Hello,

I'm booked onto EK 407 as a Qantas codeshare (QF 8407) this coming Saturday, Sept 1 in economy. The flight looks overbooked in Economy and just a handful of seats in First and Business according to ExpertFlyer:
F3 A0 J2 C0 I0 O0 P0 Y0 E0 R0 W0 M0
B0 U0 K0 H0 Q0 L0 T0 V0 X0

I'm booked into K class on Qantas, which I understand translates to Flex Economy category in Emirates-speak. I'm a QF Plat member, which as I understand it places me in the same place as EK Platinum members when it comes to op-ups. Any guesses on likelihood that I might be pleasantly surprised by an upgrade at the gate on arrival in Melbourne (starting the journey in Auckland)?

Don't get your hopes up. J2 C0 usually means J is overbooked, too. But always a chance, though better to be pleasantly surprised rather than disappointed

Nah, they don't count...

Agreed, but there are always cancellations and no-shows, though as it is to DXB rather than ex DXB there'll be fewer connections so probably a lower no-show rate then the reciprocal.

Thanks for the replies. Can I verify that QF Plats are treated the same as EK Plats when it comes to prioritising upgrades?

To my knowledge yes

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Check in
Route: DXB-BLR
Flight number: EK564
Type of ticket: ECONOMY FLEX
Date of travel: 21 Aug 2018
Tier status: Gold
Tier miles to date: 62,315
Skywards miles balance: 132,000
Number of pax on the same PNR (Including OP): 1
Number of pax upgraded: 1

Not EK but thought worthy to post since Fly Dubai moved to using Skywards. First ever upgrade on FZ, not sure if it was sheer luck or due to my Gold status Wife got upgraded too. Anyone else have this happen?

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Gate
Route: DXB-SLL
Flight number: FZ033
Type of ticket: ECONOMY
Date of travel: 16 Aug 2018
Tier status: Gold
Tier miles to date: 62,315
Skywards miles balance: 132,000
Number of pax on the same PNR (Including OP): 2
Number of pax upgraded: 2

That's very interesting indeed. Was it EK or FZ stock?

It was FZ metal

Zol is askin who issued the ticket, not who was the operating carrier

Ah right! It was issued by FZ

Upgrade given: Y - J
Upgrade location: Transfer desk
Route: DXB-LON
Flight number: EK029
Type of ticket: ECONOMY FLEX Plus
Date of travel: 23 Aug 2018
Tier status: Gold
Tier miles to date: 67899
Skywards miles balance: 95477

Number of pax on the same PNR (Including OP): 1
Number of pax upgraded: 2 (including my wife who is a Blue member and was on a different PNR).

This was a very interesting op-up experience at the transfer desk in DXB. During check in for BLR-DXB, I was given a standby boarding pass for my onward leg DXB-LHR, and was told to re-check upon landing in DXB. I landed in DXB, went straight to the transfer desk and was promptly upgraded to J. Since there were 3 of us travelling on 3 different PNRs and I did not want to be separated, I requested the agent to accommodate all of us in J (I knew was a super long shot, but decided to try anyways).
My wife was immediately upped, but my friend who was on a saver ticket was not. The agent then asked me again if I wanted to travel as a group and not split, and I again asked her to re-check if we could all get upped, and if we couldn't all go then we'd decide. She spoke to someone on the phone, hung up and then asked me if we were OK with different seats, to which we said it's fine (naturally we assumed she had upped us all to J, and different seats wouldn't be such a big deal). She re-printed our passes and handed them back, and that's when I noticed she had put us ALL back on economy.
At this point, I was cut up because she had not conveyed the final position before re-allocating the seats, and asked her what she had done. She seemed to have realised her mistake and immediately put me back in J, my wife on standby and my friend remained in Y, and asked us to re-check when we were exiting the lounge to board. Sure enough, my wife was confirmed in J with me and my friend had to "slum" it out in Y.
Weird experience, a bit of a departure from the normally smooth agents in DXB.

A few months ago I saw my seat change on the app about 6 hours prior to my onward flight from DXB (I was enroute to DXB from CPT), which is super early and unusual as mostly it is at T-60 (more or less on the dot), I wonder if this is what happened with you here, i.e. you were already upgraded or earmarked for upgrade in BLR (as it's a short flight, so probably within 6 hours or so of the DXB onward flight) but maybe they can't print the upgraded BP or something...