Email with upgrade offer
 

Hello all,

I am booked GLA/DXB/HKG in economy tomorrow. A week after booking my trip I booked my parents on the same flights in the same fare. I am a Skywards Blue and they are not members.

My parents have received an email offering the opportunity to purchase an upgrade to business class. I gave my email address for both bookings, so the email actually came to my inbox. Strangely, I haven't received an email with the offer for my own booking. I was wondering if anyone knows how they determine who to make the offer to? Also, does the email suggest that economy is overbooked and they are trying to sell upgrades in order to avoid Op Ups or does it suggest there are lots of empty seats in business class that they want to sell? I'm just curious but would be interested in anyone's thoughts.

Many thanks

KLMkitty

any time ive had the email offer (which is never reasonably priced enough that anyone would want to pay it) ive been upgraded at check in due to being overbooked in Y. If you have EK status my advice would be to sit tight and wait for the Op Up

Or if you booked via the EK website, why not do a dummy upgrade on your current booking and see what price you get and see if it's comparable with the offer your parents got and if happy go ahead and book it. If booked via a TA, contact them and ask how much it would be to upgrade your ticket. There is also the added advantage of increasing your miles towards getting Silver.

I am by no means an EK expert and my upgrades were done through my Corp. TA and considering two long haul flights GLA-DXB-PEK on the outbound, I got a price of £640 to upgrade to J which I thought was very reasonable. This also gave the added value of Chauffeur service (for the GLA departure only on your itinerary), GLA Lounge access which I thought was an excellent lounge for comfort and food/drink offerings (although I didn't notice any Irn Bru), Lounge access in DXB and extra baggage allowance.

I may be mistaken but I don't think the upgrade offers via e-mail give you all of those advantages but am prepared to be educated properly by the experts :p.

Safe & Happy Travels

S

the email upgrade offer always excludes chauffeur drive and lounge access

I thought that was the case

S

I agree with modularmayhem above that is what is most often reported/experienced, however don't get your hopes up too high.

Flying just last week, I got two upgrade offers, both for the GLA-DXB leg within a few days of each other. I ignored them both and when my seat allocation disappeared the day before flying I thought I was odds on for an upgrade. Come the day I flew in a not quite full Y cabin.

Thank you so much for the advice. Checked in to economy and all ready to go.

if you have a mobile boarding card in passbook, keep an eye on it. Ive found that refreshing it in the emirates app i once got upgraded before arriving at the airport and had a boarding card in the app

... mmm ... Not so sure.
1) If your parents received the mail, lots of others did also. And some may jump on the occasion.
2) Plat / Gold / Silver will be ahead of you, and chances are, there are enough of them to fill JCL (or even FCL).

Op-Up is a bet. The lower you are on skywards, the slimier the chance to be upgraded.

Bearing in mind it was four years ago. Got an upgrade offer 48 hours in advance for DXB-KUL as part of a GLA-DXB-KUL booking in Y, booked via the EK website. Upgrade offer was around £270 and got me lounge access in DXB.

That is true, but even so, I've always been able to enjoy chauffeur drive and lounge access (I'm Gold, so lounge access is a given). For the chauffeur drive, I just call customer service to arrange it, and in the arriving airport I go to the drivers tell them I forgot to make a booking and show my bp. If they have a car available, they will help. Experience based on BKK, DXB en BRU only though.

Lounge access based on Skywards tier is always specifically allowed in the offers.

As for chauffeur drive, have you tried this recently? Now they scan BPs to see whether they are eligible (or check the booking at outstations for the promotional upgrade marker).

Emirates upgrades
 

Hi I've booked economy flights with Emirates from Heathrow to Mauritius for our honeymoon. At the time of booking I could not afford the extra £1700 per person for business class. Do they offer upgrades like eithad closer to time or do they offer airport paid upgrades? I don't have an reward scheme membership to upgrade with

Many thanks

You *may* get an emailed offer of an upgrade on some of the legs. Heathrow flights tend to be very busy, so I doubt there would be upgrades on those legs. Mauritius is now 2 A380 flights a day, so that maybe easier to upgrade.

You can always ask at the airport, but the chances are you not be offered a cheaper upgrade.

not being a skywards member, I very much doubt you will get an upgrade option.

FYI, upgrades via email or at check-in also don't always include access to the lounges or chauffeur drive options. The last 3 emails I've been sent did not include these benefits even though the U/G cost between LHR-DXB was nearly £800.

IMO its only worth doing if you become a Skywards member, purchase a flex/flex plus ticket and upgrading with points.