Free Upgrades ?
 

My partner and I will be travelling for the first time ever. We have read that airlines offer free upgrades to travellers. We would really like to be upgraded but have no idea how to go about doing this. Our flights are booked on Qatar. Any advice on this will be much appreciated! 😁

Where have you read that @:-)

There are paid upgrades and operational upgrades, but the latter is generally given to flyers with status.

If I were you, I'd prepare for a flight in coach @:-)

Agreed, although 4 of us were recently bumped to First Class after offering to give up our seats if they were overbooked.

I would say you got SUPER lucky @:-) Especially for FOUR.

I am also guessing that was a domestic flight. Quatar is all Int'l ...

ATL to CUN. International, but fairly short. It was still a great surprise since 2 were children. They were overbooked when we initially offered, but I guess enough people didn't show, so we weren't needed.

Int'l yes, but domestic FC seat and service ;) This is a leisure route, so chances are no more elites waiting for u/g and they decided to be nice to you.

No way do I see this happening on true lie flat bed route @:-)

First, Welcome to FlyerTalk!

This is as good a forum as any to ask. I don't know anything about Qatar, but as EmailKid suggested in general free upgrades are rare.

In over 60 international flights in the last 8 years where I bought a coach ticket I've only received one "free" upgrade to business class, and 13 from coach to "extra legroom" coach. The upgrade to business was because the flight was oversold in coach and they needed to move people to business class to get everyone on the plane. I believe I received it partly because I had status with the airline, partly because I had a very expensive ticket bought at the last minute and partly because I was in the right place at the right time (at the ticket desk when they started looking for volunteers). Most of the upgrades to extra legroom were because I had elite status with the airline, though a few were because the airline needed to move people around.

Some people get free upgrade certificates (I've used about 20 of them for international business/first class), usually because they fly often enough with an airline to earn certain benefits, or sometimes to make up for some previous service problem, or on occasion as some reward. Sometimes they are transferrable, so if you have a friend with some you can ask them (my boss had given me a few back in the day) but they only work when the airline makes free upgrade space available, which has become rare. Never buy them because the airlines consider that fraud and will void them or worse if caught.

In summary, usually only frequent flyers get "free" upgrades as a benefit for their loyalty so if you know anyone that flies Qatar a lot ask if they can help. Infrequent flyers may get them if the airline needs to move people around on a full flight. In that case be the first to volunteer to change seats and see what they offer. There are stories of people getting free upgrades just because they asked nicely but that's a one-in-a-million sort of thing. It never hurts to ask but only you know if you're slick/shameless/charming enough to try pulling that off.

Agreed, but it still made our day! :)

If airlines were offering "free upgrades" no one would pay for premium seating. Suggest you do a little basic research ... the old adage "if it sounds too good to be true, then it is" applies here.
Assuming you paid for economy class tickets, here's a guide as to how much you would pay for an upgrade(s) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar...17-thread.html

well said UAPremExecflyer. Upgrades (especially to Business/First) are incredibly rare these days, and like everyone has pointed out, is usually reserved to very frequent flyers with status. Qatar, serving primarily long-haul international routes (>6 hrs) makes it even harder to score an upgrade (as opposed to short-haul flights of 1-2 hrs). In addition, airlines that give out frequent upgrades would ultimately annoy paying premium passengers because due to the really high prices they pay.

hope this helps :)

That of course is only partially true ;)

Paid upgrades happen quite regularly, as showed by Quatar upgrade thread as well as threads in AA and UA forum (and probably others that I don't read). I myself am more familiar with UA, being a regular (not necessarily frequent) recipient of both complimentary upgrades on domestic routes and longhaul Int'l that require a sizable chunk of miles AND Ca$h copay (hundreds of dollars to Asia and Europe). And I know that UA offers PAID upgrades to nonfrequent leisure travelers per long thread in UA forum.

Both upgrades that I requested this year went through several weeks before my flights and made the long overwater redeyes much more tolerable.

In fact, the copay TO Europe was more than roundtrip ticket itself :eek: For daytime flights I am normally content with coach ...

yeahh, that's true...

well not that these paid upgrades are a good deal, at least on Qatar. More often than not, upgrades for flights exceeding 6 hours would be priced in excess of £400.

Assuming that a typical discount round trip long-haul economy ticket (e.g. Singapore to LHR) would cost £750-800 v. a business one at ~£2400-2500, roundtrip upgrades would cost at least £2350... and that's with economy mileage.