I think so. If I think it through, the emails are not given out on every flight. Y being oversold is hit or miss. Therefore, there is no guarantee a Gold will get into J if they book a Y ticket. Most J flyers will continue to book gauranteed J, I don't think most will start booking Y on the assumption they will always get into J.

If the flight is oversold in Y then some Golds will likely get upgraded for free, so why not send them an email to try to get them to pay some money? Give them 24 hours to respond, then send to the Silver, wait 24 hours then send to non-status flyers. That way the Gold has an opportunity to pay to upgrade before non-status, but eventually so do non-status which takes away the op-up percentage, which will then make Golds think about actually paying for the upgrade rather than declining and thinking its an auto-op-up potential.

The way it is done right now is Golds are bypassed and the op-up potential is reduced since non-status can upgrade. Its a pitiful situation for Golds flying in Y, if its a flight with upgrade emails.

But that isn't the case. I've received upgrade offer emails as a Gold when my non-status colleagues didn't receive them. I've also had my non-status colleagues receive offers when I as a Gold didn't. There really doesn't appear to be any obvious pattern with this.

So it really isn't that EK is intentionally not targeting Golds for the upgrade offers. Sometimes Golds get the offer and sometimes they don't. Knowing the way the systems work (the Skywards CMS is an entirely separate module from the Revenue Optimisation suite), I cannot imagine that status pays any role in determining who gets the offers and who doesn't.

But shouldn't status play a role?

Why? Does status give you better availability for buying "Saver" fares rather than "Flex" fares? Should I be upset that your ex-Nairobi fare in Business Class is 1/3 the price per mile flown of my ex-Accra fare in Economy Class? This is no different. Different horses for different courses.

My local station (Accra) offers upgrades to Dubai at check-in for $1000 one-way. This is available to anyone, status or not, subject to availability of seats and catering. Other stations have similar local programs to boost revenue. Indeed, most airlines have some sort of similar program nowadays.

A status customer has published benefits and your benefits are not being eroded by this program. Your benefits ARE being eroded elsewhere. Better to focus on requesting your actual benefits than inventing a perceived slight on something you weren't "entitled" to in the first place.

I am about to board the DFW -> DXB portion of my "ex-Nairobi fare in Business Class is 1/3 the price per mile flown of my ex-Accra fare in Economy Class". Will respond once I get to DXB.

I agree with B747-437B. There's no reason ALL the benefits of flying an airline should go to status members first. We'll end up with an American style airline where the flying experience is rubbish for 90% of travelers and great for the elites.

Emirates does need to cater to the masses. The elites have already chosen to direct a large amount of business to the airline for whatever reason. Yes, they should do something to encourage those with more business to keep flying, but people like eightblack already do so.

Everybody can buy the same fares, everybody has the option of upgrading their fare to the next class of service (if paying the fare difference), everybody with a J ticket can go in the business lounge. That is all the norm, and consistent with every airline.

There is no reason to by upset about the cost of fares for different Origins/Destinations as it is typically competition among airlines that cause the prices to be what they are.

The fare difference between Y an J from ACC -> DXB is $1,400 each way, so a $1,000 offer is reasonably consistent with nearly paying the fare difference. In the case of LAX -> DXB, or DXB -> SFO, when the offer from EK is $750 to upgrade and the fare difference is over $5,000 each way, then this is a very special offer, and it is only available to those people that are targeted.

When EK does decide to offer upgrades via e-mail I have stated that it is frustrating to me that they don't send them out with any preference to status customers. If nothing else, it would be interesting to hear the reason they have decided to do it this way.

technical error
 

I received an upgrade email invitation for one of my flight legs today...

unfortunately every time I try to upgrade in the manage my booking section the system returns a message that there was a technical error and I should try later :( (it now is later, and still not working)

anybody experienced this before?

I have never experienced an upgrade email so can't help with the online procedure. However, I would suggest calling Emirates if you want the upgrade as others may take the offer before you.

Can you let us know if you are a Gold, Silver, or Blue Skywards member?

I'm an EK Silver and this was my first upgrade email...

It specifically states in the email that the upgrade can't be booked through a telephone service center which the service center confirmed when I called them...

will try at the airport and see what happens...

Where do you enter the upgrade code?
 

Hi!
Thought I'd give the code a try on some flights I have booked but I don't know how to enter the code - I'm probably being 'blonde' so any help would be ppreciated - worth a try!

Emirates.com -> Plan & Book -> Manage a Booking

I did that but couldn't see anywhere where you could add the code - the only upgrade option it gave was to use points for an upgrade - am I staring at something obvious?

Try using this link. Input the offer code in the last box on this page (the code you received in the email)
https://fly2.emirates.com/MYB/MMBLogin.aspx

Enter the code before you "retrieve booking"