IndoPilot

Firstly, great website! Going to take me a while to work my way around

Ok, so I've been flying with Emirates for over three years now and maintained silver for most of that and have amassed a number of miles that I thought I'd like to use for an upgrade.

After a week of trying on their terrible website, I booked a return flex fare (CGK - LHR in May) with economy outbound and returning business with the plan to upgrade the outbound leg. I checked there were business class seats available on Emirate's website before booking but it seems I'm unable to upgrade either online or via their call centre.

The chap I spoke to helpfully told me all upgrade fares are gone for my outbound leg so I've been put on a "waitlist" with no guarantee of being able to buy that upgrade. I'm not especially happy as I could easily have booked with Malaysian or Qatar for less and got business class both ways but opted to stick with Emirates for my rewards which I can't use now!

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is phone and check upgrade availability before you book. I wish I'd known that before I'd booked

Not sure what to do now. Seriously considering cancelling the ticket and rebooking elsewhere but I know that'll probably cost me as Emirates will probably take a cancellation fee off me

ft101

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Hindsight is a great thing isn't it?

For future reference, you can find out from Expert Flyer or from the Emirates website whether upgrades are available before you book, as well as calling.

All is not lost though, as upgrades may become available again before you fly. Keep an eye out for them or set up an alert with Expert Flyer (paid service). Upgrades are often released just 24 or 48 hours before a flight. As a Silver member you can also request a miles upgrade at check in or even on-board.

IndoPilot

Cheers for the welcome

Out of interest, where on Emirate's website can you check if upgrades are available? I had a look but didn't see it anywhere. Their site also seems to have undergone a change over the weekend which threw me a bit too!

Must check out that Expert Flyer as I'd not heard of it.

Not sure I want to risk waiting until the last minute to be honest as it's a long way in cattle class! Will call them again tomorrow and see what they say.

ukdoctor

Try to book a saver award in Business using the EK website. Both saver award and upgrades cone from the same bucket (D). So that means that if there are J seats available to be purchased for miles then there are seats available for upgrades to J as well.

ukdoctor

If you still have problems then post the date with the flight numbers and someone over here might be able to check availability for you.

Zol

All is not lost, depending on when you are flying upgrades will open up more likely than not unless its around the busy xmas / new years / holiday periods etc

Dave Noble

Looking at the CGK-LHR fares, it would look like there will be a USD150 cancellation penalty, so not too bad if you do want to cancel and rebook.

Would seem worth it to me to get business class both ways and save the miles for a time when the award travel gives decent value and is available

jackiedada

I would tend to agree with the above.

IndoPilot

Travelling 00:40 on 13th May (EK359 & EK001).

To be honest I'm feeling very underwhelmed by Emirate's customer support and if I do end up cancelling will be very unlikely to use Emirates again. Their whole "computer says no" attitude is very frustrating. They're always more expensive than any of the competition for this route and I chose them as I enjoy their service but they're letting me down bit time now. And if it's always going to be this difficult to spend my Skywards miles then why bother collecting them?

Task Force DL

Sorry for your frustration but trust me, EK has a decent FF program and way above average customer support. Yes, the IT system could use some work, but overall, the miles are great value. If you doubt me, venture over to the DL forum (I have flown over 2MM actual miles on DL) and you will see what a crappy FF program is. A biz class ticket JFK-ANYWHERE_IN_EUROPE (RT) can cost up 330,000 miles on DL. Asia can be even more!

TFD

Dave Noble

In what way are they "letting you down" . That their fare is higher than a competitor is just a business decision on what they believe that they can charge. That you paid that, shows tha they were correct in relation to your purchase

Award availability is not guaranteed and no different to anyone else wishing to upgrade

the "computer says no" issue , to me, shows a consistent approach to dealing with customers and not a "whine hard enough we will cave" approach which is good

If they are providing what you booked, how are they letting you down?

The cancellation penalty is not very much and , if another carrier is significantly cheaper, would seem only sensible to rebook

IndoPilot

Well, I've opted to move the flights (as that's free thankfully) to September as I need to be back in the UK for a wedding. Still no upgrade availability though on 11th Sept or anywhere near those dates according to the girl on the phone, so I really do have to wonder how on earth I'm ever going to spend these miles?! I'm back on the "waitlist" but I don't really understand how long that will take, I assume it's until the day of the flight?

As for the price, I was happy to pay the premium for Emirates, as I thought I could upgrade to business as there was availability. As it turns out I'm unable to, so I do feel a little cheated as I could have booked elsewhere and got a full business return ticket.

I hear what you're saying about the computer keeping things fair which I do understand, I just wish it was easier to check on upgrade fare availability on Emirates' website. I didn't know they had different classes within the business class seats and the ones I need to book were full.

Live and learn I guess!

scwappy

I thought the ability to go on an upgrade waitlist had gone ?

jackiedada

EK has 5 daily A380 serving LHR (thats close to 400 daily J seats), so I am quite surprised that there is no upgrade availability.

Here is a suggestion. I am not sure whether the girl on the phone did a complete search or just wanted to talk you off. So, take an Expert Flyer trial subscription. The premium services are free for the first 7 days. Then search for "D" class availability - that's the upgrade class availability. Whichever date it shows "D 1" is the date you want to aim for.

Hope this helps and good luck.

ukdoctor

there was avaialbility on Ek 369 and EK 357 on 13th May. Connecting to Ek 9 EK 15 or EK11 to LGW However only EK 5 to LHR

EK 369 and Ek 357 still has 7 seats in the D category and the other connections from DXB to LGW / LHR has 5-7 seats !!!!!!


Edit: Noted that you have changed to 11th September. This is the only day in which there is no available upgrades!!!!

10th Sept EK 369 then EK 5 at least 5 D seats on both sectors

11th Sept . No available upgrades at the moment.

12th 13th and 14th Spetember EK 369 and then Ek 5 . at least 5 D seats

I thought that you would have checked first before amending your booking???