mrtdxb

Unless you are with him at check in with your card it will definitely not work and even if you are it might not work as my wife tried same thing with her sister and because they were not travelling on same flight the upgrade request was refused. I am not sure if you logged into your account then accessed his booking and tried to check him in online if you could during that process use your miles to upgrade him. All subject to availability of course!

onlysuites

Availability is there. If I do online check-in for him will it give me the option then? What about the Call centre, can they pull off anything?

mrtdxb

I am not sure - others may know but in meantime you can try the call center - maybe they can tell you how to do so online if they cannot help you directly.

onlysuites

Call centre saying they can't do anything as its a group booking. Even though the PNR has now been split.

jackiedada

Is your brother on a saver fare? Do remember that only certain fare classes are eligible for upgrades before check-in opens.

onlysuites

No idea. Was told by EK that the fare qualifies for a upgrade 24hrs prior to the flight. Anyway could not upgrade him prior to his flight.

iQi

Hello FT,

I've been lurking a lot around these fantastic forums

I'm Skywards Silver and traveling EK DXB-LAX-DXB this summer. I always travel J, but this time I'm planning to book J outbound and Y inbound because fares for J both legs is very high now. The plan is to use miles to upgrade my return flight Y -> J as I will have enough miles after the first leg.

Are there any particular issues with this? I'm a bit confused with saver/flex things and need some advice to avoid disappointment.
If for any reason I couldn't use miles for the return upgrade, is it ALWAYS possible to pay cash for the upgrade?

Would appreciate your experienced views.

ukdoctor

I can see two potential issues . One is the return trip being booked as a saver fare and being potentially un-upgradable till check in. However None of my tickets booked as a J out Y in had this issue ( even though the Y bit was saver). AFAIK its only some saver fares which cannot be upgraded till check in. Even if you are unable to upgrade prior to check in or even at check in you can still request an onboard upgrade using miles. (Silver and above can do this ).Remember to carry your skywards card with you( Some members have reported that they were asked to show it).
You still don't have any guarantee and on some flights J is packed!!!

Whenever I book a ticket in the same manner You have planned , I always check the availability of D class seats ( saver reward and upgrade) prior to booking my ticket. I then upgrade immediately. I've seen seats disappear in 30 min!!!!. Since you don't have the required miles there is no guarantee that the seats will still be there when you have accumulated the required miles.( even if they are available now)

If you have spg points etc which can be converted into skywards I suggest that you do it and do the upgrades( after planning your trip around available flights ). You seem to be keen on flying back in J anyway since you are prepared to do a cash upgrade so better safe than sorry!

iQi

Thanks for the response doc,

How can I check availability of D?

When I'm going through the booking process on emirates.com for the dates/classes I mentioned, I do get a message with the selected flights saying that they can only be upgraded at check in. The return is a Y Saver why the first leg is J Flex.

eternaltransit

Sign up at www.expertflyer.com and use the Award availability tool - probably the easiest method!

Your return Y saver is most likely not upgradeable before check-in. You could always give EK a call to check. However, you can purchase an upgrade online for cash for the fare difference and change fee. You may be lucky enough to be sent an offer email in the time leading up to your flight, but I wouldn't hold out for one if you are adamant on flying J for the return.

Regarding upgrading for cash at the airport - if there is space, of course it can be done. They may or may not have a special fare ex-LAX which should be on the order of 1000 USD+. Space, though, will depend on a few things - if the flight is extremely busy in Y, the controller may have already pre-upgraded some Y status pax to J. If some of these newly J pax have checked in, especially online, that's space gone. There may not be any further space in F to op-up additional J status pax to accommodate your on the day cash upgrade. There may be hassle that the controller has to deal with so will rather forgo the seat juggling that might ensue from processing a cash upgrade 2-3 hours before closing the flight and stick with preassigned op-ups. In short, if you are set on upgrading to J, I would do it with cash as early as possible, as you are unlikely to be able to upgrade with miles in time before the seat juggling game starts!

iQi

Thanks for the insights, ET.

So, EF is showing (today) no D class for any day in September, just O class and it's zero availability anyway!
Could D's appear later on if they don't exist today? I've set an alert for that anyway.

iQi

Thanks for the insight and useful tips, ET.

Just checked on EF: there are no D seats around my date in September (D is not even mentioned, just O with zero available seats).

Could D's appear later on, or O's become available? I set an alert for that anyway.

I also checked alternative routes and SFO-LAX shows 7 D's today! Same ex-SEA.
How is 7 considered in EK world? Will they go quickly?

jackiedada

7 is almost unheard of! The most I've seen is D5. Are you sure you are checking SFO-DXB / LAX-DXB?

iQi

Yesterday it showed D7 on SFO-DXB, none on LAX-DXB as I mentioned. Today it's down to D5 on ex-SFO flights, plus O7 and Z1!

Anyone can confirm my understanding that the difference between D and O is that O is for award seats only, not for upgrade?

ft101

O is for Flex Rewards. D is for Saver Rewards as well as Upgrades.

Saver Rewards require less miles but have more restrictions.