to me it is simply a no brainer. The £1400 that i save by purchasing a Business Saver seat instead of the Business Flex seat pays for my hotel bill and a lot more besides.

But if you needed to change the ticket, it would cost you.

Yeah about £300. Still I rarely if ever move my main trips, GCC or flights from here are a lot cheaper to change than ex uk j savers.

Confused as to why Etihad would cover an A330 in shite.

:D:D:D:D

Sure, I wasn't overly impressed with my recent EY experience, but this retrograde step by EK can only help even things up.

I don't think an internal policy change that is not publically acknowledged or confirmed and affects a small fraction of customers in a way that is impossible to quantify, brings EK close to the level of EY's failures at everything but in-flight service.

You're putting words in my mouth. :)

It affects me and I know about it. I didn't say it made the services equal, just that it was a downward step by EK, and thus brought them closer together.

How many other small steps in the wrong direction will they take?

EK follows the trend of LH and others on revenue based op ups... However, my 2 cents...

Trend: Companies in the UAE follow more and more EU/NA standards obliging travel in the cheapest way (Y class, restricted tickets, stopovers, LCC, no last minute trips). Gone are the days for those not in the highest levels of a company fly in J, even for flights longer than 4, 6, 8, 10 hours... I'm one of them: I fly 2-3 return longhaul flights a month, usualy in Y saver. I get to Gold in this way year after year, partially because I "bend" the system, saying that I have to be somewhere at a specific time knowing that only EK has a flight that arrives at that time, and by booking my flights on time so the difference with EK competitors isn't too noticeable.

I can defend flying EK but I can't convince my company to pay Y flex or Y flex+ if those are available, even if they're 50 AED more expensive. Company policy. How does anyone convince to pay flexible tickets? 1) The cancellation/change fees in UAE aren't that high... 2) I can only book flights when a meeting cannot be held by phone or VC... So before a trip is approved, you have "guarantee" it's necessary to fly. Cancelling or changing flight is much frowned upon, so no need for flex, flex+ in my fortune 100 company...

I fight for EK every trip. The op ups I sometimes get are a big part of my motivation. (Yes I know, to fly J buy J... which I do on personal account, but cannot do for company account). I know I don't contribute a lot to EK's profit, but I certainly contribute to their turnover! And they're making it damn difficult to keep me loyal...

To put this into perspective, roughly what percentage of your flights do you receive op-ups currently?

If it's > 50%, then I can understand your frustration.

If it's 10%, then it's not that much of an issue IMO.

This is flyertalk - since when can't we make a mountainout of a molehill?

I get op-ups on ~35% of flights. Maybe I don't care so much because I'm typicall already on Y flex (no Savers from South Africa) so I feel a bit safer. Time will tell what difference it really makes. My reasoning is that while I might be in the top 3 for op-ups generally currently (on India flights in Y, not unreasonable to presume this) in future I might be at number 7 or 8 (again, can't imagine many Flex Plus tix on these routes), and flights often see 15+ op-ups.

:D

This is the problem with the option I've selected. Fine if I travel out and back to plan, but beloved employer's eyes will surely pop out when they discover the cost of changing the ticket is £200 short of an economy class return.

I fully understand that people will 'fight for' a better chance of upgrade from Y to J. You arrive fresh or broken ...