'Upgrading' a Y Flex to Flex Plus
 

Hi FT World...

So it seems I have exactly enough miles to upgrade a LGWHKG segment if I was on a Flex Plus ticket.

Alas, I am only on a Y Flex ticket. I know that I can buy that the additional 15k miles I require and would cost USD600.

Assuming that their was upgrade inventory available, is it a possible to upgrade a fare within a cabin in order to then upgrade to the next cabin?

My rationale is that if the cost of this was USD600 or less, then it obviously makes more economic sense to change the ticket rather than purchase more miles.

Ticket was booked as HKG-LGW-HKG into B class, have already used my outbound segment.

As a side question - this was booked by a travel agent, if I did want to change it, does it still have to changed by the TA, or since I flew the outbound already, the airline has control of the ticket?

Thanks in advance,
Justin/HKG

You can upgrade a booking class but you will pay a change fee and the fare difference.

I thought there was no difference in the miles needed for an upgrade between flex and flex plus the only difference being no change fee on a flex plus.

You're forgiven for not being familiar with Economy :D

Flex Plus is cheaper to upgrade than Flex Y.

OP: you can easily do this, people do it all the time - if the outbound has been flown EK can do it for you at a ticket office, or you can call your TA. You'll have to pay a change fee (ex-LGW it's probably 75 GBP) as well as the fare difference to the next available Flex Plus bucket. You would have to upgrade both sectors as EK generally won't split the inbound into two separate flights.

So I just called, they quoted me GBP1050 to change it!! something is very wrong there... hang up and call back I guess...

Changing both sectors is ok, and theres D class inventory available on the flights I want. Might just check with my TA and see if they can do it.

Cheaper to buy more miles?

They could be repricing you to a one-way HKG-LGW in Y class (loads DXB-LGW in the next couple weeks are very high).

Probably best to check the TA first, yes!

if you do not change anything on the flights (only booking class), they can request to upsell you to R (lowest Flex+ IIRCC), doesn't matter what is available (have done this in Business two weeks ago, they confirmed C class; cabin was full an my ticket was in I)

So I did some more digging and it seems I was in booked in U class, so that explains some of the difference (as thought I was a B fare).

I found this in the fare rules though:

UPGRADES - THE BELOW IS ONLY APPLICABLE IF
CHANGES ARE PERMITTED
-AT ANY TIME WITHIN TICKET VALIDITY THE FARE CAN
BE RE-ISSUED TO ANY HIGHER FARE IN THE SAME CABIN
RECALCULATED FROM THE POINT OF ORIGIN AT A CHARGE
AS APPLICABLE PER CHANGE PROVIDED THE CONDITIONS
OF THE HIGHER FARE HAVE BEEN MET AND THE
APPLICABLE DIFFERENCE IN FARE IS COLLECTED.
CHARGE APPLIES PER PASSENGER. PENALTY DOES NOT
APPLY TO INFANT WITHOUT A SEAT. IF THE RE-ISSUED
TICKET IS SUBSEQUENTLY CANCELLED THE ORIGINAL
PENALTY WILL APPLY.

Perhaps they've changed the fare for U class and recalculating based on round trip. Who knows... I'll check with my TA to see if they can do it, but the company doesn't like people to pay from their own pocket for changes so thats why I was hoping to do with via the call centre...

Thanks all!!

*edit*: So I just called the DXB call centre and they priced me GBP300 including the change fee... that is too funny. She was very quick to calculate it, perhaps only 20 seconds. When I called the UK CC the other day she took 5min to recalculate the fare. Very strange... so happy days, doing it this way around is cheaper than buying the miles even including the additional UK taxes owed!

I had a similar experience a few months ago whereas I had more luck with our Corprate TA.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...ing-query.html

Hope you enjoy your J class upgrade.

Safe & Happy Travels

S

Safe & Happy Travels

So it all worked out in the end... changing a U class tkt to R class then upgrade from there. Change was GBP300, not too shabby.

New problem though... The CC agent upgrade my cabin with miles as I request, but she didn't collect the additional UK APD. The reissued ticket shows the original GBP 73 paid for LGWHKG route.

Is it likely they will try to collect later, or should I just chalk this up to good news?

Cheers,
Justin

They'll probably collect it at the airport when they do check-in documents check.

If you manage to get to doors closed, well done :D

Here's hoping!!

Well lets hope when they edit the flight they skip over it and forget to flag it... the checkin agent wont pick it up. A 'tax check' is not part of the check in process (source: I used to be an EK ckin agent :D)

I think I have been rather unlucky then, or perhaps dnata train their check-in staffs to be on the lookout for it, because every time I've done this at LGW I got flagged at chk-in or lounge to pay extra money!

Either that, or I'm on a list :D

Don't say that ET!!

So you have also upgraded via the CC and they haven't collected the additional taxes?

I can see that you wouldn't get away with doing it at the airport - they would be used to collecting it.

well finger crossed I just got one who didn't do her job properly

Yeah, I did a mileage upgrade over the phone ex-LGW and they didn't collect APD then, but when I got to the lounge, they asked me for extra money. Was last year FWIW.