Hello all

I just received an upgrade e-mail from Emirates for my flight to Kuala Lumpur. The upgrade mentions an upgrade cabin from economy to business for $200 for my flight from Kuwait - Dubai (1.5 hours flight.)

Now, I have enough skywards mile to be upgraded to business class from Kuwait - Dubai. I will not pay $200 to be upgraded to business when I should be entitled to it for 10,000 miles (which I currently have in my account.)

In case at check-in at the airport the staff tells me that no seats are available for my flight to be upgraded, how should I react? I will change my flight from a B777 to the A380 from Kuwait - Dubai so I find it difficult to believe that no upgrades would be available on the A380 from my experiences with Emirates flights.

P.S: The e-mail mentions that this upgrade does not offer lounge access for my flight from Kuwait, hence why upgrading for $200 is ridiculous in the first place.

What do you mean how should you react?! There is nothing to react to if they don't have availability then that is that. You say ok please wait list me in case an upgrade with miles becomes available now or on board.

I'm not sure why you think of this as a scam. Emirates is offering close-in upgrades for a fee, which you are free to accept or not based on your own preferences. Whether or not any of the people who have booked the flight have the necessary miles in their respective accounts for an award upgrade isn't a factor as they manage the loads and decide whether to offer last-minute cash upgrades.

I don't know about the loads on the KWI flights, but it's always a crapshoot when one waits until check-in to try to get an upgrade. Plus they wouldn't put a 380 on the route if they didn't think that there was generally enough demand for paid premium cabin traffic.

If you decline the paid upgrade now, then there may or may not be available miles upgrades on the day of departure (though I suppose that if they are offering last-minute upgrades for cash, it means that there is a surplus of seats, which of course may be gobbled up by people paying the $200).

The way that I would react when taking my chances to hope for an upgrade at check-in would be to shrug my shoulders at an entirely predictable outcome of my calculated risk, then to move on with my life.

I agree that not granting lounge access with a paid upgrade is unfortunate.

Did the email come from emirates.xxx or from [email protected]!!? That will be the clue as to whether or not it is a scam!

Paying $200 for an upgrade for a 1.5 hours flight excluding lounge access is extremely unacceptable. What is the purpose of flying business class then for a short-haul flight? Have you seen how luxurious their exclusive lounge is at KWI? It's shameful that Emirates lounge is both, more luxurious & exclusive to their airline than Kuwait Airways. Kuwait Airways, the national carrier of Kuwait, does not have an exclusive lounge in its own country neither does it have a lounge as luxurious as Emirates lounge in KWI, hence why I believe paying $200 without lounge access is a scam (literally.)

In response to your flights between KWI and DXB, there are 3 other airlines out there which offer daily flights between these sectors. These airlines include FlyDubai, Jazeera Airways, and Kuwait Airways. Emirates offer I believe 6 or 7 daily flights to Kuwait (this excludes the several daily flights from competitors as well,) hence why I believe that the load in business class should not be full and why I believe I should easily get an upgrade upon check-in.

Better than paying 200USD for a EU short haul business class upgrade I think for a comparable flight distance...I'd happily swap for the EK seats in J and ditch the lounge access. For a 1.5 hour flight I would turn up to the airport at T-65 and go straight on board. Of course, I think it is a little bit cheap not to provide the lounge and chauffeur drive of EK, but I think the offer is relatively transparent so I can't blame them too much.

The point is these emails are there to try and get additional revenue out of you - you are guaranteeing the J seat. If there are enough people in Y who don't care about lounges and chauffeur drive but who only want the seat, they may think this is a good deal and do it. It's automatically generated and any ill-will they might generate from irritating a Skywards member is in their calculation going to be outweighed by additional revenue.

If you think you'll be able to get an upgrade closer to time using miles, then of course you should ignore the email. There may be seats available in J class though, but the load controller may be holding them back in order to get cash revenue instead of using miles - and may only let you use miles at the last minute, which gives you 30 minutes of lounge access, maximum.

You're not forced to pay it! If you find it unacceptable, then don't accept it.

Other people may pay the upgrade fee, at which point there may be no seats left to upgrade at check-in.

After having second thoughts (if I use my miles to upgrade then I will be granted lounge access,) is this option viable?

Assume I decided to take the offer and upgrade to business class, then upon check-in I decided to use my miles to upgrade from J to F class. Is this viable? I think it's worth to pay $200 to upgrade from Y to F class, especially on a red-eye flight!

I doubt that would be permitted. One class upgrades using miles, whether Y-J or J-F are calculated from the base point of a normal flex or saver fare - as opposed to a ticket that has already been upgraded once by means of a specially discounted offer.

But ......even if I'm wrong on that, it seems a bit of a waste to be using miles to move from J to F on a flight lasting just 1.5 hours .....

A 1.5 hour flight is not really a red-eye

Never mind, I found the answer I was looking for. Well, I guess I'm sticking to Y class unless I can be upgraded upon check-in since I definitely will not pay $200 for a 1.5 hours upgrade.

http://www.emirates.com/english/dest...40&mid=1664508

I have a 1.5 hours transit in Dubai as well, and all flights depart late at night/before sunrise, hence I consider it to be red-eye

Not much difference in the seat experience on a380 J or F KWI-DXB. I fly the sector quite abit and it is usually very full hence the world's shortest a380 route. Kuwait Airways is in the process of being revamped and upgraded so in the future you may have a dedicated lounge for KA in Kuwait. EK lounge at Kuwait is not their best lounge by a long way I agree with other poster who said just get to the airport later and go to the gate. It would be worth it in my view just to avoid the usually long pre screening economy queue prior to passport control. Always cracks me up that at Kuwait there are plenty of passport control counters on exit but one big bottle neck at the pre screening with only one x ray machine for economy and one for bus class. Makes the large number of pport control counters abit redundant!

If you get upgraded at check in as opup then unless you are Gold or Platinum, you won't be able to access the lounge. There won't be a lounge invitation line on the bp.

Amen to that, as it provokes me to see a national carrier of another country has an exclusive lounge in my country while my own national carrier shares its lounge with other airlines, not to mention its prices are higher than Emirates

It is not the best lounge I agree, however, it is worth sitting there waiting for your flight, as it is extremely luxurious and empty (you feel as if you're traveling through a private terminal and not a public one.) I also agree with long queues for screening and passport control and I thought of using NAS services to see if they can escort me through business class screening and passport control to avoid the hassle for a reasonable fee. However, since my flight departs late in a business day, I doubt there would be any queues at all.

http://www.emirates.com/kw/english/h...skywards-miles

What I said stands re opup - operational upgrades (not cash/miles). The reference is above is for upgrades using miles.

I have been in a similar situation before, got an opup and couldn't access the lounge because my status hasn't updated on the system yet. The airport staff as well as the lounge staff refused to accept another upgrade using miles or to even downgrade me then re-apply an upgrade using miles just so I could access the lounge.