Emirates Platinum
 

Apologies if this seems a bit old hat and has been covered before. I hit Platinum last November, I love the first class lounge in Dubai, I often use the extra baggage allowance (including the 4 kg above gold, it often makes a difference to me), and the first class check in at all stations is just great and much appreciated. I almost always travel first or business (have done three short haul flights in Y when business class sold out, and these were fine) so my Emirates experience is usually great and to a standard that leaves little room for complaint.

The one thing I have noticed is that I have not received one op-up since hitting Platinum. As a gold I got quite a few. My travel destinations have not really changed, sometimes planes are not full, and fair enough, no upgrades if no operational reason, I get that (and fully support the approach to maintain integrity of the product). But I have now been on a few flights with full J class cabins, clearly lots of upgrades, and I have seen passengers boarding in front of me get the magical beep for a first class upgrade. I am the first to say that if first class is important enough, then buy a first class ticket (and I often do) but has anyone else had the feeling that emirates is favoring lower-level status passengers on the op-ups. Maybe Emirates thinks we Platinums have proved our loyalty and need less special treatment. In my case they are probably right, I am not abandoning emirates for as long as I am based where I am. But sometimes I see silvers and golds get the op-ups from business to first at the gate, and can't help wondering why not the Platinum who generated a lot more revenue than these pax....
Any other plats out there feel this way?

Are the op ups you mention about at DXB or at outstations? What is the first letter of your surname. Someone over here (was it m3red???) Had posted about varying upgrade criteria at various airports .

My upgrade rate at DXB was terrible but very good at DEL and zero ex UK. The first letter in my surname is V and it didn't help.:(. I suspect the reason it was good at DEL was because of the less number of golds in the flights I used to take.

For me upgrades ex UK has become more regular now. I've never had an op up ex UK in over 30 departures ex UK. Got two Y-J op ups this year.

This should not be happening, ek now has a strict op up policy in place at dxb but I guess there are always exceptions more so at out stations.

I heard there is a manifest that is printed in op up order, not sure if that is 100% accurate.

My op up rate is pretty average as gold but still better than nothing!

I was under the same impression when I was Gold a couple of years back, when op-ups from BOM and JFK (DXB was never an issue) were non-existent and it was the alpha op-up procedure to blame for that. I wrote to EK a couple of times pointing out that this system wasn't fair and it seems they no longer use it. All this changed after I hit Plat, and op-ups from BOM started coming through almost on every flight.

Coming to your situation, if you genuinely feel that they are upgrading Golds and silvers ahead of Plat, then you should investigate this a bit more and write to them. A couple of things that you might want to check and confirm:

1. The Gold/ Silver pax in front of you getting the upgrade actually got a J-F upgrade, and not a Y-J, upgrade. Remember there are quite a few plats that travel Y and use the FCL or F/J queues. And actually confirm that they are indeed Golds and not Plats as quite a few plats who haven't changed their tags on their luggage to Plat from Gold. The only sure shot way to confirm this is to take a peek at their BP as which has their exact status.

2. The pax actually didn't put in a request to use miles for an upgrade.

3. If you are sure they upgraded Golds/ Silvers to F at the gate, try and confirm that in the flight by either taking a look at the manifest (it should say "Involuntary Upgrade") next to the names of the pax, or just inquiring from the Purser when he comes to greet you as to how full the plane is and and if some pax were upgraded to F. If you share your situation, with either the purser or SFS, I've found that they are willing to tell you if Golds/ Plats were upgraded ahead of you.

Then just write to EK pointing out the specific flight and how these experiences completely degrade the Platinum experience and you are wondering why you gave so much business to EK to hit Plat.

This is great advice. I'm my recent experiences I've not seen a gold upgraded over a plat. I knew a recent dxb man flight had one spare seat in f and I asked about an opup, they said there were plats ahead of me...

I'd do some more investigations although it is quite hard to tell without speaking to the purser.

Thanks guys. It's outstations (most frequent recent ones LGW, HKG, BNE and SIN) where I feel it is has been the case. When it has happened at DXB the upgraded people in front of me did not look like infrequent travelers and maybe they are platinum with gold tags, and maybe they had a miles upgrade request in the system (I didn't know you could do this). It is difficult to know the circumstances, but I think it odd that I have not had one since hitting platinum eight months ago... I do use points to upgrade to first on some flights soon after buying the ticket, maybe these would have upgrades if I had stayed in business.

