sow40

Hi all

can anyone help me out here please

i currently have 198,814 miles and I'm looking at upgrading the family in our upcoming trip to Dubai (depart Saturday on Ek38 out of BHX) I have been in touch with emirates and the booking we have is on a saver ticket which means a 1 way upgrade per person is 57500 miles meaning I'm going to be 31000 miles short to upgrade the 4 of us (btw the kids are 4 and 2)
is there any way around this or is there any leniency at check in?

Cheers

skywardhunter

Easiest way around it: Pay to upgrade your tickets to Flex, at least for 2 of you which might get you within range of having sufficient miles.

Beyond this, you're aware that it is space-available? When I flew out of BHX in Feb I waited too long and there were free upgrades handed out before I got a chance to use my miles. Also if you upgrade before the doors close (which you have to unless you hold Silver or above) you will be charged additional APD (tax)

modularmayhem

I just had a quick look for you and at the moment there are 3 business class seats available for upgrade on EK38 BHX-DXB on Sat 3rd June.

I would advise you to call EK and pay the fare difference to change tickets to Economy Flex (should be approx £110 pp) as this will reduce the number of miles required for the upgrade to 39,000 per person, and then use miles to upgrade over the phone. It should all be possible in 1 phone call.

As mentioned in previous post there will also be additional APD tax charged and EK carrier charges (total approx £250 pp).

m3red

APD is about £65 per person, upgrades don't carry any EK Carrier charges.

sydtogla

Current APD rates for this flight and ticket will be £150pp.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...passenger-duty

m3red

When did it change from £65?!!

sydtogla

I think FY10-11. It is one of the few taxes that I genuinely think is theft (but I pay it in Scotland and its devolved there so helps fund referendums, constituting true theft!).

(edit: This won't actually be devolved until 2018, at which point the govt. are committed to halving it by 2021).

eternaltransit

APD would already have been charged at £75 for the Y tickets, so in a way, it's still ~65 for the upgrade

irishguy28

To the OP: considering the ages of the kids, and the likelihood of it being problematic to find 3 seats together [if one of the adults remains behind in economy], or 2 groups of 2 adjacent seats, even if it is now possible to find 3 or 4 upgrade seats available - perhaps it is better to leave the miles for another time, and book your next trip using the miles (book your seats outright, waiting to try and score upgrades is problematic).

If, instead, you decide to persist with trying to upgrade using miles...please ensure that you spell out clearly to the person on the phone exactly what you are trying to do, and only go and spend the money to change your tickets if they confirm that all 3 or 4 of you can be upgraded, and they confirm that you have the requisite number of miles, and they confirm that they are holding the seats for you while they go ahead and make the change to your economy tickets.

You don't want to go through the hassle and expense of changing your economy tickets to more expensive economy tickets in order to use fewer miles, only to then discover that there aren't seats available for you all.

[And, of course, if you end up only upgrading one adult and the two kids, then don't pay more to change the economy ticket of the poor adult left alone in economy. Though, given that they won't have either kid to look after, maybe they are the lucky one!!! ])

Dave Noble

As far as the APD goes

For the adults, GBP75 will have been already paid, so the additional amount due will be GBP75

For the children, there is no APD charged in economy class, so the additional amount due will be GBP150

So for 2 adults and 2 children , should all 4 be able to be upgraded, the additional tax required will be GBP450
If only 3 can be upgraded and one of the adults remains in economy, the additional tax required will be GBP375

To upgrade 4, then 2 need to be upraded to a higher fare

If considering upgrading the fare to one that would allow a cheaper mileage upgrade to business, be aware that ( according to EF ) a lot of fares require a 3 day advance purchase, so doing it no later than 31 May is a good idea . The L r/t flex fare looks like it is about GBP100 per adult and GBP75 per child more than the T saver fare. The cheapest r/t fare with no advance purchase requirement would be about an extra GBP260 per adult / GBP195 per child. Divide by 2 for only upgrading one way so would be GBP50 per adult extra fare and GBP37.50 per child before thursday or GBP130 / GBP97.50 afterward

The change fee is GBP100 per person - so GBP200 total

Upgrading the fare for the 2 children would be GBP75 or GBP195 - better to do that than the adults

The extra cost to upgrade 4 one way using miles would be around GBP200 change fee plus GBP450 APD plus GBP75 fare difference = GBP725 if done by wednesday or GBP200 change fee plus GBP450 APD plus GBP195 fare difference = GBP845 otherwise

I would suggest looking at upgrading the flight back. On DXB-BHX, the only extra cost would be fare difference plus change fee = GBP200+GBP75 = GBP275

m3red

Love you Dave

sow40

Guys you are literally a wealth of knowledge I've never known a forum like it!! Truly amazing.

Thank you you all for your input it's fascinating. I think the best option for me would be to try the upgrade for the way home therefore negating the need for departure tax. I will hopefully get lucky on the way out but doubtful.

One quick question how how do you know how many upgradable seats are available?

modularmayhem

I just logged in and did a search for 4 business class reward seats BHX-DXB it came back not available so i searched for 3 and it showed availability.

sow40

Ah right that's easy then lol!

ft101

Not quite!

They must be Business Saver Rewards to come from the same bucket as Economy to Business Upgrades.