Whatever happened to First class awards and upgrades
Dec 21, 2009 | 11:24 pm
#16
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 259
you can sometimes upgrade nowadays but usually only within the week of travel and as I stated even then sometimes not at all.
I was unable to upgrade on a previous trip exept at the airport,(only gold and I think silver can do this) but they wanted to charge more points for that.
I declined and noted that the first class cabin had 14 suites and only 6 were occupied .
You can rarely book a rewrd tkt now at the lower level , once again perhaps only in the week of departure , which is useless if you ahve to make plans however you can often get the seats at the higher level.
To sum up , it is probably worth using the points but firstly logon to skywards and check how many you need for the Peak award and also check in the NEW programme infor that comes into effect 01jan10.
I know that does not shed alot of light but it really is a gamble I guess , perhaps you can call skywards in your city aslo and ask them to check if what you want is available before moving the points.
I was unable to upgrade on a previous trip exept at the airport,(only gold and I think silver can do this) but they wanted to charge more points for that.
I declined and noted that the first class cabin had 14 suites and only 6 were occupied .
You can rarely book a rewrd tkt now at the lower level , once again perhaps only in the week of departure , which is useless if you ahve to make plans however you can often get the seats at the higher level.
To sum up , it is probably worth using the points but firstly logon to skywards and check how many you need for the Peak award and also check in the NEW programme infor that comes into effect 01jan10.
I know that does not shed alot of light but it really is a gamble I guess , perhaps you can call skywards in your city aslo and ask them to check if what you want is available before moving the points.
I fairly used to having to use high award levels to upgrade nowadays anyway. But would hate to purchase an economy that IS eligible for upgrade using points/miles and then not be able to even at the higher mileage upgrade award level.
I guess being gold/silver helps at the airport- but a majority of the trip reports seem to indicate its pretty random and open to some GA irregularities.
I have never flown EK, but from what I hear coach is good compared to domestic us airlines.
Dec 22, 2009 | 1:29 am
#17
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: OSL
Programs: QR Plat | SK Diamond | A3 Gold
Posts: 4,612
All economy tickets are eligible for mileage upgrades - there are no restrictions on this, except for tickets purchased with miles or non-rev tickets.