Upgrade questions
 

Hi all, first time point user here... I'm looking at booking two tickets from SLC -> MLE in May for our 25th anniversary. I have about 300k points to use between Chase and Capital One. I don't have enough to outright book business class, but I'd like to upgrade on at least one of our segments, preferably SFO or LAX to DXB. What's the best way to accomplish this? I'm planning on purchasing economy seats early next week. When i'm booking it says that the flight can be upgraded with a certain amount of points, but there are no upgrades available at the time, even though expertflyer says that there are award seats available on the flight. Do they open up upgrades closer to the travel date, or are they just gone? I'm trying to travel middle of the week if possible.

Also, we'd discussed spending a couple days in Dubai, but if I try to book with a stopover, the price goes way up. Any ideas how to accomplish this?

Firstly, don't trust ExpertFlyer - it doesn't work for EK.

Secondly, award seats *may* open up, but there's no guarantee. If there are free seats available in Business on the day you fly, you can try upgrading at the airport, or failing that, onboard (just ask the Purser).

If you don't mind me jumping in and asking a question about upgrades. I am completely familiar with BA upgrades processes but I am wondering if Emirates offer something similar with cash fares and paying for an upgrade with cash? But more specifically an promotion cash upgrade as opposed to a fare difference? This would be from Y to the new Premium Economy flying Dec 22 on the A380.

You sometimes get cash offers a few days beforehand. A typical Y->J upgrade would be around £500 from UK to DXB.

Paid PE is very new - so I've don't think we've had any reports of emailed offers from Y -> PE as yet.

You can also ask at the airport check-in. I've never seen it myself, but others have reported that they sometimes have upgrade offers.

I’ve just picked a random date in august (2nd) and it’s £913 on the outbound flight from LHR to DXB, premium economy is £1092. I really cannot believe these prices.

As for your question, if you purchase a higher priced Y ticket you’ll be near the top of the queue to be moved up to PE if Y is oversold (quite common on PE aircraft) but then the price difference between a Flex+ and PE probably won’t be that much.

Hi, were you able to book your stopover in Dubai without getting the fare increase?
I am planning the same itinerary LAX-NYC-DXB-MLE end of this year..but when I try to stay 3 nights in Dubai the ticket price increase a lot... does EK stopover program allows same fares as transit or cheaper? There must be a way to get better fares! ...I hope! Cheers

The wife and kid (15) are in paid Flex Plus J. Currently upgrade to F available only as 'Auto'. They have no miles. How do I upgrade them using my points? Thank you for your wisdom.

Not quite sure what you mean by upgrade being available as ‘auto’, but the process would be that you log in to YOUR Skywards account, then call up their booking (using name and PNR), click on ‘upgrade with miles’ and do whatever you are prompted to do.

Sorry that I wasn’t clear. Upgrades are unavailable at this time. The only option is to enable the ‘automatic upgrade’ My concern is that when seats become available, the system will go searching in my wife’s account and find that she has no points. Do you think, by following the guidance above, the system will look for points to use from MY account?

Aha, I see. That clarifies things.
I have absolutely no idea what would happen if you set the auto upgrade when logged into your Skywards account.
Logic would suggest that it should work as you want it to but then EK IT is not known for it’s level of logic (which is not unique to EK, but that is not the issue here).
Also, auto upgrade itself seems to be a bit ‘buggy’, there is lots of anecdote of people getting upgraded when calling whilst they were also under ‘auto upgrade’ and were not upgraded automatically.
My suggestion would be to call EK and explain the situation. Although ‘waitlist’ does not officially exist, they might relent and put you on a waitlist (they have done so twice for me). She wil then be advised when a seat becomes available and be given 24 hours to claim it (again anecdote…). You can then call and tell them to use your miles. Set yourself up as her ‘travel coordinator’ in her profile.
Finally, there is of course the ‘upgrade at check-in or on board’, assuming that there are seats available at that time. Auto upgrade and waitlist seem to be cancelled at T-48.
I see you are Plat, and that should help.
Good luck!

Auto upgrade will take everything from your account (as you want).

Just looking at booking an outright award redemption in J but the surcharges are mental. It’ll cost me 145,000 miles plus almost 1000 euros on top for a return ticket. Last year, I managed the same route for 90,000 miles plus 250ish euros. 🤣

Because of this, I’m thinking of booking Y flex using cash and then upgrading for 39000 miles each way, of course depending on availabilty.

My question: if I was successful in upgrading from Y to J using this method, would EK also ask me for extra cash, be it due to taxes (premium cabin) or surcharges?

Yes you have to pay surcharges on top. The only way to get around it is to upgrade onboard which is ok on a quiet flight with plenty of seats options but obviously a risk. Plus you get caught out here using more miles if your journey is more than one leg.

There's only a couple of places I've ever heard of extra being charged on mileage upgrades. One is on flights from the UK where the additional APD is charged and there's one other country with a similar charge but it escapes for now who it is.

Indeed - the UK charges more for anything above Y. So, a J-F upgrade doesn't cost any more, just Y-J has the extra charge.