Upgrade Dillema
 

Hi All,

I'm flying home EZE-AKL, next Friday. (NZ31)

I've had a double RU request in for 4 weeks (Econ->BP).

It's 7 days out and my colleagues who had single RU's in (Econ->PE) have all cleared.

My double RU has not - the BP cabin appears busy.
When doing dummy bookings I can book 2 seats in BP; or 7PE.

Should I cut my loss and ring and change to a single RU request to PE, or hold on in the hope I get one of the two BP seats at check-in?

Does anyone have some advice or further info to help me?

Thanks!

PM me and we can take it from there

If BP was full, wouldn't they automatically see if they could get you into PE with 1 RU instead?

Just had a look - I would not change as there is no availability

Does anyone know the answer to this for sure? Reason being I recently had 2 x silver RU fail AKL-IAH and 2 x gold RU fail IAH-AKL return leg. So does this mean there was no availability in both PE or Business or just none in Business.

3 ways to know:
1) written policy somewhere (not aware of this, but perhaps it's in fine print somewhere)
2) access to loads, upgrade requests, and granted upgrades on a given flight to reverse engineer it (fat chance of this happening)
3) anecdotal evidence of someone chiming in with "I lodged 2x RU for Y-BP and got put in PE with 1x RU back in my account"

Cant remember hearing of (3) so will have to assume it doesnt work that way. ..

I've never heard of option 3 happening and it's never been my understanding it worked that way.

I kind of experienced that, sort of.

Was on NZ2 AKL-LAX-LHR back in May this year, lodged upgrades Y->PE for the journey. 1st sector cleared immediately at booking time, 2nd sector didn't at check-in and was told to "ask at the transfer desk at LAX".

The guy sitting next to me in 23A reached the lounge just in-front, we both queued up.

Guy "I lodged an upgrade to J and hasn't cleared, can you check?"
Lounge Agent "Sir they are still processing the upgrade list at the gate, I'll page you if I heard anything... actually there might be space in PE, do you want me to ask to upgrade to PE instead?"
Guy "OK"
Lounge Agent then made a phone call, repeat the above, then told the Guy to check back later (as there's a queue forming)

Me "Hi could you please check if my upgrade to PE can be cleared?"
Lounge Agent "Sorry sir nothing is showing on my screen at the moment, I will page you if I know anything"

Well, upon exiting the lounge, he ended up getting upgraded to PE and got his boarding pass there, while I was told there was no space left and maybe I will get lucky at the gate/closer to boarding.


In this instance, clear evidence that you CAN be bumped off the upgrade list, if someone who didn't clear into J, then asks and opts to try clear into PE instead.

I was actually quite annoyed by this!

I'd not either - until someone at NZ told me this may happen on an RU request to J across the Tasman (I was told by the phone team to put in a request to J, and if it were full the gate staff would allocate PE). Admittedly this is a subtly different issue to that of two RUs from Y to J, but it does suggest there is some flexibility. My overall experience in the last year (I sound like a broken record on this subject!) from both myself and many colleagues, is that RUs are not what they used to be, the number now available because of the people who have become gold/elite with credit cards has increased the number of people competing for the same slots. It's a massive reduction in the value of the overall program in my view

Almost had this happen to me with a RU to J trans-Tasman seeing me allocated a seat in PE and the booking split to remove my EP from the booking. Although I called up to find out what had happened to her booking (they are supposed to contact you before splitting a booking) and it ended with us both in J.

But trans-Tasman may well be different from long haul.

Suggest you pass feedback back to NZ - they clearly think numbers across tiers are not an issue

Thanks Guys. Will find out shortly..

Does anybody know if OLCI helps or hinders in a case like this?

Neither in my view

There is no logical reason why it would. Upgrades are cleared right up until the gate so it's not going to matter when you check in.