My sister (Silver) got op'ed from Y to J for DXB DUS today.

Why shouldn't there no upgrades? These are operationally neccessary, Economy was overbooked, Business some seats left, do you (TO) think they will pay compensation and let Eco pax out of the plane instead of moving the loyal customers forward?

99% of upgrades in a day happen for operational, not for complimentary reasons.

Siting in the lounge just now in BKK and just been upgraded.

Been upgraded twice in the last three weeks.

No noticeable change for me.

Best Regards
Flying Fireman

Op ups on 50% of my flights so far this year (not counting the sectors where I was already ticketed in the highest class on the aircraft), including twice this week.

Got upgraded on 2/2 DXB-FRA sectors in the past 2 weeks from Y to Business, being Skywards Silver.

Gotta Love them suites!
 

My mom and I flying Y in October got upgraded to the private suites and it was really nice. The only problem is that after flying in the suite you don't want to fly in Y or C any more!

So you got double upgraded from Y --> F?

And got another op-up C to F on my return flight BOM-DXB today. The agent at the gate scratched out my seat number and scribbled 1F on my BP. Saves paper, I suppose :D

economy to business
 

I have been EK Gold for like 4 years and the only times I have been uggraded have been on a few onward flights DXB to African destinations.

Also a few times on BKK - HKG leg of DXB - HKG.

So it was an extra pleasant surprise earlier this year to get upgraded in both directions DXB - Brazil - DXB, a 14 hour flight.

I had been trying Singapore Air for the last few flights but it is a bit too sterile for my tastes.

Next week go HKG - Nairobi return on EK, nice to get an upgrade for a leg or two, if you never expect them, it is always a nice surprise :p

I am gold with them for the past 6 years and do the BOM-DXB-JFK route in Y quite often with them. Earlier, I used to get upgraded to J on at least 1 leg of my onward and return journey if not more. My upgrade success in the BOM-DXB was however very poor which I shall come to in a little while.

However, I didn't get upgraded on my trip last december which made me feel a bit frustrated a bit and so I made it a point to find out the reason why I had suddenly lost favor with Emirates. I have made two trips to NY this year and didn't get a single upgrade. After I did some looking around and sneaking a peek on the flight rosters, the reason became fairly clear. The flights were just not full - and so no complementary upgrades. On my onward this time to JFK, a couple tried to argue with the gate agent that they were gold and could she get an upgrade to which the agent retorted back immediately that the flight wasn't full in Yand so there were no complementary upgrades given in Y to J.

I believe that the reason why EK flights from BOM aren't going full is due to two main reasons (apart from the fact we still aren't out of the recession fully):

1. There are now 5 daily flights BOM-DXB by EK and demand is just not up to capacity.

2. There is increased competition on the BOM-DXB, BOM-LHR, and BOM-JFK from Jet and Kingfisher and they are weaning away a lot of flyers from EK possibly due to their better fares and of course service.

So unless EK does something that can really help their cause, comp ups aren't going to be coming easy. I really hope that EK can get their act together soon which would be really good for them (and me :) )

BTW, I have always wondered why I rarely got upgraded on the BOM-DXB leg even though the flights were full and the conclusion that I have reached is that there are some folks who seem to have good personal contacts with the ground staff who manage to get upgraded and the other folks like me have to put up a smile and walk straight into Y. Anyone else have a similar experience?

I think it is clear for everyone that EK does NOT give any complimentary but only operational upgrades. Thats why they are called op-uped.

In order to get an operational upgrade, Y or J needs to be overbooked AND the higher cabin class has room.

On flights to and from RUH for instance, you would NEVER get an upgrade because it premium cabin is ALWAYS booked out.

No personal contacts with any of the EK staff in BOM, but I have about 50% op-up success rate as Silver/Gold on the BOM-DXB leg. I'm usually on EK501 though which is ALWAYS full/oversold compared to the other flights.

I have taken 4 flights ex DEL into DXB in the past 2 months - been upgraded for all of them except for the most recent one....seats were plentiful in Y. It's a privilege to get an op-up.

Yes, this does seem to be common out of DEL for some reason, where they even op-up when the flight is not full. However, this is not the case on long haul routes.

Well B747-437B, i must say that either you are outright darn lucky or have a way with op-ups. I only take EK501 out of BOM, and of the 30 odd times I would have flown out of BOM, I have got upgraded no more than 2-3 times at most. I did have a success rate of > 50% on the DXB-BOM leg on EK500 though. So do you get an upgrade at Checkin or during boarding?

Usually at check-in but once also at the boarding gate.