Bidding for upgrades
 

I see Etihad are introducing this:

If you have a confirmed Coral Economy or Pearl Business Class ticket and your flight has seats available for potential upgrade, you will receive an email 10 days prior to departure from Plusgrade.
If you wish to upgrade, simply click on the ‘Upgrade Now’ icon from the email which will lead you to the bidding platform managed by PlusGrade.
Choose the amount you are willing to pay for the upgrade and submit your credit card details. The amount will be deducted only if your bid has been successful.
You will receive a confirmation email two days prior to departure informing the status of your bid.

Dont think I would welcome this on EK as less chance of free and mile upgrades...

I heard from a colleague yesterday that EK have a "new system" (as it was described to him) for paid upgrades at the airport. He got a Coach to Biz LGW to DXB for GBP325.00. This will not bode well for opups or last minute / on board upgrades with miles.

EK in the USA has been doing something similar for the last 2 years...coach to business to DXB for USD990. But they only do it on overbooked flights during high season. Plus no lounge, chauffer drive, etc..

This is a smart way of doing it, I think.

But if you start reliably auctioning off upgrades at cheap rates (which EY seems to be doing now), there can be significant second order effects from that, e.g. people not booking biz tix anymore in the first place. For each person who decides to buy an economy ticket instead of a biz ticket, you probably need five paid upgraders to compensate. I think the viability of the biz cabin can be at risk.

And, of course, as an Elite flyer, I personally do not like at all that airlines start selling those remaining seats instead of operationally upgrading me.

I've had a few emails from Emirates a week or so before departure saying theyre seats in Business and asking if I want to upgrade for ~£200. Its always been DXB->CMB which is a quiet route in Buisness if not going to Jakarta after.

I've been offered Y-J upgrades on EK from BHX/LHR - DXB for £250 in the past.

I've also seen EY's Plusgrade system for myself. On a recent flight from LHR-AUH I was on a paid J ticket, and was offered the chance to bid for an upgrade to F. I declined, but once I was on the plane both premium cabins were full. I can only assume that most of the F seats were taken by people bidding for upgrades from J, and the J cabin was full of Y pax upgrading. This was further compounded when I noticed that the first section of the Y cabin (well over 100 seats?) was totally, totally empty.

J return from DXB to CMB is AED4300 while Y is usually AED2500 so in effect by paying GBP200 you will end up paying the full fare both ways.

DXB/CMB doesnt go to Jakarta, one of the flights goes to Singapore. Personally having flown the route around once a month J seems to be pretty full most of the time.

Personally, I dislike EY's bid system. The system will be subject to abuse and can easily be manipulated just like ebay's shell bidding if there are 2 or more passengers who are 'friends' in the same flight with separate booking reference.

I like emirates over the counter cash upgrade. This year I got twice LHR--> DXB to J one way for £275. However, I have never managed to get it on return DXB-->LHR

On EY if you win the bid do you get the improved level of miles for flying in a higher class? or what you booked?

On a flight from DOH to AUH I was offered the upgrade, and here was some of the text on a successful completion of the bid:

Great thanks Omar84. I actually quite like the sound of the idea - if we could bid with miles it would be even better!!!

I dearly hope that EK do not go down this route.

Looking at the way that NZ and EY are running things, you are just as well to spend your cash on the J/F ticket up front? Will it not encourage people to gamble on paying for a lower class, thereby losing potential revenue?

I'm finding it hard enough to spend my growing pile of miles as it is at the moment!