Upgrading from Economy to Business at check-in
Aug 25, 2019, 12:48 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: NYC/Paris
Programs: AF Platinum, DL Diamond
Posts: 8
Upgrading from Economy to Business at check-in
Hi everyone,
Just a quick question regarding the ability to upgrade from Econ to Biz at check in with Air France. I usually fly purchased Biz directly, but this time around, as I am late booking my flight, I can't justify the cost of Biz. So I am looking at purchasing Econ with the hope that I can get an option to purchase an upgrade at check in, but not sure how the process works, or the likelihood of getting such an option.
I understand it depends on a lot of different factors, but is it likely that I would get that option to purchase an upgrade on a JFK-CDG? Does AF often offers those options?
Any tip or experience with that would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot for the insight.
P.S. I'm Plat on AF and have been for the past few years.
Just a quick question regarding the ability to upgrade from Econ to Biz at check in with Air France. I usually fly purchased Biz directly, but this time around, as I am late booking my flight, I can't justify the cost of Biz. So I am looking at purchasing Econ with the hope that I can get an option to purchase an upgrade at check in, but not sure how the process works, or the likelihood of getting such an option.
I understand it depends on a lot of different factors, but is it likely that I would get that option to purchase an upgrade on a JFK-CDG? Does AF often offers those options?
Any tip or experience with that would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot for the insight.
P.S. I'm Plat on AF and have been for the past few years.
Aug 25, 2019, 1:26 pm
#2
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: BA BAEC Gold (oW Emerald), AF/KLM FB Plat (ST E+), *Alliance Nada
Posts: 299
Not guaranteed...
Hi everyone,
Just a quick question regarding the ability to upgrade from Econ to Biz at check in with Air France. I usually fly purchased Biz directly, but this time around, as I am late booking my flight, I can't justify the cost of Biz. So I am looking at purchasing Econ with the hope that I can get an option to purchase an upgrade at check in, but not sure how the process works, or the likelihood of getting such an option.
I understand it depends on a lot of different factors, but is it likely that I would get that option to purchase an upgrade on a JFK-CDG? Does AF often offers those options?
Any tip or experience with that would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot for the insight.
P.S. I'm Plat on AF and have been for the past few years.
Just a quick question regarding the ability to upgrade from Econ to Biz at check in with Air France. I usually fly purchased Biz directly, but this time around, as I am late booking my flight, I can't justify the cost of Biz. So I am looking at purchasing Econ with the hope that I can get an option to purchase an upgrade at check in, but not sure how the process works, or the likelihood of getting such an option.
I understand it depends on a lot of different factors, but is it likely that I would get that option to purchase an upgrade on a JFK-CDG? Does AF often offers those options?
Any tip or experience with that would be appreciated.
Thanks a lot for the insight.
P.S. I'm Plat on AF and have been for the past few years.
Upgrade upon check-in (either online or at the airport) will depend on the loading factor of the flight. If the J cabin is heavily sold, you might end up with few or no upgrade offer at all, and if so, the price (cash, miles or cash+miles) will be prohibitive!!!
I would suggest you investigate rather the route of purchasing and use your miles to upgrade, and depending on your budget:
- from Economy to Business: you need availabilities in fare class "O", and it would cost you around 25,000 miles (upgrade price in miles are not dynamic unlike outright purchase of award tickets).
- from Premium Economy, if your budget allows it, will still be 25,000 and still requires availability in "O" fare class, if you are booked in either PremEco fare class "A", "S" or "W". If you book in "W" (around ~$300 more expensive than the "A" fare), as a Platinum, you can tap into the "Z/award" inventory, where your likelihood of availability is higher. The upgrade cost would then be 22,500 miles. I do that all the time.
Why don't you call the Plat line so they can check with you, among all the JFK-CDG flights that day which one has the best availabilities in either "O" or "Z/award"? They can issue your regular ticket in Econ/PremEcon, and take care at the same time of upgrading for you with the miles. They are really good and know the drill.
Good luck!
Vinnyc
Aug 26, 2019, 11:49 am
#3
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 757
Hello Gwilly1974,
Upgrade upon check-in (either online or at the airport) will depend on the loading factor of the flight. If the J cabin is heavily sold, you might end up with few or no upgrade offer at all, and if so, the price (cash, miles or cash+miles) will be prohibitive!!!
I would suggest you investigate rather the route of purchasing and use your miles to upgrade, and depending on your budget:
- from Economy to Business: you need availabilities in fare class "O", and it would cost you around 25,000 miles (upgrade price in miles are not dynamic unlike outright purchase of award tickets).
- from Premium Economy, if your budget allows it, will still be 25,000 and still requires availability in "O" fare class, if you are booked in either PremEco fare class "A", "S" or "W". If you book in "W" (around ~$300 more expensive than the "A" fare), as a Platinum, you can tap into the "Z/award" inventory, where your likelihood of availability is higher. The upgrade cost would then be 22,500 miles. I do that all the time.
Why don't you call the Plat line so they can check with you, among all the JFK-CDG flights that day which one has the best availabilities in either "O" or "Z/award"? They can issue your regular ticket in Econ/PremEcon, and take care at the same time of upgrading for you with the miles. They are really good and know the drill.
Good luck!
Vinnyc
They are very dynamic and that makes it unpredictable.
AF will make you think: if I want to fly J, I need to buy J.
I have been traveling around 10 years with AFKL and never had a long haul upgrade of 25k miles from Y to J. That is maybe the case when you buy a very expensive Y ticket in the Y,B or M fareclass.
Normally it follows roughly the award scheme and that often 50/60.000.
But you are right, TO needs to call PSL and they will tell.
