When is an upgrade not an upgrade?
Mar 15, 2014, 5:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Birmingham UK
Programs: skywards Gold, Krisflyer
Posts: 54
When is an upgrade not an upgrade?
Received an e-mail from Emirates today asking if I wanted to upgrade on the first leg of a flight (BHX to DXB) en-route to SIN on 18th March. Cost would be £436. Too much...have paid only £320 for this upgrade in the past!!
Last edited by philduck; Mar 16, 2014 at 4:40 am
Mar 16, 2014, 3:12 am
#2
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 5,454
Received an e-mail from Emirates today asking if I wanted to upgrade on the first leg of a flight (BHX to DXB) en-route to SIN on 18th March. Cost would be £436. I could currently book this same flight on the Emirates web-site for £404 (this would also include a chauffeur drive to the airport, not part of the 'upgrade' deal). Is this crazy, or is it just me?
Mar 16, 2014, 3:13 am
#3
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: United Kingdom
Programs: Skywards Blue :-(, HHonors Gold, SPG Gold, GHA Platinum
Posts: 2,531
Received an e-mail from Emirates today asking if I wanted to upgrade on the first leg of a flight (BHX to DXB) en-route to SIN on 18th March. Cost would be £436. I could currently book this same flight on the Emirates web-site for £404 (this would also include a chauffeur drive to the airport, not part of the 'upgrade' deal). Is this crazy, or is it just me?
Mar 16, 2014, 4:45 am
#7
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 5,454
If the price difference between Y and J BHX-SIN is about 2.5k GBP, then perhaps you could say it's a reasonable upgrade price. Perhaps not a bargain but I think it's a sensible price that might get one or two offers. EK's revenue team is quite good at extracting as much money from a plane as possible. The value to you of course will vary with your personal circumstances and tolerances...!
Mar 17, 2014, 3:17 am
#8
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: LON
Programs: EK (G), VS (G), EY (G), BA (B) & HH (D)
Posts: 15
The upgrade offer is only for a single sector (BHX-DXB) and not the entire outward journey (BHX-DXB and DXB-SIN).
EK do make such offers from time to time, especially to selected Skywards Silver & Gold card holders.
From my experience, this offer is sent out even when the cabin one is travelling in is not full / over-sold. It is a way of EK saying 'thank you', perhaps.
Upgrades are limited so they are accepted on a first come first served basis.
The cost of an upgrade will be determined by a number of factors and one of them is the fare basis of your current Y ticket and the 'available fare basis' of the J seats.
I hope the offer is still available for your benefit
