upgrade her.

That big event was: they sold an upgrade (to you, as it happens).

That's a material change that makes them re-assess whether to offer another seat, and if so at what price.

If you really want to upgrade two seats, you really should ensure they are on the same PNR.

Remember that if check in is open it is a highly-dynamic situation and literally hundreds of people will be logging in to check in, many of them seeing similar offers. Each sale - including yours - will have an effect.