Danash

Not AADER related - just looking for some opinions on whether to wait or to go for miles + copay for an upgrade.


Scenario - Flew AA93 DUB ORD today and having upgraded with miles and copay on the same route two weeks ago my seatmate had been given an op up to J.

Checked EF to see the load and saw availability in J and only Y4. Was hopeful of an upgrade at check in but got my usual 21H. Deliberated for 15 minutes whether to go to the handling agent desk to upgrade and use miles and copay but decided to risk it at the gate. Got to the gate and asked if Y had checked in full and was told they 'were ok' So no op up. At this stage the EXP desk couldn't handle the copay as the seats were locked by the gate.

On board I see the dispatcher coming down the aisle and he stops at the passenger in 20J and op ups him ' thanking him for his elite status and loyalty' - - - - - am sweating now at this stage.....dispatcher gets up and and then comes to me with the same op up.....joy at last. Passenger beside me was OW ruby but his luck wasn't in as ony the two of us made it.

The question is - do you wait for the free op up or burn the miles to make sure. It was a day time flight and 21H on a 767 is not too bad. EF played a big part in predicting the load.

bdemaria

I never plan/strategize for an op up.

KD5MDK

That sounds like a very poor planning decision, unless you're ok with Y, because there is no op-up policy.

miamigrad

+1

IMHO, if it's really important to sit in first (or business, if that's the case), pay for it (providing you have the financial means, or miles, to do so). I've learned to not plan on a op-up simply because I have status and a flight is full (aren't most flights packed these days?!)

spurg

too risky

you should always get the upgrade,

even then you can be downgraded!

1/4MM@20

If you are sweating about it, you really shouldnt be playing this game. You have to be 100% OK to sit in coach if you are looking for an op-up because most times you will.

I used to play this game whn I was PLAT. I had a limited number of upgrades that i could use (based on how many miles i was willing to spend) and so I knew that I would be sitting in Y for some flights. I would therefore select which flights to upgrade based on loads in y (and also my seat in Y). Sometimes it worked and I got an op-up, most of the time it did not. Especially on international routes there is a high no show rate due to misconnects so a Y2 flight may well go out with empty seats.....

Now that Im EXP, I have more upgrades due to the VIPs. I now upgrade all international flights. When I run out of VIPs its down to miles and copay.....

aspex

Agreed, the op up is not the way to plan long haul flights. I've only seen op ups once on an international flight and while I don't fly int'l a lot it isn't infrequent either.

billgrates3

in this economic climate, your chances of getting an op-up are close to zero, unless Y is chock full AND there are a bunch of Y standbys AND, of course, available J/F seats.
I've been turned down flat more than once asking for opups for companions on TATL flights where there were two or more open J seats.... and this was both at the gate and on-board by the purser/head FA.

Gandhi90s

Why do you say that?

cparekh

And by most times in coach, I would think of op ups in the ballpark of a few times in a lifetime.

Danash

This was a game of chess with the system. On check in they were offering upgrades for 500 EURO so must have been overbooked.

I normally upgrade with evips or co pays but thought I'd let this one pan out and in the end I got the result I wanted - saved 25000 miles and 300 dollars of my company's money. It was good also to see the status system work.

Had it not come off I would not have minded the flight in Y - 21H on the 767 is not too bad.


I do have some success on these op ups - must be the luck of the Irish.

ESpen36

I wouldn't risk waiting around to see if an op-up occurs. If I want the upgrade, I secure it in advance using miles or eVIP. No messing around when it comes to my comfort on board!

You are EXTREMELY lucky that you got an op-up. It sounds like the DUB station agents would prefer to send out the premium cabins full, even if it means free upgrades for the best customers.

I can assure you that you would NOT get such treatment returning from the USA to DUB. The US-based agents don't have that mentality, and will do op-ups only if absolutely necessary (because of an oversold Y, usually).

skywalkerLAX

Plus the fact that flights originating from U.S. are most often effected by misconnects from feeder planes that dont make it. Even if they are overbooked in the first moment that can change alot !

So ORD-FRA is nearly always ok, while FRA-ORD is sometimes overbooked since there are nearly no feeder flights to FRA.

1/4MM@20

That would not be my understanding of the situation. Y4 does not mean 4 open seats in Y. It means 4 full fare tickets available for sale. If J is wide open, but Y full (or even oversold) AA may be willing to sell some very expensive coach tickets, knowing that they can still seat all passengers by upgrading a few. In this case, the flight may well have been oversold in coach, even though EF showed Y4.

I would think this a far more likely explanation than an upgrade happy gate agent in DUB.