sol95

I just got back from a SYD-ICN-JFK roundtrip. I was flying Y on an S ticket. For a variety of reasons, I couldn't arrange to get any type of J fare, including mileage upgrade, so was resigned to making do in Y.

On the ICN-SYD leg, I was in exit row, and wasn't too bad. After the STPC overnight, I again got an exit row seat for the ICN-JFK leg. At the gate, my boarding pass was scanned, and let out a beep. At which point, I was handed another BP and told, "We've changed your seat to a better one". An op-up on a long haul flight on OZ! Hadn't had one of those in years!

I enjoyed that flight, but was somewhat sad as I wasn't looking forward to Y on the way back. Lo and behold, happened again on the JFK-ICN leg! op-ups on 2 out of the last 3 long hauls!

Originally, I was planning to stay in Seoul for a week, but had to cancel due to n emergency back in Sydney. So I was flying straight through to SYD. As I got off at ICN and made my way to the lounge before my final flight to SYD, I was telling myself that another op-up wasn't going to happen. I walked up to the desk at the OZ first class lounge, and gave them my boarding pass. The desk agent looks at her computer screen, quickly reaches below the desk and gives me another boarding pass. I look, and yay!, it's another J upgrade!

So on this trip with 4 segments, I got op-upped 3 out of the 4!

I've had op-ups on shorter flights within asia on OZ quite a few times, but this was another thing altogether

I arrived back this morning, and I've since gone out and bought myself a lottery ticket!

nme7

3 out of 4 opups on long haul flights on OZ is almost unheard of. I think this is better than the lottery!

jon503

Until recently, I would have agreed immediately, but lately I'm not so sure. My first 3 years or so on OZ, some 130k miles flown, I got exactly one opup. Then on my last 3 flights, I got opups twice! Perhaps its just luck, perhaps it's more overbooking in Y and unsold C inventory, but I was surprised at the frequency. On my last flight (ICN-FUK), I even flew on a non-mileage earning ticket and still got an opup for me and my wife, who is just OZ Gold.

sol95

On shorter asian routes on OZ, I get op-ups about 3 out of 5 flights. That's quite normal. But op-ups on long-haul is a rare beast. in all my years flying on OZ (20+ years), I'd only had 3 long-haul op-ups.

sol95

The OZ lotto draw last night was for $10million. It would've been a great story to say I'd won, but that wasn't to be.

nevertheless, extremely happy with the 3 op-ups out of 4 flights. And all long-haul too.

jon503

Ah good to know, I haven't taken OZ short haul very often and that in fact was my first sub 4 hour flight on OZ (except for Jeju, but that doesn't really count). One of my other recent op ups was long haul, making for a total of 2 out of I've lost count how many.

ozjc

Very nice. Good to hear this. A lot of news about OZ cutting back on service lately... so it's nice to read about something different.

Mikael Westerlund

I was going with my girlfriend from Hong-Kong to Seoul and we both got upgraded from economy to business, two weeks ago. I'm diamond and she is silver. It was very nice. So its happening.

Gasolin

In a JFK / ICN route, unless I buy J directly there was for me virtually no op ups. Congrats on having it done!

alenguy

Any chance of getting an upgrade on HNL-ICN-BKK and back as a United platinum elite (star gold)?

sol95

There's always a "chance"...the real question is how likely an upgrade is. To that, while it'd be great if we could answer it reliably, the fact is that we don't really know.

As a *G not on the OZ program, the best is to not expect an upgrade. That way, you're not disappointed if you're not upgraded. And if perhaps you do get the op-up, it's a very pleasant surprise. 😀

jon503

I'd say that's the best attitude to op ups in general. And yeah, non-OZ *G lowers your place on the pecking order considerably.

vprp

I was given an op up on HNL-ICN in May as Diamond. I saw the agent in charge had a paper with all of the top status holders on the flight and giving op ups in order. Asiana Gold was after Diamond.

bigbellytraveler

a few months ago as a star gold I got op up on my icn mnl flight. that was a pleasant surprise.

i switched my wifes ff account to asiana but i haven't been able to force myself over from ua. but with each little change for the worse im pretty close.

Gasolin

I am *G on OZ (Diamond) and I never got upgraded... my wife got upgraded once as a *G on OZ (Diamond) too, from Economy to Business on the CDG / ICN route.

Now that I am based on JFK, that's never happening.