Aug 26, 2019, 12:49 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: KL Platinum; A3 Gold
Posts: 28,713
15,000 miles: Fare Class Y to Business O
25,000 miles: Fare Classes B/M/U to Business O
35,000 miles: Fare classes K/H to Business O
45,000 miles: Fare classes L/Q to Business O
Given that there is no upgrade chart anymore, I would be very, very surprised to see an amount of as few as 25,000 miles being sought for an upgrade on a transatlantic sector, unless perhaps the economy ticket was issued in the most expensive (Y/B) classes.
The price will, of course, depend on the underlying economy fare. Where from 2013 the number of fare classes that could be upgraded from was raised to 8, the current system supposedly allows upgrades from ANY economy fare class. Clearly, the lower the economy fareclass, the more miles would be required.
Aug 26, 2019, 2:30 pm
#5
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: BA BAEC Gold (oW Emerald), AF/KLM FB Plat (ST E+), *Alliance Nada
Posts: 299
It’s unfortunately not the case regarding the dynamics on upgrades by miles.
They are very dynamic and that makes it unpredictable.
AF will make you think: if I want to fly J, I need to buy J.
I have been traveling around 10 years with AFKL and never had a long haul upgrade of 25k miles from Y to J. That is maybe the case when you buy a very expensive Y ticket in the Y,B or M fareclass.
Normally it follows roughly the award scheme and that often 50/60.000.
But you are right, TO needs to call PSL and they will tell.
In the last published upgrade chart, that came into force in 2013, these were the mileage amounts required for an upgrade from Economy to Business on Europe-North America:
15,000 miles: Fare Class Y to Business O
25,000 miles: Fare Classes B/M/U to Business O
35,000 miles: Fare classes K/H to Business O
45,000 miles: Fare classes L/Q to Business O
Given that there is no upgrade chart anymore, I would be very, very surprised to see an amount of as few as 25,000 miles being sought for an upgrade on a transatlantic sector, unless perhaps the economy ticket was issued in the most expensive (Y/B) classes.
The price will, of course, depend on the underlying economy fare. Where from 2013 the number of fare classes that could be upgraded from was raised to 8, the current system supposedly allows upgrades from ANY economy fare class. Clearly, the lower the economy fareclass, the more miles would be required.
15,000 miles: Fare Class Y to Business O
25,000 miles: Fare Classes B/M/U to Business O
35,000 miles: Fare classes K/H to Business O
45,000 miles: Fare classes L/Q to Business O
Given that there is no upgrade chart anymore, I would be very, very surprised to see an amount of as few as 25,000 miles being sought for an upgrade on a transatlantic sector, unless perhaps the economy ticket was issued in the most expensive (Y/B) classes.
The price will, of course, depend on the underlying economy fare. Where from 2013 the number of fare classes that could be upgraded from was raised to 8, the current system supposedly allows upgrades from ANY economy fare class. Clearly, the lower the economy fareclass, the more miles would be required.
I know about the upgrade chart from 2013 and that everything has become dynamic, and yet, I can assure you that:
- no later than in March 2019, I offered a RT CDG-JFK flight for a friend of mine, which I booked in Economy (U/R) and used 25,000 miles to upgrade him to business class since there was availabilities in "O".
- for my own trips, I always purchase in Premium Economy in "W" both legs and upgrade into business class using availability in "Z/award" for FB Elite.
See attached the screenshots of the upgrade for my friend (25,000 miles, trip in March 2019) as well as my own upgrade for 22,500 miles back in January 2019.
Cheers,
vinnyc
Initial Fare = U
Upgraded Fare = O
Cost of Upgrade from U to O
Confirmation Email from Flying Blue
Cost of Upgrade from W to Z/award
Nov 26, 2019, 9:43 pm
#7
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: BA BAEC Gold (oW Emerald), AF/KLM FB Plat (ST E+), *Alliance Nada
Posts: 299
Dear BobTL and irishguy28:
Please check my latest post where I provided an update on the latest miles amount to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business class on the PAR-JFK route:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31781010-post34.html
Yes, they are fixed amount cost and follow an upgrade award chart. I just upgraded one leg from "W" to "O" (plenty of availabilities) for only 10,000 miles. An amazing deal!!!
Cheers,
-vinnyc
Please check my latest post where I provided an update on the latest miles amount to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business class on the PAR-JFK route:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31781010-post34.html
Yes, they are fixed amount cost and follow an upgrade award chart. I just upgraded one leg from "W" to "O" (plenty of availabilities) for only 10,000 miles. An amazing deal!!!
Cheers,
-vinnyc
Nov 26, 2019, 11:12 pm
#8
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 757
Dear BobTL and irishguy28:
Please check my latest post where I provided an update on the latest miles amount to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business class on the PAR-JFK route:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31781010-post34.html
Yes, they are fixed amount cost and follow an upgrade award chart. I just upgraded one leg from "W" to "O" (plenty of availabilities) for only 10,000 miles. An amazing deal!!!
Cheers,
-vinnyc
Please check my latest post where I provided an update on the latest miles amount to upgrade from Premium Economy to Business class on the PAR-JFK route:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31781010-post34.html
Yes, they are fixed amount cost and follow an upgrade award chart. I just upgraded one leg from "W" to "O" (plenty of availabilities) for only 10,000 miles. An amazing deal!!!
Cheers,
-vinnyc
I hope you scored a good deal!
Nov 27, 2019, 5:28 am
#9
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: BA BAEC Gold (oW Emerald), AF/KLM FB Plat (ST E+), *Alliance Nada
Posts: 299
Therefore, spending 10,000 of my own miles to upgrade one leg to business is a good deal!
Cheers,
-vinnyc