Travel4Love

I searched the Avianca forum for a dedicated bid for upgrade thread, but couldn't find one. Moderator, please move my post, if I missed it.

Does anyone have any experiences with bidding for an upgrade on the MAD-MDE route? Information on the whole bid for an upgrade process seems to be quite sparse. Thanks for any feedback!

Vit007

I have the same question, but for different city pairs.
I've chatted with them online, and I was told you are supposed to receive a link to bid and if you don't, than you can't bid.

I would also like more information about this link. The online agent is sent to the people randomly.

AdamSouthFL

Is the option in your reservation page? Maybe in seat selector, for example?

drvannostren

I would look here too, but you likely won't find much. The upgrade procedure on AV seems to be a joke. I'm a *G with AC and I've only ever been offered to bid once, in like 20 flights.

I bought 2 tickets for some friends on domestic flights, both got the offer. So it's really hit or miss.

I would guess it's tied to the fare class as well, but the ones I've been offered/my friends it was Super Promo. So who knows.

I wouldn't expect to even get the email. Maybe check at the desk when you show up, or the kiosk.

Travel4Love

Sounds like a lottery. And here I was hoping to find some guidelines on how much to bid! Clearly I have to lower my expectations.

JohnnyColombia

There is another thread on here about bid for upgrade and we (mainly me) ascertained that bid for upgrade is only sent out by email if the Y cabin is filling up and it looks like they will have to opup anyway

Nothing to do with status, you cannot request it, it is not in any manage my booking page (Avianca doesn't even really have a proper manage my booking page.) You cannot select seats even and the tool to check your booking and make changes does not even work.

So if you have not got the email then you cannot bid, it's not something you can ask for. You can buy an upgrade at check in of course.

It is not tied to fare class, apart from it is tied to selling all the Y fare classes and having to bump people upwards anyway. You can check what fare buckets they are selling to see if you are liable to get an upgrade bid chance

I have had 16 since the start of September. I have never bid on one, I use them as an indication that I need to check in online to avoid denied boarding.

They are lousy value for money to be honest. I just clicked one of mine for a flight MDE CTG on 7 Dec. Minimum bid is $99 incl the additional taxes. That is about $2 per minute for AV domestic J. No thanks.

I cannot imagine what ungodly amount they would be asking for MAD MDE.

ryan754

I agree $99 is a lot for MDE-CTG... Nonetheless, AV typically sells J for 1,000,000 give or take, so 300,000 cop isn't terrible... I wouldn't pay it myself...
As for upgrades, I just got an upgrade on SAL-SFO operational I guess.. Great service.. I was the only one drinking ron, and polished off a bottle of 18 year old flor de caña.. Great flight!

PTY1K

As a data point, I paid €350 at the airport to upgrade BCN-BOG last month.

JohnnyColombia

That is a very fair price for an airport upgrade. IB has a buy up system which they send out by email. It costs 500€ for BOG MAD, no bidding, no waiting until the airport, guaranteed seat in J for 500€. I think that's fair for an eastbound flight but I would rather pay 350€ obviously

I am sure AV charges 1 million COP to somewhere for J and maybe last minute tix in high fare buckets MDE to CTG, but I would not expect this route to be much over 450,000 COP to just buy in advance. Still wouldn't pay it. AV Y is fine for such a short ride.

SAL SFO is a nice upgrade though!

drvannostren

That's not bad at all. I probably wouldn't do it simply because I'm not that impulsive and it's hard to separate me from my money, but it's an attractive price, especially if you didn't pay for the fare (IE work did and you simply paid for the upgrade).

AV y on a short flight is totally fine, you'll often have empty seats next to you as well so that's a plus. On my domestic J there's no food, no drinks, just the juice boxes the back gets so you're really just getting the privilege of deplaning first.

I've never flown them long haul, but hopefully I'll get able to get long haul service on the 2 widebody flights in J I've got coming up in a few weeks. BOG-SCL 787 and BOG-MEX 330.

JohnnyColombia

I probably would not pay 350€ for the westbound. But the eastbound MAD BCN I'd be all over like a rash just to have a bed. I don't think it's impulsive, I think you normally fly up and down drvannostren but if you fly BOG MAD for example with no sleep it is deadly. 350€ (and even 500€ on IB) is well worth it because if I fly that route in Y I lose a day or two of my trip, sometimes longer.

I have a right mix of classes and planes coming up. MEX and BGI in Y, then BOG GRU, MDE LIM BOG in J. BOG GRU is only 4 hours shorter than BOG MAD, overnight so I am looking forward to that J flat bed product that lots of people dislike

drvannostren

Taking that new BGI flight eh ? I always like route expansion so hopefully it works for them.

True I do usually fly up and down on AV, I fly longer to get to Colombia. I'm not saying I wouldn't enjoy it, but I can sleep decently in Y so that comes to mind for me. My thing is that I'd rather pay for J to begin with, the upgrades to me usually sound extra expensive and I'm often just like "I just spent ______ on this trip...now another $400? Nahhh." Whereas if I pay in advance it's already done, my brain just likes to have things paid for in advance, which is why I HATE arriving at a car rental/hotel and finding out my card was just entered for the reservation and not to pay...cuz then my debts aren't what I thought they were.

fly747first

In all fairness, IB offers full flat beds across its entire A330/A340 fleet while AV only has full flat beds on its 787s; the AV A330s still have slanted flat beds.