Upgrade?
 

Hi everyone,

I had a question about how everyone's experiences have been with free upgrades using EK.

I'm flying on EK 225 (DXB-SFO) in economy on Aug. 15th, and I'm a 17 year old traveling alone.
I'm also a Skywards member (blue tier)

I called Emirates to ask about the possibility of an upgrade, and the CS representative I spoke to told me that the flight has a capacity of 304,
but actually has 311 peopled booked on it, so it is overbooked by 7.

What are my chances to receive a free upgrade, and is there anything particular I should do to increase my chances?

There is an op-up experiences thread which will give you some idea of other's experiences. As a Skywards Blue Tier member I would not get your hopes up too high - in general members on higher tiers will receive an op-up first (although there is a debate about whether being Platinum helps or not). There has been discussion about preference being given to those with a surname beginning with a letter at the start of the alphabet......

In general the advice given in the past about dressing up, smiling at the check-in staff etc probably doesn't help nowadays when computer systems hold loads of info about passengers and their worth to the airline.

Having said all that - occasional surprises happen so good luck.

As you are travelling alone, that will help. However, it's still a very remote chance. < 2%

DYKWIA - your less than 2% assessment sounds overly-optimistic to me ....!

Personally I would have thought marginally less than nil, given the overall scenario.

But I suppose everything is possible in life, and stranger things have happened at sea (or should that be ..... in the air ....:eek:.....)

If ek follow the rules then there is no chance!

Kudos to the OP for even making the tel call .....

I've just bought a ticket in your cheapest cabin but wondered if you'd like to give me a much better seat costing thousands dollars more - and for free .....:rolleyes:

I don't think ek would op up a minor either. At 17 that would most likely mean no chance!

Surprised that they even gave you that information - you must be a charmer....
Miracles do happen sometimes :D...

I'm usually very good with customer service :)
Just subtly added the fact that my TV wasn't working for the 14 hour onward journey haha

I'm sure they've never heard that little ruse before. Full marks for originality !

You should have told them you couldn't watch that great new movie you've been itching to see ("Adventures in Cloud Cuckoo Land") ...........

Actually believe it or not, my TV did not in fact work. The flight attendants tried resetting the system, but the screen still remained blank.

Luckily I had downloaded a few TV shows for the flight, would have gone crazy for those 14 hours without that because I couldn't sleep either.

I have flown EK maybe 6 times this year (lets say a total of 20 legs) and have been upgraded from business to first once.

That means I am batting at 5%, well above your predicted average!

Y to J is different than J to F.

J to F is tougher - more likely to have HVC's in J and on full fare tickets. If you are a HVC 75/100plus tier miles per annnum in Y then you may get bumped (after I/O's and Plats).

My J to F isn't great either but my Y to J this year is at 2/3 legs.

You are EK Gold, the subject of this thread is Blue. That would make a difference even if your sample size wasn't low enough to be statistically meaningless.

As a gold, > 5% is to be expected. As a blue < 2% is still optimistic :D

Extremely optimistic (probably borderline miraculous on an established route like SFO) is what I would think...

As a gold, my op-up rate has been 0%. As a minor it is just a given that EK will not give you an op-op (at least in my experience).

This rate is by doing well over 400k miles on EK in 2.5 years - 25 DUR-LHR returns to date, 5 DUR-SEA(-YVR), and other holiday flying to places like JED/MRU/SYD/CAI/BEI/BOM/SIN etc.

Good luck. It really would be a miracle like others have said earlier.

I'm batting on 33% for J to F upgrades out of 6 segments so far this year. Not sure if being Qantas Platinum (flying QF Coded/QF Ticketed itinerary) helps, or maybe there's some truth to the first letter of your last name thing.

One op-up (first ever flight on EK metal) was at the gate and I did notice a couple of empty seats in J, last minute no show's perhaps?. The other was in the lounge when I asked (as I was headed to the gate) if the flight was looking very full.