golfmad

As most of us know, there's a scale of prices that passengers pay on every flight for seats in the same cabin with identical service. While the OP is specifically talking about a free upgrade, can you imagine the carnage if everyone on the flight had a label at their seat showing the price they actually paid?

Schultzois

Hahaha!
While I don’t hesitate to point out that I pay my own flights in F, J… and increasingly those of various friends also always in F, J…
I also take no shame in that, most of the time, being able to adjust my calendar to what I want, when I want, I pay the least I can for the most I can get.

There were probably some flights back when the Bollinger Grande Annee was flowing and I’d be stuck in a Concorde Room for a bit too long, with stopovers along the way for good measure, checking in four bags at a time just to move my personal effects around the world, gentle crew sending me away with more than I had asked of those little CE Champagne splits, saying “I didn’t open it, in case you would prefer it for later…” Well, I add it all up and I could probably consume a hefty sum of my ticket just in food, beverage and freight before we talk about my own travel!

Meanwhile, some lucky/poor corporate sort would have been on a ticket 3-4x the price (lucky that he wasn’t paying, poor that he didn’t have a choice), not availing of any of the Grande Annee or now LPSG, since he had to go to work the moment we would land, no checked bags since he’d be on the next flight back…

So those seat labels you speak of would probably subject me to some carnage.

Detroiter

Oh my! My dad's card got him out of some 10-15 mph over the limit tickets, but nothing like that. I mean, there are limits to low-level corruption, even in New Jersey.

Schultzois

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jeremyBA

There are suggestions that this type of thing is corruption etc.

the only way this would be the case was if people were taking money from others to upgrade them.

a metal tube is going from a to b. When the doors to that tube are closed who sits where no longer matters to ba. There is no more money to be made and no more to be spent.

clearly a free for all on empty seats would hit revenue as some would travel at the front of y and run forward as the doors close. This however is not allowed - but the us airlines come close with their gate upgrades.

where I do agree is if the pax is chatting to crew all the time and it impacts service. The crew however whilst adored on her by many seem to sit and chat to themselves regardless so the impact this would have is open to debate.

higham44

+1 👍

FlightDetective

Yes, it was during the early days of Mixed Fleet and was an MF crew. It was certainly after doors closed, as everyone was sitting down and I was somewhat embarrassed to be getting my bag out of the overhead and moving forward and had to move fast. Maybe we hadn't started moving, but that's how I remember it - either way it was so late in the piece that I figured I was staying in World Traveller. The way I found out was my ex looking at me from across the other side of the aircraft, and gesturing to come on.

orbitmic

Actually, I remember a series of ads using exactly that scenario (for both airline seats and hotel rooms). It was quite a good idea and quite funny!

Will100

Same might happen in a restaurant right? Not sure why it would be of any consequence.

1Aturnleft

I find it even more vulgar as the first rule about flight club is never talk about flight club.... yet here we are reciting instances of it.... as the ones who should know better. The young dude in the OP's instance appears to have been misinformed or living in a state oblivion and clearly outwardly excited if a tad naive. Attributes which will come with age hopefully. I don't begrudge the guy his upgrade whatsoever. I find the behaviour of petty envy and moaning about it on a public sympathy gaining exercise rather pathetic.

AJA_

Some years ago my parents were travelling from JNB to LHR on Avios tickets in Y and I mentioned this to a friend who worked at BA.

When they got to the gate the gate agent took their boarding passes and said "oops there's been a mistake with your seat allocation, you've been given the wrong boarding passes, here's the correct ones".

My dad, being scrupously honest said" I don't think there was anything wrong". The agent replied quite firmly "Yes there was a problem, now please just board the plane!". When they got on board they'd been upgraded to WTP. When they arrived in London my dad was full of praise for the service and the seat.

My parents were very happy.

Also I was on a flight from TPA to LGW in Y with the same friend. We had stayed in Florida on holiday with a former BA crew member friend of his. We had access to the lounges because of my Silver status although as we entered the lounge the lounge dragon took our boarding passes and gave us new one's saying we had been upgraded. We enjoyed the old BA Club World Cradle seat on the way home.

