Using Miles to Upgrade DXB - LON
 

I want to use miles to upgrade to Business from Dubai to London (either Gatwick or Heathrow, preferably LHR) in the first/second week of June.

I still haven't booked flights... are there certain flights on the DXB-LON sector that are easier to upgrade using miles than ? I've heard doing this on the 0745 EK1 Heathrow run is nearly impossible nowadays...how about the 8am flight to Gatwick, or others?

I'd love to get on the A380, or if not, then the B777-300ERs with the latest Business class product.

Thanks

From my experience the easier ones are EK005, 011, 029

Problem is EK005 (late afternoon dep to LHR) has the standard B777-300 with the old style business class..

Or have they refurbished these and brought them up to B777-300ER standard?

All 12 of the 777-300s in the fleet have been re-furbished and now sport new Lie-flats in J.

So now there's difference at all between the 77Ws and 777-300 when it comes to the product offering in the cabin?

First of all not all 77Ws are the same, there are various sub-fleets and some are even still configured with the old recliners.

If you are comparing to the 77Ws used to LHR then the J & Y product are the same but for F the 77W have the Private-Suites while the 773 have Skycruisers. In addition the 77Ws have the ICE Digital WS while the 773 has regular ICE.

Check availability before you book. Then you can see exactly what is available and when, including which aircraft. If you see something acceptable, book it and immediately upgrade.

Just called Skywards, they said no availability on EK1 and EK3, this is for first week of June. The guy did say it's still early and the seats might not have been released.

I have a feeling though that there probably won't be availability on these flights anyway because they are A380.

Should I book EK 3 (afternoon A380 flight) or EK 29 (late morning 77W) to maximise my chances?

You can check upgrade availability on ExpertFlyer.

I did the same upgrade in February on EK 1.

Submitted my request through Skywards well in advance, wasn't untill about 48-36 hours before departure that I received an e-mail saying I had been successfull. They hold the seats to see if they can sell them first before releasing them for upgrade, which is fair enough.

Bit of a gamble, but worth it if you get J on the A380. As they say up to you.

Regards

IMO the best way to predict the most likely metal on a particular route is to check what equipment has historically flown that route as the info on ek.com's "Services by Flight" are only indicative. This seems to be a good source for this data:

http://data.flight24.com/flights/ek5/

You can then cross reference the aircraft against Emirates777's excellent information here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...-emirates.html

FYI - In last two weeks, EK005 has been operated by a B777-300 with lie-flats, except of 6th April (B777-300ER with lie-flats), and 4th April when A6-EBJ was deployed with the dreaded "Deep Reclining Comfort" in J. Pretty good odds if past performance is anything to go by!

Useful site, never knew that existed.. thanks.

I decided to go for EK029 instead of EK1 or EK3. Been in biz on the A380 before anyway, and I think Ill have more of a chance of an upgrade on the EK029.

The summer exodus out of Dubai begins roughly around the period of my flight... ill be checking religiously for availability ;)