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.

I’ll be trying to upgrade France-DXB-France. Just concerned that EK will ask for additional carrier imposed charges, similar to the surcharges they’re asking for on award tickets.

On a separate note, it seems these reward surcharges aren’t added to every flight. For example I was looking at MXP-JFK return in J in November and EK want the miles plus only about 200-300 euros. Whereas from France-DXB they want the miles plus almost 1000 euros 🤷‍♂️

I can confirm that they process upgrades without requiring payment of the higher Carrier Imposed Surcharges. Otherwise, auto upgrades would be impossible to implement.

The only variable is government/airport taxes, as highlighted above.

Correct. And that’s all why auto upgrade from Y to J ex UK is disabled. J to F is fine as the tax is the same for all cabins above the lowest ons.

Seeking some clarification. If I pay for a cash upgrade from Biz to First via the website/app, will I get the Tier miles for First?

Yes, it simply becomes a paid F ticket with all the 'bells and whstles'.

Many thanks

Just be aware that this is only when you upgrade via the website / app (as you mentioned) and therefore pay the fare difference. If you use a ‘special offer’ (which you normally get via email), you get J miles, luggage allowance etc.

I have a paid J ticket and was told that I could upgrade to F with miles but would not be able to access the F lounges in DXB.

Is that a new(ish) policy? I could have sworn that I was always able to use F lounges when I’d upgrade with miles in the past (the last time was probably a year ago).

Who told you that?
Last time I upgraded with miles (admittedly a few months ago), I certainly got access to the F lounges (and the ‘meet and greet’ on arrival in DXB)

How to check upgrade availability?
 

Newbie to Emirates - trying to check whether I’ll be able to upgrade a TA booking at the point of purchase.

If there is O class availability, and reward tickets are showing available on the EK website, will it definitely be possible to upgrade a Y flex booking to J?

The EK staff at check-in at DXB. She was adamant about that point, which I had never heard about before. I hope that she was just mistaken and that Emirates haven’t further upped their stinginess.

So what happened? I guess you didn't upgrade and test it out?

I’m wondering too… (But more about J to F)
Anyone? :)

This needs a bit of clarification:
When you look for award tickets on the website, you should be shown the 'classic awards', which are booked in 'D' bucket, not in 'O'. Sometimes though, it appears to show 'Flex Awards' when there are no classic awards available, those are the ones which book into 'O', but unsurprisingly cost a lot more miles.
I have successfully upgraded J to F on a TA bought J ticket several times, but always to a 'classic award', which for F books into 'Z' bucket. You don't even need the TA to do that, it's one of the few changes you can do yourself (either via the website or the call centre) on a TA bought ticket.

I have to say that I am feeling slightly miffed that as a Gold member (on my own dollar), I have been unable to upgrade from J to F on a Flex ticket booked back in March for travel at the end of January (SYD/DXB with DXB/LGW already upgraded to F).. I have auto upgrade enabled and have called EK on many occasions to check but even when Expert Flyer showed F wide open there were still no upgrades available. This is still the case, although there are now 4 seats reserved in the F cabin. What do you reckon are my chances?

You have no justifiable reason to be miffed. EK is looking to maximize $ for its F seats, not upgrades from C using miles. If they offered these seats as miles upgrades (2 months in advance), people would be less likely to actually buy F tickets for $.

No one can tell you the chances, especially not this much in advance. Once you get to 1 week / a few days before the flight, the picture will be much clearer.

[QUOTE=NYC1;35813209]You have no justifiable reason to be miffed. EK is looking to maximize $ for its F seats, not upgrades from C using miles. If they offered these seats as miles upgrades (2 months in advance), people would be less likely to actually buy F tickets for $.


You obviously did not read my post - the DXB/LGW leg was upgraded with miles at the time of booking ( in March\) so your argument is pointless. Also it is J not C in EK speak!

He did read your post... LGW-DXB is not a premium route, so upgrades will be made available earlier. There are lots of flights per day from LON to DXB.

DXB--SYD has fewer flights, so fewer seats will be made available for upgrades.

Actually SYD/DXB has three flights a day - exactly the same as DXB/LGW which is already upgraded.

I did read it, unfortunately, but will "obviously" not be reading your posts going forward.

I said LON as in the city... There are 12 flights per day.

The issue is that J to F upgrades ex SYD are (notoriously?) difficult to get. There are several posts on the EK forum which tell us about that.
As also mentioned by DYKWIA, LGW is a completely different proposition, it is not really that much of a 'premium' route (LHR is) and I have never struggled to get an upgrade there (in either direction). So, as mentioned by others, don't try to draw to many parallels between those two stations.
Impossible to predict your chances. Do not count on auto upgrade, it is unreliable. if they make more seats available, it will most likely be in the last 2 or 3 days. Otherwise try at the airport, although you will then not be able to get the 'though upgrade' mileage rate.

Nope - didn’t think it was worth it without access to the F lounge (I had several hours to kill at DXB so that would have tipped the balance).

j to f gives access to f lounge of course

that was certainly always my understanding and experience, so was very surprised to be told otherwise!