Emirates Platinum
 

The dark art of upgrades! It's seems EK has built some of its rep on the surprise upgrade so I wouldn't be surprised if they did on occasion upgrade for reasons other than rank. I have sometimes wondered darkly whether someone with a lower tier was upgraded ahead of me even as an io. I don't actually mind if they ran some algorithm that was biased towards tier but not guaranteed. Obviously would never be that sophisticated but I can't in all honesty begrudge someone else a discretionary upgrade as long a it wasn't the norm! Most will probably say RHiP should take precedence but life is too short!

Anecdotaly I have never had an upgrade as a solo platinum passenger but have been opupped twice when travelling with my wife on the same PNR who is Gold and whose last name begins with a "B" whereas mine begins with a "T" - in these cases we both got pushed up.

It may be time to take her last name...

Mr. B fka Mr. T does have a ring to it. Not a bad idea ... maybe hyphenated Mr. B-T ...

Gold plus?
 

Maybe this is just a senior memory malfunction, but there's a dim memory of reading somewhere in these pages that EK has a "Gold plus" level, not part of the overt tier ranking, but known to the reservation system and maybe to cabin crew. If the ancient grey cells have it right, this kicks in at something like 75,000 miles.
I'm but a lowly gold, and generally just about qualify, so total tier miles are usually below 75K, but now and again I fly a little more often and miles reach into the higher seventies, eighties or nineties. At these times upgrades seem to come much more often, both from economy and from business. Sometimes, quite surprising ones - for example from Saver Y.

My only route is MAN-DXB-TYO, and upgrades have always been on the MAN-DXB leg, both for MAN and DXB departures.

I've speculated that EK may have some reason of their own to upgrade Gold Plus (if such exists) or maybe that they have some special consideration for old farts such as I? ... and that the dearth of upgrades on the Tokyo NRT and HND -DXB legs is just a consequence of lighter loading levels than on DXB-MAN?

Maybe it's just that EK's upgrade systems are as deeply dark and incomprehensibly arcane as their pricing?

From my humble experience it goes something like this. There are a set of op-up guidelines. They are published somewhere deep in the bowels of the EK ops manual and at the disposal of each and every front line EK staff member.

When the flight goes to airport control, that set of guidelines is followed in the same way my own kids follow my demands to "go to bed". They grunt in acknowledgement but simply do their own thing.

Most airlines I have flown have a stricter, more transparent even set of op-up rules.

EK on the other hand is like playing the lottery. Nothing to do with how you are dressed, whether or not you check in online, what time you get to the airport, or anything else.

I know some wont want to hear this, but I once was travelling with my sister and 2 kids. I was in revenue F. They were in Y. I used miles to upgrade one, and the other 2 were op-upped (zero status). It was all done from the lounge. The lounge agent obviously was friendly with the person controlling the flight and said, right I'll have those seats.

Never been op-upped ex DXB. Plenty of times ex MEL, plenty ex SIN, ex AMS, ex JFK etc.

The whole point is that while there is a system, it isnt followed much. Flight controllers are simply wanting to manage the oversold situation and get on with managing the next flight and avoid getting yelled at. They dont give a rats toss about the status of the passenger, how much revenue they contribute etc. They have to go to another screen anyway to delve deeper. If on the other hand they see a couple together - or you are in the right place at the right time, then voila, you're getting the beep. They might be waiting until the last minute, they might process the flight early, they might get a call from the friendly lounge agent, who knows?

All my op-ups ex SIN (when I was living there) never happened at check in or the gate. They were always done well beforehand. Funny that ;)

I have been upgraded pretty much all locations I fly from (incl LHR & LGW) but mostly from Y to J. A few times, two of us or the family of four have been upgraded. It may be because I have been Skywards Gold pretty much since the prog started, I think.

I have been informed by a number of EK ground staff that Platinum has preference over Gold for Op Ups so I don't think Gold members are jumping the queue.

I don't mind if someone else gets upgraded and I don't..... we all need to take turns.

On a slightly different but related note; last year I flew an Asian carrier for the first time and at check-in I overheard a conversation that Y was oversold. I said to the check-in staff that it was my first flight with them and if they are upgrading anyone, would they consider me. And, they did move me J at the gate.

Also, a long time ago, I was a BA Gold for a number of years; pretty much form when the prog started. I was upgraded once from J to F and Y to C; just two upgrades in years! Then, the entire family was moved from Y to J (and not to PE!) when flying on reward tickets. May be the return journey had something to do with this double cabin upgrade, especially when my status was Blue. The metal we were flying back on was Concorde!

There is one thing you should avoid if you would like to be considered for an upgrade. Avoid ordering a special meal!

That's the way it should be. What's the point of being Platinum otherwise?

I think they are getting stricter these days... Certainly in my experiences out of dxb recently but you are right that there are always exceptions and rule bending!

I'll see if my rate improves after I hit 100k shortly.