Nope not always. Have travelled in Y. Usually travel in Y when on holiday, The upgrade rules are the same it's just that you are at the front of the queue if they have OP UP's. they are pretty good at getting you a bulk head tho!

Really? I would have that that, due to the exclusivity of the card, that your were always opup'd no matter what. Now I know!

I recently saw an IO cardholder coming to my flight at CPH. He was even giving his own boarding call long before the handicapped passengers were loaded. The rest of us boarded 20 mins later

If an Io asks to have a comp upgrade if the flight is not full, staff are requested to kindly and politely explain that its not allowed and should they wish to use their miles or pay they may do so.

Wow! then what is the advantage of the card?

Like all these cards I think the benefits are incremental rather than a huge leap from the next tier. I won't bore you with the benefits tangible and intangible just to say it is a step up from platinum and Ek staff do treat you extremely well which in my mind is a benefit better than guaranteed upgrades which would make no commercial sense for Ek.

Flew to Jakarta yesterday (from Dubai) - no recognition on the flight at all - never mind, no big deal.

NB. When I checked in I asked (as I always do) if there was any exit seats available, I was told they had all been taken. Got to the First Class lounge - asked again when presenting my boarding pass, was told again that none were available as they were all taken, so asked if a note could be put against my name should a seat become available, the lady duly obliged and typed into her computer (what she typed of course I have no idea).

I was sat in the front cabin for the flight - walked back during the flight to stretch my legs - in the first row of exit seats (6 seats) 4 were occupied by children, one maybe 6 or 7 years old. I have no idea if they were in the seats during take off or landing.

I walked further back and saw that both the middle seats on the 2nd exit row were empty - the passengers in window and aisle seats were using the middle tray as a resting place for drinks (as I do.)

I would have hoped, that having asked twice and a note being placed and that I'm a Platinum member, that I might have been asked if I'd like a middle seat on the exit row.

As far as the children re concerned, I doubt this was approved by the crew. There is a reason why you can't book these seats beforehand... you have to be capable of helping if need be.

I have had a similar experience and make a habit of asking the purser when I board to let me know if there are any seats. You shouldn't have to do this, but it sometimes helps as they usually try their best to help. I have seen cases where people move from the emergency row seats once they sit down and realise how close they are to the lavatories

On one of my previous trips I've got "ohh, welcome back Mr..." twice
not because of that, but I was flying with the same FA on 3 sectors(!) (out of 6 sectors in total).

anyway, noob question, how to recognise purser?

Dressed in black...

To all posters who asked, I meant by " upgrade wannabes" that the conversation and angst about not getting upgrades OR scoring upgrades is the largest in my experience on the EK forum ( I'm not part of any low end US airline FFP so those are out of sample for my comment ) Wannabes because this seems to indicate a desire to aspire to a standard of flying without paying for it. Within limits this is reasonable but the continuous drone on the subject here is quite remarkable. I can't understand it. It does not happen with other airline forums on airlines where I have status. I'm not making a judgement on the aspiration just remarking on it.

rathin100 : I think you make a very valid point, and I for one am inclined to agree with you.

As you say, within limits it is reasonable ; but the 'continuous drone' is indeed surprising to put it mildly, along with the frequency of requests to check loads etc on EF.

The general thrust of your post might not go down well with some posters, but personally I would say you deserve credit for spelling out what many others might be thinking, but keep to themselves.

I don't think I myself was too popular when, a few months back, a poster was looking for ideas as to how to land himself a seat in J (having paid for Y) and I suggested buying a J class ticket as the most reliable way.

That's because a most other airlines have 'evolved' this into a fine art called 'SWU'...

Not on BA LH TG m. And there's not as much upgrade chatter.

I think the above airlines, certainly ba have a much more transparent process and 4 classes so y would be to y plus etc etc. scoring an op up on ek y to j is a big leap and it's commonly known that ek heavily oversell y, hence people having expectations and ideas of getting a free upgrade.

I agree to pay for the class I want to be in, I wrongly thought I could upgrade using points for my flight today but the flight is full in j and f - my own fault, currently trying to get an upgrade if there is a last minute cancellation.

That's probably because EK has a fairly simple philosophy on how it wants to run the airline - "fly the plane full". I haven't flown LH and TG much ( and I avoid BA like plague) but on SQ where I have some experience several years ago, even if J was empty and Y was oversold, they would never upgrade anyone from Y to J. That's another philosophy, albeit, a bit elitist and that's SQs call. Maybe BA, TG, LH are somewhere in the middle.

EK has a more practical one, and something that has contributed to their profitability, success and the tremendous growth. Its because of this simple rule, that EK processes far more 'op-ups' than probably any other airline, and so the 'op-up' chatter that you hear on the EK board.

And tell you what - I love it. I have flown EK more or less exclusively since end 2003 after their JFK service started and haven't regretted it one bit.