Upgrading at check-in
 

The (very) soon-to-be wife and I are going on Honeymoon to Dubai and the Maldives next week, flying with Emirates from Manchester. I've always wanted to take her business or first class - I've done it several times with work and as great an experience as it is it's never the same when you're alone or with colleagues that you may or may not necessarily get along with.

Whilst I'd originally planned for us to go biz-class all the way, someone (not me :)) let their imagination run away on both the wedding and the holiday itself to the point where the budget put aside for that seemed to vanish into thin air.

From what I've been told and what I've read, the chances of getting a free upgrade, honeymoon or no honeymoon, are limited at best; particularly if you're not a frequent flyer with Emirates, which neither of us are. So that option doesn't look like a viable one either. It's not something I really want to leave to chance, especially when the chances are small to none.

What I wondered was whether it was possible to upgrade just one leg of the flight, for example MAN - DXB or DXB to MLE, assuming there's availability, at the check-in desk. When I spoke to my travel agent, they told me it was only possible to upgrade either outbond or inbound in full, not just a particular leg, however I thought that they might be more receptive at check-in as to avoid letting higher value seats go empty.

Does anyone know if this is possible, and if so whether the pro-rate cost is typically any more or less than having booked a higher class up front?

Cheers

Jonny

I remember reading a post here that EK had offered upgrades at Check-in for around GBP 250-300 Ex-LON for LON-DXB sectors. Of course this is all availability based so you might check the loads a day or two before to see what are your chances . . .

let me see if I can find the post

There you are . . .

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...0-upgrade.html

Good Luck!

Hi JonnyA, welcome to FT and congratulations

Like Ghandi said, they will allow you to upgrade for cash at check-in either for just MAN-DXB or MAN-MLE. However, there is no guarantee on availability or reasonableness of price and I wouldn't hold my breath to be honest.

Another option is pray for an upgrade email offers which EK tend to send out a couple of days to a week pre-flight. I would sign-up the two of you to Skywards and hope for the best unless you can find a mate of yours who has miles to upgrade you and you can get him back in future.