eightblack

I can only speak from my own experience. It is entirely dependent on the station you fly out of and the discretion lies with the load controller/staff working the flight.

Most EK people will tell you that if the flight is oversold, they will (or should) look to the elites first (ie Gold/Silver/Blue) in that order.

I know in SIN, this is what they do. But I have also seen SIN over-ride this. MEL tends to go by the book as well (if thats what you want to call it)

I have no idea what on earth DXB do. Have never been op-upped out of there.

If it's busy, I doubt if the staff (who in many cases are contract) have time or the inclination to drill down into future bookings, fare class, tier miles etc etc. They probably wouldn't even know anyway what it meant.

Sometimes, being in the right place at the right time helps. I see people all the time in DXB approach the service counter asking to be put on the OP-UP list or enquiring as to their chances of an op-up.

Will be in Dubai in early March. You can be sure this is one of the questions high on the list when we meet with Skywards

JTXC

Dubai in early March? Is there another EK event?

rathin100

+1

I think it's totally random and at outstations done alphabetically or in other silly ways.
I used to do at least 70k worth of travel on EK personally in 2009 and 2010 and was responsible for 5times that for my organization, all in J I have never ever been upgraded by EK Random people who we have invited or booked tickets for have been. Not so for Y to J upgrades which seem completely routine for Golds resulting in overstuffed J cabins al the time and a zoo of a lounge in DXB.
As a result we now only use EK if they are cheap or terribly convenient as
the Gold Card is so easy to get and so useless that its hardly worth the effort
To our surprise, both LH and BA have been far more proactive on the upgrade front.

GigoloArt

I can confirm that at outstations, selection for op-up is sometimes random (but among tier classes).

jiggyjig

Xxxxx

ft101

I don't think there is a definitive answer. It was previously thought on here that the initial selection was by status, although some are casting doubt on this now.

If anyone does know for sure, they aren't telling us FTers.

AF 001

A station supervisor of an European outstation told me, that they will print a list of the Skywardmembers booked and select then the lucky ones by by status. They also consider the Tier Miles to date in case they have f. e. to upgrade two passengers, but five Gold Members booked in the overbooked cabin, so the one with the most Tier Miles to date will get upgradet.

I asume that in DXB the computer will process the upgrades, or at least will suggest potential passengers for an upgrade, there is too much traffic, not sure if the flight controller will go manually trough a list.

One time I was booked in J asked in the DXB Lounge if the flight is full, they checked and told me that 5 seats are empty in J. Then I asked her if she can assign me a seat were the next seat is empty. She tried to relocate my seat, smiled and printed a Boarding Pass for First. Means in 30 seconds J was filled up with at least six seats and I was moved to F. Dont believe that this was done manually.

MarkLHR

I know LHR upgrades by status as they told me that. Within the tier It could be random. I recently upgraded from Y to J with miles and then at the gate I was oped up from J to F. Obviously happy but would have been miffed if I'd been a J fare paying passenger and saw someone else get upgraded who had only bought a Y ticket.

Don't forget, a flight can have seats in J or F at check in available and gold/silver card holders may be on a wait list to upgrade with miles..you generally don't find out if you have been lucky until the flight has closed for check in.

darthlemsip

This was our first time ever flying on Emirates, and we'd only enrolled in Skywards when we booked, so we only had blue status, no miles etc, and as per my earlier post we got OpUp'd from J => F on DXB-MLE

sadiqhassan

I have seen a few times when the whole J cabin is opupped to F (most recently DXB-DAR) at which point everyone status or no status enjoys the bump.

whimike

My gut feeling is that it was right time/right place. The guy boarding in front of me also got the op-up, and I noticed several J class collected boarding passes in the basket, several of which had GOLD written meaning the person was skywards gold. There were 2 people on my PNR and both of us got upgraded, so counting the guy in front of me there are 3 of the 4 F seats available being upgraded right then and there.

jackiedada

Here is a recent experience. I did EK501 in F last month and a couple of hrs before leaving for the airport I used EF to check the seat availability - it showed 1 seat still available in F. When I was boarded, I noticed.

A. EK had switched the 777 from the one with Private suites to an older one with skycruisers. So, now there were 12 seats in F in a 2-2-2 * 2 config rather than 8 in the usual 1-2-1 * 2 for the Private Suites.

B. The entire F cabin was full!! So, apparently 5 people got op-upped to F from J. The guy next to me (I was in 1A), was most surely opped up because we were both going to JFK I found him in J on EK 201.

So yes, EK will op-up as many required to get a full flight.....

GigoloArt

As someone else noted, it doesn't need to be op-ups all the time guys, it can be also someone who upgrades with miles, it could be a flight divert from a different airline (this also happens). Don't count only on the things that you see.

rathin100

True and I know from the full J cabins I fly in all the time which (on checking with the purser sometimes) are full of opups that the Y to J. Opup policy is truly liberal. Even with empty seats in Y EK wil oftentimes opup to J so Y flyers should discount my moaning.

J flyers on the other hand be warned, the always full cabins in J are unpleasant on the 777 workhorse, especially ULHs (A380 is OK, I don't do 340, and 330 is rubbish in all classes) as they are stuffed with narrow lie flats 2x3x2, and can even mean that if you don't preselect your seat a middle seat could be your fate on a paid ticket while an opup gets the aisle.

I've seen it happen to others and it's happened once to me when I was not Gold... And even as Gold they tried to, once

jackiedada

It does not have to be all op-ups, but as the Y cabin was oversold (no seat availability on the EK website or expert flyer), my guess would be that most of the extra folks in F were opped up. And since I do this flight 6-8 times a year (for the past 7-8 years or so), my impression is also based a bit on experience.

It could, but as no other airline that I am aware of operates an F out of Mumbai to Dubai except EK, I would kind of rule this out.