hi there,

Looking for some help.I'm in on the EK 18 Flight from MAN-DXB on 7th Dec (t'row) looking at the online seating, there's around 30 odd Y seats free. Checking for Upgrade, there's availability in Bus. Class.

Should I just wait until Check in t'row and ask for an Upgrade if not Op Uped until then, or just bite the bullet and Upgrade it tonight itself. I was hoping that the Y Class is almost fully booked with a lots of Bus. Class seats vacant. Do they upgrade you like 2-3 years back through Op Up's or am I just having a wishful thinking here.

I tried looking in EF, but for some reasons, cant get into my account tonight.
I'm Gold by the way , if that's going to make any difference.

Cheers

Sky Jumper

As you have left it too late to book cheufur drive, best to see if u get op up at check in or the gate. If no op up then ask onboard to upgrade with miles but make sure you ask at check in or the lounge how full business is. That way you know that business is not going to be full by the time u ask when onboard.

The seat map can be unpredictable at times. Check via the seat map around 6hrs prior to departure and see what the load looks like.

I would then check in as per normal. If an op-up is going to happen, you should know by then.

Sometimes, it might come down to the gate. But this happened rarely in my experience.

If you want to upgrade using miles, let the staff in the lounge work it out for you. They can talk to the gate about releasing seats and getting you your preference.

Good luck. Let us know how you go.

thanx eshaq786 and eightblack for your replies.

Congrats eightblack on your new Promotion to be the moderator.

I will try doing that, will check nearer to the departure time, around 6 hours before and also will check with the check -in staff.

One thing I have noticed is that, as the Check in is done by the Airport staff, you usually don't get the last minute Upgrade at the Gate, never happened to me or to any one I know for that matter. It has happened a couple of times at the Lounge, but never at the Gate, I stand corrected, any time

As for the chauffeur drive, I don't care too much as I'm close to the Airport and the Company car always let me get to the Airport, less than 15 mins. So except for the time I arrive on Weekends I never has called in that service. it works out better for me, anyway.

Do you guys think checking in Online will make any difference? Or If I were to check in at the Airport desk, would arriving early - would it help. Or just leave it and arrive like 90 mins before the flight without checking in online and take my chance?

Skyjumper007

Thanks for your note.

With regards to EK upgrades, I think this is the way it works, but am determined to clarify this with an official EK person in the coming months.

The EK res system hands over the flight to "airport control" at the 24-hr mark. That means the flight is managed by the airport staff, although EK will still let you adjust/select seats via the Manage Your Booking function within that 24-hr window.

If the flight is oversold, then the ground staff will have most likely identified all the op-ups at the 2-3hr window (I know all my op-ups have been handled at the check-in counter). Only once did it happen at the lounge and that was really only for seat assignment, as I was told at check in that the upgrade was being processed, to go to the lounge and someone would hand me a new BP.

It's as basic as looking for all the Golds, then Silvers, then Blues (if need be). I don't think they look at actual fare code, tier miles to date, length of membership etc.

That's ok for flights which aren't elite heavy. But what about flights ex DXB which might have 30+ Golds on board. How do they process op-ups then?

And from my experience, OCLI makes no difference.

thanks again,

forgot to mention that it's the A380 I'm taking from MAN t'row and heard that it's almost always light up there compared to the Y class, for some strange reason. I guess one could be that there are more seats there compared to the normal 300 series airlines.

EF is showing the following

1. Only 2 F seats available
2. Only 19 J seats
3. 96 seats in Y

You should use this as a guide only. There may be plenty of Y passengers who are booked on the flight but they haven't been allocated a seat yet (there's still a lot of people who aren't Skywards members). That 96 could be a lot less.

J could be the same - although not as bad. The system says its prepared to sell 4 seats in J or C or I.

And I would think F would be an accurate indicator.

You'll find that at around the 6hr mark, you'll see a lot of seats in Y disappear as the systems starts to allocate seating. If it doesn't move a great deal you'll know that the flight isn't that full.

Sometimes a friendly EK staffer might tell you the load. I always call SIN and they tell me (within limits).

Thanx Eightblack,

will kepp you posted.

the EK MMB page showed a lot less Y seats being available.

anyway will see

thanks again

Did you get those numbers counting the free seats, or availability by fare bucket? I might have checked 9 hours before my flight, and at that point even though fare buckets were all wide open, there were only 20 odd empty seats on the seat map.

Checked again at around 6 hours to departure and as Eightblack suggested there are plenty of Seats showing in the Y class ( approx. 90) which are not allocated, yet!

So I guess my chances are slim, but will try at Check in and in case anything happens, will keep posted,

thanx guys

Hi guys,

just an upgrade , uhm, sorry Update

No chance at the check in or in lounge and a friendly staff mentioned that load was really low in the Y, so went in with a view to Upgrade on board. But there was nearly no one near the rear of the Aircraft ( my actual seat no was 81A) , but ended up taking the whole row 81 D,E,F,G, and slept for almost 6 hours with no disturbance what so ever from the Staff. What I found interesting was that it was very comfortable lying complete flat with all the arm rests completely up and no many passengers to stare at me, a bit unethical, but to be honest I enjoyed it better than the actual Bus.Class travel

in a nutshell never got the Op Up's and ended up saving those miles for some other rainy day. On a positive note, got Op Up ed on my onward flight from DXB.

Thanks eightblack and Ung1 for your replies