Christine from Melbourne

Recently travelled to and from MEL AKL and received an upgrade from economy to business in both directions on the Emirates A380 - absolutely thrilled. My partner was also upgraded - we had booked separately - but went to the check in desk together. The upgrade on the way over was at the check in desk whereas the upgrade on the return was at the gate. Have a business class leg booked later this year on return from Europe, don't know if that would have any bearing. Was also a significant birthday for me but again doubt that had a bearing as didn't say anything about it. I had received an offer email both directions to upgrade for about $350 but didn't bother as partner hadn't received the offer. Have been brand loyal to Emirates over many years and had purchased upgrades before using miles. Partner is more recent convert, especially now!

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Check-in
Route: MEL-AKL
Flight number: EK406
Type of ticket: Economy saver
Date of travel: 3 April 2017
Tier status: Blue
Tier miles to date: 38
Skywards miles balance: 20K
Number of pax upgraded: 2

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Gate
Route: AKL-MEL
Flight number: EK407
Type of ticket: Economy saver
Date of travel: 10 April 2017
Tier status: Blue
Tier miles to date: 38
Skywards miles balance: 20K
Number of pax upgraded: 2

Saltire74

Hi Christine from Melbourne

Welcome to Flyertalk and the Emirates forum and what a nice reason for you to bring you hear. Our upgrade thread is a little more sparse this year since EK changed their OpUp policy and not too many reports of an upgrade from saver fares. Well done.

Again, welcome to the forum. We are a fairly friendly bunch here and it would be good to hear of your experience and knowledge of travelling on EK and of course, we have a wealth of information in the dashboard and from fellow contributors should you find yourself asking any questions about Emirates or Skywards so please make yourself at home and enjoy the ride.

Safe & Happy Travels

S

Christine from Melbourne

Thank you for the kind welcome, Saltire. I used to lurk here a while back but thought I would share my experiences this time around. I also thought it worth mentioning that with both of the flights we were upgraded for we checked in very early - possibly among the first for the flight. I don't know if this makes a difference by leaving you higher up on the manifest and therefore more likely to be picked for opup at the gate. Regardless, it was a wonderful experience. Looking forward even more to our business return leg from Europe to Melbourne later this year.

skywardhunter

Check-in opens 48hrs before departure with connecting pax often having checked in even earlier (on a MEL-AKL flight a pax connecting from LAX could be checked in 3-4 days before). The time you arrive at the airport doesn't typically have much bearing on this. If you look at the sequence number in your boarding pass you'll see how far up the list you were in terms of check-in.

thijsseh

All I can say is that to get an op-up as a Blue member from a saver ticket is, well, surprising if not unique. It does not follow either the 'old' (status based) or the 'new' (fare based) rule. But hey, congrats on getting it!

Christine from Melbourne

Thanks Skywardhunter for that info - and you are correct - seq 563 on way over and seq 280 on way back - so not about status, fare type or manifest! So there goes that theory

Definitely a surprise, Thijsseh - especially when it happened twice!

Lkaroo

An unexpected upgrade yesterday given the new rules although with 16 children in J it was definitely not the most peaceful of flights. Expert Flyer showed Y0 J3 just before check in closed.

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Gate
Route: DXB-LHR
Type of ticket: Saver (T)
Tier status: Platinum
Tier miles to date: 0 (just started new tier year)
Skywards miles balance: 190k
Number of pax on the same PNR (Including OP): 1
Number of pax upgraded: 1

thijsseh

That indeed is very unexpected under the 'new' rules.
Maybe they have gone back to the old (status based) rules? There has been some rumours / speculation on that.

Saltire74

Two reports in the past week or so of saver tickets getting OpUps Y-J. Fingers crossed

S

skywardhunter

I'm flying HYD-DXB Tuesday morning, a route where historically I'd be op-upped >50% of the time. I'm on a Saver Award in Y and the flight shows Y0 J7, so let's see what happens. I'm cautiously optimistic

Saltire74

Fingers crossed for you skywardhunter. Let's hope we start seeing a trend.

S

Lkaroo

I thought that even prior to the rule change it wasn't possible to get op ups on award/upgrade tickets?

As a further data point, I got upgraded from J-F from Tokyo to Dubai earlier last week. Granted, it was a J flex ticket but I was told at check in that I was first on the upgrade list. From experience, there are usually quite a few people on J flex plus tickets from Tokyo so again, I was a little surprised. Flight was showing as J0 Y0.

skywardhunter

I've seen reports before of people who had upgraded being further upgraded. Not sure about award tickets, but I'd be pretty far down the list I reckon.

Y0J0 means no seats for sale, so good chance of upgrades.

weasel07

We've been upgraded on award tickets (before the rule change)

Lkaroo

Just been upgraded at check-in from Y-J from CAI-DXB on a saver (Q) ticket. EF still showing seats available all the way to U1. Ghostwrita reported on another thread that he has received some Y-J upgrades on saver tickets very recently too. Could the rules have finally changed back..?

Seat map looked completely empty in Y earlier this morning and is now showing as completely full which reinforces the fact that it is a very unreliable way of knowing how busy a flight really is.