Yeah but the real challenge in those circumstances is keeping it year-on-year. I think the Emirates strategy is to give people the opportunity to enjoy the benefits (however insubstantial - that goes for platinum too!) in the hope that they will then strive (spend more money) to repeat the experience.

Hi all, a long time ago I started this topic and would like to update.

I took some time to investigate this as it seems that we can not agree who is first in the line for op-ups.. My result is that the upgrades are happening according to booked ticket fare. Plat and even IO's do not matter here. I talked with Supervisors on outstations and pursers during the flight. One purser told me that when they started this he even made a report. As an IO and Plat was sitting in Y, during a Blue member has been upgraded to J. When I asked around why the are doing this, they said: "Because the gentlemen and ladies would otherwise only buy the cheapest fare, so we stopped upgrading because of status only".

Still this is the case. So that they reversed it and now first IO/ Plat are upgraded regardless of the fare booked is simply incorrect. I experienced this myself. My wife and I were booked on two different tickets just two weeks ago. I booked for me J and for her Y and upgraded her with miles to J. At the gate, she received an F boarding pass. I was not upgraded to F. So for her technically a double upgrade. Luckily I had enough miles, so I upgraded myself to F as well. :-).

On our return flight I asked at the checkin if we both could get an upgrade and I was told yes. On my remark that I upgraded already my wife from Y to J, the supervisor told me that this would not matter and the system accepted both upgrades. I always thought that you only can upgrade with miles one class, not two. Interesting.

Not sure that's all right: I was just upgraded to F on J Saver as a Platinum. Very hard me to believe that there were no Flex or Flex Plus pax on board that would've taken priority.

I also don't believe that plat / io "would otherwise only the cheapest fare" and wait to get upgraded because their status would not last more than a year at that rate.

In terms of "double" upgrade there is some latitude at gate or onboard to use more miles to do an upgrade from J to F on an already miles upgraded.

If you upgrade your Y Flex Plus using miles, then you ticket because J Flex Plus category.

There may be some tinkering going on as I had an unusual upgrade recently from Y Saver to J, or we may just have exerienced some non-standard operation for reasons unknown. Not enough evidence to say which IMO.

Flydubai has a different system. They upgrade purely by status and then ticket price. Plat-Gold-Silver-ticket price.

Hi all,

here is finally some really reliable update from Dubai:

Platinum are upgraded first regardless of booking class, except they booked a special fare (X or T .. or similar.. cant remember 100%). The other exception is if the Plat is traveling together will a baby.
After that according to the fare booked as described above

Sorry for the confusion!

Hi Andreaswil, does the same also apply to Qantas Platinum?
At one point a couple of years ago, I got some J to F op-up on EK metal, booked under the QF code.

No upgrades with lap infants ? Not surprised

oof, just reread that post. I must have had a lot to drink on that flight to write so unintelligibly.

Just wondering if there are any stats around how many IO and Plats there are? (Sample of 1) I know quite a few BA Gold, AA EXP and top tier Elites with AA, UA, EI but only a couple of EK plats

Acknowledging that it is route dependent also wondering how many are typically in Y on any given flight?

Can't speak for Plats but I've seen number of Golds on a few recent flights and it's been ranging from 2-6 in Y (77Ws and A380s), basically fewer thank k thought. In general I'd say you're looking at an average of 1-2 Plats and 4-8 Golds in Y, but could always be more or less, obviously.

Allegedly about 5000-7000 plats, and about 100-150 iO (excluding the customary iO status for the relevant local non-flyers, which numbers about another 100).

They are also a bit strict about iO status lapsing rather than letting old holders carry on with it forever, but you get dropped down to Platinum first year.

So rough rule of thumb, if those plats are flying once every two weeks (and with about 200K flights per year) that would mean 7000 per 8000 flights..... or roughly 1 per flight. That's a lot lower than I had anticipated. It also gives me hope (as a flex plus economy gold passenger) of some op ups soon.

I get regular upgrades on flex as gold. On a flex plus it's almost guaranteed as long as the flight is oversold by at least 3