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Old Jul 7, 2019, 9:22 pm
  #1  
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Upgrading on Kenya Airways

Anyone ever have any luck upgrading on KQ while booked on a KQ ticket? Not sure if DM status will help at all here or if I've got to figure out some other way. That 14 hour hop to NBO is super long.

Thanks in advance!
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 9:28 pm
  #2  
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Pay the fare difference? Even if KQ participates in the SkyTeam upgrade award program (or whatever it's called), you need close to a FULL Y fare and IIRC a DL 006- ticket. GUCs don't work on KQ flights.

You could try asking in the forum that covers KQ whether/when they sometimes sell cheap upgrades, but I'm not optimistic.
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Old Jul 8, 2019, 1:18 am
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KQ has upgrade auction program and they often send invitation mail to Y passengers several weeks prior to flight date. I guess this may be for KQ direct purchase only and am not sure about other ticketing channels, but auction was quite easy to get upgrade from any subclass tickets, even by bid of minimum US$ 250 one way BKK-NBO for Christmas holiday season.
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Old Jul 26, 2019, 2:51 am
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Direct purchase is not necessary, i booked KQ tickets through Expedia and was able to bid for an upgrade by going to manage my booking on Kenya-airways.com.
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Old Jul 26, 2019, 12:12 pm
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Flying intra-Africa, didn't have any options to upgrade on an E195. There were even empty seats in F. Interestingly enough, we got op-upped on the 787 from AMS-NBO on the way down (which was extremely pleasant, since the back of hte 787s was TIGHT). Be forewarned, there are no air vents and the cabin was quite warm (which made it hard to use the awesome blankets they gave you in Biz class on the 787).
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Old Jul 26, 2019, 5:37 pm
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Not directly germane to the question, but Kenya Air was, hands-down, the worst J-class experience I’ve ever had. The cabin felt dated, for a 787, the service was appallingly bad, the food was horrendous — but the safety video was epically hysterical. Especially when they get to the part about the drop down oxygen masks and the animated boy begins to lose consciousness.

Almost made the entire flight worth it. I chuckled for an hour.
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Old Apr 26, 2022, 1:20 am
  #7  
 
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Originally Posted by MasaTokyo
KQ has upgrade auction program and they often send invitation mail to Y passengers several weeks prior to flight date. I guess this may be for KQ direct purchase only and am not sure about other ticketing channels, but auction was quite easy to get upgrade from any subclass tickets, even by bid of minimum US$ 250 one way BKK-NBO for Christmas holiday season.
Thank you. This is helpful!
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Old Apr 26, 2022, 11:14 am
  #8  
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Originally Posted by ACC2008
Thank you. This is helpful!
Post you quote is 3 years old.
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