Don't you think it was just bad luck ?
In this industry, the objective is to avoid empty seats. They shouldn't care about UG as long as seats are occupied and cash is maximized.
On the other hand, they also want to avoid paying out EU261 ... (which is extremely costly on a cheap Y ticket).

I only fly f long haul these days where possible so it's not really a concern for me, what bothers me is how they treat their most frequent flyers and this doesn't seem fair.

This was ex-DXB so no EU261; not exactly luck, more the flight was so full that only op-ups weren't enough, only offloads - I booked using seat guarantee.

Ok so I asked at the LGW lounge desk.

Confirmed that full fare takes priority but not exactly sure how it works.

What a load of 💩

Why a load of .... ??? I'm sorry but I must respectfully disagree. A very infrequent flyer who spends $10-$20,000 on a round trip, even if he only flys once or twice a year should be treated at the top of every list with the exception of IOs who are all BIG spenders. That's the problem with almost all FF programs. You can get Gold by spending very little money. So just by being Gold (and to a lesser extent plat does not make you a high value flyer. It makes you a frequent flyer (big defference). Seems SQ IS THE ONLY AIRLINE AROUND THESE DAYS WHO SEEM TO GET IT

I agree re gold but we are platinum - there's no "cheap" way of getting there.

Why should a one time a year j flyer on a flex plus get upgraded over a plat? Doesn't make sense to me.

Other then that, getting gold on cheap Y fares has become more difficult nowadays with the "special" and "saver" fares. Only Flex and Flex Plus get you relatively fast a gold status.

Because that person is spending a lot on his ticket. If the Platinum member is not flying on a cheap ticket, then that member will be right at the top of the list

Emirates has provided no information that should even lead people to think that they are entitled to an involuntary upgrade by virtue of membership of an FF scheme. I cannot see any reason to complain about how it chooses to process involuntary upgrades. I am sure that everyone would like airlines to use a methodology that benefits themselves

Not so easy anymore on eco tickets, but you can book for example an EU-AU flight in F (sometimes around 6000$ all-in) and you have the 50K....

Well, yes - but such Platinum member may be only once on cheap ticket and all previous flight could be on Flex Plus.
So to be 100% correct they could take all previous flights into account???

e.g. Plat with 99% flight with expensive tickets vs. no-status(*) with once a year flight on expensive ticket (100%).

(*) = LHR-SIN-LHR with J Flex Plus will give 22800 tier miles so still no Silver.

I'm not sure who should be upgraded first.

Let's include route utilisation???
On busy routes upgrade those who spend always more even if fly less frequently (better to have pax who pay more)
On low demand routes/flights upgrade first those who fly more frequently (better to have any pax then no pax)
????????????????

Whoever gives more profit to an airline should be rewarded. The FFPs want our commitment to fly always the same airline. As a reward, they state the benefits. Operational upgrade is not listed in any of the 'list of benefits' but was recognized by FF that it happens often to pax with higher FFP status. I don't have any objection to this.
On the other hand, there are several price levels for the same ticket (saver, flex, etc.). And to me it also make sense to reward those who pay more.
And if combined with status, I see this logical and fair.

I was surprised about the price difference for e.g. DXB-SYD or EU-DXB-SYD! Just tried a fake booking for same flights (return, Y-flex, november 2016).
LHR-DXB-SYD: 1235 EUR
DXB-SYD: 2092 EUR

By only seeing the price difference it would be obviously unfair to give op-up to pax travelling LHR-DXB-SYD over pax DXB-SYD. Without taking status into account. They are both Y-Flex but pax flying DXB-SYD gives more profit to an airline.

So I understand DXB based fliers to complain over this 'new policy'. But I'm not sure it makes financial sense for EK to develop a complicated computer system that would take all aspects into account. These upgrades usually happens just before the flight and I believe they are just random in lots of cases.

I wanted to open a new topic to discuss what the EK status means to people. To me, I see a big benefit in lounge access but I've never counted on a better upgrade rate since my usual flights are not sooo ful. All other benefits I don't find so useful. But people are different.

:-:

So that time, the likelihood of being upgraded ( should there actually be a need to upgrade anyone ) on that one flight is lower - but probability on all the other flights is higher due to being on a high fare and having high status. Seems that this method would be beneficial to this passenger type

Then, it means that DXB based pax are favoured !

One question : prices considered for the UG list are excluding travel agent's commission or not ? (no intention to be constructive here, just to show how mean it can get)

Most issued tickets on a net level (with some sort of a commission), do not show the fare on the ticket nor in the fare construction... :D

Not really. They pay more ;-) EU-DXB-SYD could take Y flex+ instead.

:-: