dreamrider212

Globaliser

Primarily, it's to try to get some incremental revenue for seats in the higher cabin that would otherwise go empty, but without damaging market discipline (ie if you expect to be seated in the higher cabin, you must pay for it).

The danger in these schemes is always that people learn to expect to be able to upgrade on the cheap, and therefore don't buy a ticket in the higher cabin even though they want to be seated in it.

If your outbound flight is already very heavily booked in the higher cabin, then the chances of you being offered a cheapie upgrade will be correspondingly slim.

Mikey Mike Mike

i've just been "offered" an upgrade from PE to J from YYZ to LHR next month. At $729 single, it brings it up to the original J price. I get it that an upgrade is what its worth to you personally. Had I wanted an club flight, I would have purchased it at the time of booking the flight! IA friday night out of Toronto is not busy in biz or PE and it's unlikely the flight is full. If BA are serious about additional revenue, then offer it to me for 200/300 bucks (a night in a hotel) and I'd buy on the spot. I accept protecting a product ie club through not offering deals is important, so make it random who it's offered to. As a silver, I already get priority check in, fast track, priority boarding, 2 bags at 32kg and the lounge on arrival, plus an enhanced (if only!!) biz type meal, and so the 729 bucks is for a flat bed and a hot breakfast!

The big plus of these upgrades is the additional TPs and so if you're just short of a threshold for a higher status, this can get you over the line

NA-Flyer

I had the same offer at the airport desk at check-in in YYZ and I found it noncompetitive and declined it.

ricktoronto

But BA and other airlines are not as pointed out earlier in this thread in selling at any price because the people who do pay for J or PE don't want to subsidize people who know that airlines will "routinely" sell upgrades for a pittance, then everyone starts angling for that method.
Some airlines like CX know they have the passenger on board anyway at a price which must cover the marginal cost of that passenger for say, coach service, and have no interest in moving people from coach to PE or PE to J at all, at any price, which is how it should be done.
Want PE or J? Buy PE or J, 100% success rate for me since 2003.

lcylocal

joscar3

bisonrav

OK, so the best thing to do here is to go to the gate, and as subtly as possible, flash your AMEX platinum card at one of the agents, giving a flamboyant conspiratorial wink. She or he will nod imperceptibly - don't approach too closely - and type some stuff into the computer. Wait 5 minutes, refresh your app, and you'll find yourself in J or F (depending on the quality of the wink).

Don't tell anyone I gave you the secret procedure either as I'll get chucked straight off the board if they find me out.

joscar3

wanderingjock

@bisonrav - you naughty person! You shouldn't be giving out that information on an internet chat site. shame!

corporate-wage-slave

Cathay indeed have their own way of doing this (or perhaps not doing this) but for anyone brought here by Google the definitive BA guides for upgrades is to be found in this forum's Dashboard .

bisonrav

In fairness to @joscar3, here's a quick and less flippant summary of the real situation. Getting free upgrades to premium cabins is usually more difficult than turning up and asking. Generally it requires cabins beneath the one you want to get into being oversold, and usually the way upgrades are allocated is automatic and works on the basis of what previous status you have with the airline. I don't know exactly what CX do for free upgrades, but that's possibly not important as they do have a system where you can bid for an upgrade into the next cabin - whether this applies for you on a BA redemption ticket is probably best asked on the Cathay Pacific board, but you can get fairly cheap upgrades to business class if you hit lucky.

Whether I would or not in your position is another question. PE is pretty good on CX, and if you consider that a bargain upgrade bid might be £500 to £800, you need to think whether you can deal with 12 hours of relative comfort in PE or choose marginally additional comfort in business class and a slightly better meal, given the alternative is a chunk of cash to spend in the Philippines where it will buy you a hell of a lot more than a lie down seat. One of the benefits to being 18 is more resilience when travelling, so may be a good opportunity to use that.

Nothing to stop you asking politely on check in to see if anything is available free, if you do, best tactic is to be polite and personable and take the almost inevitable rejection with good humour. But good luck anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I'd love to be proved wrong.

Globaliser

Indeed - because the first question to be asked is always: What you do you think is so different or special about yourself that you should be able to get an upgrade that other premium economy passengers won't get?

If you could get one just by asking, why shouldn't everyone get one just by asking?

dddc

Because this unfortunately seems to be what most travel blogs and articles suggest you do - along with dress smartly and smile, "Just in case". Which has probably been asked by the previous 200 people in the queue! Much harder to do this with automated check in desks and bag drops.

I tend to ask "is it a busy flight" not so much for an upgrade, but to get a seat in a less busier part of the cabin - if it exists of course.

Killian_S

I'm very surprised by this, as I was offered the PE to Club one-way upgrade from YYZ for $355. I accepted, but was in the middle seat.