I also used to travel to the USA regularly for work and company policy was always in economy. I did a deal with my boss saying i could get cheaper WTP fares if I flew on Saturday, meaning I could arrive at work in the USA on Monday morning rather than losing a day flying in economy that day. The company also paid for me hotel for the Saturday and Sunday. So I was already better off than my colleagues as I got to do sightseeing and got more TP and Avios. The side benefit was I was doing it regularly enough on Saturdays that I got upgraded from WTP to Club 4 out of 5 trips. Always outbound never on the return flight home but I did get invited to pre dine in the lounge at IAD on more than one occasion.

Since i changed employer my international work travel stopped and the upgrades vanished too.

So yes it happens and yes it can be galling if you don't get an upgrade and see someone else who plainly has. But it is delightful when it happens to you. So I am very pleased for the young man. Here's to many more. 😀

13901

I honestly don't get the angst.

Aviation is a particularly cr*p industry to be in. Pay's low, job security is, well, rather flimsy and since passengers want low fares and the City fat dividends the only way wages are going is down. Looking after one another is one of the very few perks the industry has... but even that is now under siege. I know of one crew who's currently suspended, pending a disciplinary hearing (and might lose his job) for having dared to upgrade a colleague to Club Europe on a Band 1 flight (and the crew member didn't eat btw). But some bitter person in Traveller reported him, and now he faces losing his job.

Every industry has some perks. I have a friend who works for Canyon bikes, a brand which I love. She has some serious discounts on bikes, but only for her and immediate family. Am I envious of her splendid gravel rig? Sure. Do I feel bitter and angry because she can buy one at a heavily discounted price while I need to go purse-snatching on Chiswick High Road to afford one of my own? No. All the more power to her. It's not like she's taken the bike from me.

Schultzois

I can’t keep track of how many times I’ve gone to a restaurant with either a friend of the chef or a food critic, only to have most and indeed usually the entire meal comped. And I’m not talking about mediocre places, these are 1-2 Michelin Star places (never been comped at a 3 Star Michelin… if it ever happens I’ll probably run around like someone who has won the lottery!)

Never have I, as someone who pays for my meals, been upset at the special treatment being given, whether I am there or not, and it’s been good business for most of the restaurants in question, as I’ve gone back with others at later times and paid full price.

dougzz

Commented twice, enough with the tease, we need details.

NickB

I don't think that it is suggested here that there is corruption. Corruption would suggests that the pilot expects something in return. There does not need to be something taken from somebody else for there to be corruption, however, but that is by the bye.

Well, under that principle, self-upgrading should be quite OK and is also a practice that no more affects the enjoyment of the cabin by others as Captain upgrades do.

I suspect that many of the persons who cannot see why a person might feel somewhat uncomfortable with an upgrade in the circumstances of the OP would be the first ones to come down like a ton of bricks on self-upgraders. I would not want to argue that the two situations are identical. Clearly they are not. From a purely ethical perspective, however, I do not think that they are quite as far removed as some people would want to think. Certainly, many of the observations made to support captain upgrades in this thread (this is sour grapes; it causes no harm to anybody; I would rather be in a cabin where other people are happy and I don't care if someone else was upgraded if it does not impact on the service, etc...) could equally be made in relation to self-upgraders.

It is also said that it is a perk of the job. But is it? Is it officially documented in the employment terms of captains that they can upgrade persons of their choice at their discretion for whatever reason they deem fit, including as a favour to a friend or relative (as distinct from the need for the smooth and safe operation of the flight)? Or is it merely a tolerated/accepted practice?

That said, it is easy to get holier-than-thou on those things. It is hardly a major issue and it is a de facto widely accepted practice, in the same way as there are ethically marginally dubious practices with which we live everyday and which may even be necessary to keep us sane and the society we live in liveable. So, I certainly would agree with those who think that the best attitude to take is to let it go, enjoy your own trip without getting immersed in what others are doing and why they are there and not begrudge someone else's upgrade (nor criticise the captain for doing it) even if you consider that the upgrade is "undeserved" . But, conversely, I think that one has to recognise that those who don't feel that way are not entirely without a point, even if one should not get too carried away with it and we should be slow before berating them.