2slo

That's all new to me and I certainly will look into it, thank you.

crafty1981

I am flying Emirates EWR - ATH R/T in a couple of weeks. This is my first time flying EK. I booked a saver economy fare for me and my wife. I think I see a path to upgrading to business for the outbound leg, however I have some questions and would appreciate some insight.

I know that the 2-3-2 and the angled seats on the older 777s on this route are not the best biz class product in the world, but it's a special trip for my wife and the last significant vacation we will be taking for a while. So even if the redemption value is not optimal, I still want to see if I can get upgraded for the outbound flight.

As of today, ExpertFlyer shows that "Yes" there is Business Saver Award & Upgrade availability for my flight. However, as I understand it, with Saver awards, you cannot request the upgrade until check-in 48 hours beforehand.

According to the seatmap on ExpertFlyer, of the 42 seats in business, 18 are "occupied," 12 are "available," and 12 are "blocked." FWIW, the economy section of the plane looks to be only about 25% full currently

It is going to require 78,000 skywards miles total for these upgrades. In order to get that many miles, I need to move some points/miles around soon so that I am ready 48 hours beforehand. This would include a transfer of a number of Marriott points which in a test I did took about 6 days to post to my skywards account.

Obviously, I do not want to go through all of these transfers if it is unlikely I get the upgrade. Then, it seems I would be "stuck" with 78,000+ skywards miles that I don't have a lot of use for personally.

So given what I know today, 2 weeks out from the flight and 12 days out from check-in:
- What do you think is the likelihood that I will get the upgrades?
- Do I need to request the upgrades as soon as I'm allowed to check-in? IOW, does requesting 48 hours beforehand give me a leg up over someone who requests 24 hours beforehand? Or is it solely by status (I have none)?
- Say I do everything "right" (get enough miles in my account in time, request 48 hours beforehand, etc), but do not get the upgrades - what is the best non-EK redemption for skywards miles? JetBlue domestic one-ways?

Thank you for your consideration and please let me know of any other details I can provide.

Metanoia

If you provide the date for the flight we can look at overall availability now using ExpertFlyer, but won't mean much until a few days before especially in J where a lot of last-minute changes can happen. However, if they are showing availability for Saver awards now, they don't think they'll sell the seats for cash.

As for the rest of your questions I have the same ones for a flight I have upcoming - I am only allowed to upgrade at "check-in" but I'm guessing that is defined as physically at the airport so that the flight controller can release the seats. If anyone else has info to the contrary i'd like to know. I never get to use OLCI (Online Check In) because I have a medical device I carry onboard.

I too am transferring (risking) about 75k Marriott points, so thanks for the update on how long it takes, I need to get on the transfer now.

crafty1981

Thanks for the reply and glad the timeline is helpful for Marriott. The date for my flight is 10/22. I looked up the availability on ExpertFlyer. It is: F4 A4 J7 C7 I7 O7 P0 Y9 E9 R9 W9 M9 B9 U9 K9 H0 Q9 L9 T9 V0 X0

ft101

On a Saver Ticket you can upgrade when OLCI opens 48 hours before your flight. Even if you can't physically complete OLCI, this is still the optimum time to do the upgrade as if seats are available, others may grab them before you present yourself at the airport.

Metanoia

So I'm guessing that what happens is the upgrade section of MMB then allows you to upgrade regardless of whether Z bucket is available? (this is a weird ticket, it's a downgrade compensation ticket marked as "NON-END/SAVER/ONLY CHK-IN REWARD UPGRADE" but books into J bucket with fare basis JRDBPDB1 so "Saver").

I might just "forget" to pre-notify them I'm bringing my medical device (CPAP) so I can use OLCI as usual, as it is never on the manifest and never on the tablets anyway. The check-in agents know and ask but nobody else ever does - I have an Emirates form that clears everything up with the purser/CSV.

After all is said and done I'll probably be writing a post with my experiences with this voucher, it's been interesting and no two EK agents say the same thing.

ft101

That's confusing. Upgrades from Business Class Saver (requires Fare Code Z availability as you say) do not usually have the 48 hour restriction, that's only from Economy Saver (to Business D fare). The wording in your fare rules says otherwise, so all bets are off.

skywardhunter

​​​​​​
risky as others could snatch the seat, also are two saver awards available? If call eK and check what the cost to upfare to a Flex ticket is, you would need fewer miles to upgrade and can do it immediately. As to "requesting", with EK there's no waitlist. If you're eligible to upgrade (meet all conditions) and there's a seat, it is confirmed immediately

Metanoia

At least there is not currently any Z availability for someone to take from me, and it seems like EK only makes 1 seat available (if any at all) on LAX-DXB flights prior to the day of departure. I saw the seatmap populate with one seat and Z availability disappeared.

I gather from a lot of the posts here that sometimes First upgrades don't open up till literally minutes before flight time or even onboard, so at least I won't be competing with one hand tied behind my back.

thijsseh

This is indeed a 'strange' ticket. The text says 'SAVER',, but if the 'P' in the fare basis indeed indicates the fare bucket (not 100% sure about this), it is not a 'normal' saver as a J saver books into O, not P. "P" is actually the bucket from which the 'email special upgrade offers' come from. So as far as I am concerned, all bets are off with respect to upgrade potential.
As far as I understand, Z bucket applies to 'regular' upgrades, but certainly on-board upgrades just look at 'empty seats'. Where 'at checkin' or at 'OLCI' upgrades come from is a mystery to me. I look forward to hear how this plays out as it might give us a bit of understanding on how this all works!

skywardhunter

As Metanoia mentioned this is an IDB compensation ticket, so certainly wouldn't expect it to behave too much like a regular revenue ticket. Once at the airport upgrades are based on space, i.e. not Z, at OLCI you still require Z

Metanoia

I'll probably do as you did when trying to score the upgrade to FLL... make friends with the call centre agents.

ft101

It doesn't help Metanoia but what you think is the fare basis isn't quite right. The 4th character from the right (in this case P) signifies the ticket type (F = Flex Plus / S = Flex / P = Saver / R = Special). The first character (in this case J) usually signifies the fare bucket, so should be "O" as you say, but this ticket is definitely different in make up from what we usually see.

thijsseh

Insaniak

Flying first class hong kong to dubai. Will, I get amenity kits and sleepwear?