Availability of Business Class Upgrades
 

Hi,

I inquired about the upgradeability of one of my Emirates flights, and the only flight that is (currently) available for upgrade is one in mid-august. I would, however, like to upgrade my flight in January. Now emirates tells me

Is this a generic message that means that (most likely) all upgradable seats in business class are already taken? Or is the date simply to far in the future and Emirates does not allow these upgrades to happen so far ahead (it would be somehow odd, if I am able to upgrade my flight in August, but not in January - I doubt they have the January flight booked so far ahead of time!)

I already tried to use Seatcounter.com, but didn't really get what the different classes specifically mean (e.g. if people from that particular class are allowed to upgrade or whether this particular class has so and so many seats available).

So if someone could be of any help to me, that would be much appreciated :)

P.S. I'd like to upgrade the EK381 flight on the 14th of January 2011 from HK to Dubai!

Welcome to FT!

I'm only guessing here but I would have thought that EK's IM system (Inventory Management) or equivalent would not allow an upgrade seat to be released this far out.

Ignore the classes on Seatcounter. All you need to worry about is whether or not the fare you have is a Flex or Saver, as this will determine the miles needed between DXB and HKG.

Check again at 90-days out...

Good luck.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I'm on a Flex fare. Is there any way to calculate the miles necessary to upgrade from Economy to Business (since the flight is too far in the future I cant upgrade just yet, Emirates doesn't show me the miles required for this particular flight)?

Upgrading from Y to J, you need availability in I class.

Use the mileage calculator on skywards.com. HKG-DXB should be 32,500 miles.

Sign up to expertflyer. You can set alerts to let you know when 'I' class seats become available. Worked for me for my next flight. ^

Thanks a lot for the help, much appreciated!

Soooo, According to SeatCounter, there are 9 spots available in I and 4 in J. I am, however, still not able to upgrade through Emirates?

Why could that be?

They changed their Y to Biz upgrade (and redemption) fare bucket to D !

Hi guys. I'm a bit naive about ticket class.

What is I class?
What is D class?

Thanks.

These are different fare classes within Business. So you have J, C, Z, I, D etc. It varies by airline so there's no fixed order. Different classes have different restrictions (max/ min stay, advance purchase, stopovers, change fees) and cost different amounts.

On EK, the fare bucket for full fare Business Class is J, while that for upgrades and redemptions is now D. This doesn't really make a difference to the novice traveller, but when you're looking for an award, it's good to know which fare bucket you're looking for.

Similarly, P = Suites, F = First, A = discounted first, Y = full fare economy, B,M,U,H,K,V etc etc are various fare buckets in Economy.

Thanks. That's why we need to wait for the availability before we can upgrade.

Out of interest when did EK change from I to D for upgrade from Y to J? I last upgraded 3 weeks ago and the fare class was still I.

This happened very recently. There's a thread about it somewhere.

Where does it say on the e-ticket which class you are in?