Hello all, a friend of mine is doing LHR-HKG on EK and right now is booked in economy. Does EK (depending on load factor obviously) sell upgrades to J at check in at a reduced rate? If they ever do this would anyone know about how much this would cost? Thanks a lot

millsdale, welcome to the EK forum.

Sadly, EK don't operate the way of the US carriers re the up-selling of Y to J. Your friend would have to pay the difference in fares between what he/she paid and the published C/J fare on the day. The amount would be outrageous.

The best advice we could give you is for your friend to join Skywards. Then if they have a Starwood account, transfer any points (its 1 to 1) so better than UA.

You need 52,500 miles to upgrade from Y to J for LHR-HKG one-way (based on a Flex fare). Reward upgrades are not status driven, in the sense that they are allocated on a first come, first served basis. You can track inventory via ExpertFlyer.

Skywards will also let you purchase up to 25,000 miles per annum (but after 01 July, the cost is 4 cents a mile, which is also outrageous). In addition, they have also announced that you can transfer miles (up to 25,000 per account) for 2.5 cents a mile.

So if you can scrabble together SPG points and transfer them to your friends Skywards account, this would be the best bet. And if you have to top them up with a purchase, it's still probably going to be a lot cheaper than purchasing at the counter.

Hope this helps...

They do this on the very rare occasion, such as out of ATH where loads were miserable til they got rid of the second daily flight. But usually, it would be what eightblack said - fare difference.

Thanks, I suppose I do not blame EK for wanting to keep a proper F and J cabin, you can't do the fire sale check in upgrades and still keep a proper cabin.

Last time I was at Singapore airport considering to upgrade from discount business to 1st class, the agent at the desk got out a sheet which had various set rates to pay to upgrade which was easier and cheaper than a fare difference and reissue would have been

One more way, which you cannot request and can only hope for... sometimes EK does email offers for upgrades a couple of days before departure. That is, they send emails to selected passengers, providing a specific code where the passengers can key in on the EK's website for upgrading to next cabin, at a discounted rate.

How often they do this on LHR-DXB/DXB-HKG routes, I am not sure (but not too optimistic as these routes seem premium demand-heavy). On the route I usually travel on EK (Trans-Tasman), email offers are common (receive them more than half of all times I fly them).

I heard that email upgrades offers are provided to passengers who book on EK's website and are Skyward members. Perhaps someone can verify this.

Had the upgrade offer email when flying PVG-DXB, and got op-up at check in to J. Similiar email on DXB-MAN flight, but no op-up then. I suspect it gets sent out when flights are overbooked, hence an attempt to make some money instead of handing out free op-ups.

They even did that in late April when the second flight was already out of the way - the offer for an upgrade Y->J was 150 EUR and J->F at 200 EUR. Hardly the fare difference (I believe), but this offer was only valid for the ATH-DXB sector. I guess several people had used the J->F upgrade as the F cabin got full while only 5 seats had been reserved the day before.