Upgrading to First during the final 48hrs
 

We all know that First rewards are hard to come by, certainly hard to find more than one at a time on any given flight I've found.

If your ambition is to bag First seats, what do we understand would give someone the better chance of bagging empty seats in First during the final 24/48 hours before departure, how for instance would we say the following options rank in terms of importance?

(I'll use DBX to LON as the example of a destination with multiple daily flights and multiple city airports).

- Upgrading from an existing Business Flex Plus fare on the same flight as you are already on.

- Asking to move flight (to another flight going to LON) from an existing First Flex Plus ticket on a different DBX-LON route

- Arriving in the airport as early as possible so that you're one of the first to ask when flight becomes airport controlled?

- Calling customer services as close to the deadline before the flight goes to airport control?

- tier status?

Thanks for any advice/experience/guidance on this my quest to bag 2x First Class reward seats for the first time on a flight!

& meanwhile, Happy New Year all!

My experience. Tier Status was Gold. Travelling in Business.

In December 2017 we were in Dubai. I called the call centre the day before our flight to LHR (over 24 hours) and asked what the loading was like in First.
I was told that two seats were available for a points upgrade. While I was on the phone I transferred some Amex points across to top up my Skywards Account. (they cleared instantly). Upgrades confirmed.
Next day a "First" car collected us from our Hotel.

Awesome. Can I ask whether you'd checked online just prior to calling and seen there was nothing available for two? (i.e. Did you experience the call centre finding alternate availability to what you could yourself see online)

It was "spur of the moment", thinking it would be nice to try the "First" experience in DXB as our return leg later in the trip from DXB was in a two class aircraft. I did a dummy booking first to see if there were any paid seats available then rang. We also managed to get two middle seats together.

Thanks WLG. Does anybody else have a take on what would be more effective in this pursuit?

Many thanks!

IME, to London is very difficult to bag 2 seats. Never happened to me. However, I usually find 1 seat in advance and maybe another 1 at the airport if available.

I say keep checking just in case anything opens up and make sure you opt for the auto upgrade feature.

What sort of joy (ratio?) have you had when attempting to secure that second ticket in First (upgrading from Business) when at Doha heading to London? What sort of time do you show up and at which desk? (etc, any specific tips of this sort would be greatly appreciated)

You mean Dubai? If so, it's very unlikely you'll get an upgrade until the very last minute before boarding (and maybe not even then - you may have to ask to upgrade on board).

Oops, yes I did sorry!

At what point pre-departure does Emirates hand over its flights to airport control and what then is stopping them allowing miles based upgrades to First assuming there are empty seats showing in First?

If there are seats free in the last minute before boarding, what rationale would they be applying to deny an award upgrade at that point?

And would they ever deny the upgrade once on board itself (assuming seats are vacant in First).

No time to organise any extra catering.

They would not deny you an onboard upgrade if there was space in a working seat, but you may only get J catering.

At out stations ie not dxb upgrades can be done (space available) at check in, although if the food is catered from dxb you may get the problem above ie J food as they can’t guarantee enough F meals.

Ex dxb on busy flights the flight control team block upgrades and check in need to call to ask them if they can release a seat - if they do great if not then anyone that wants an upgrade expresses an interest to use miles and they are then waitlisted and confirmed in priority order (status for sure and probably ticket type). This is processed when the flight closes at T60.

it’s easier to get upgrades after online check in has opened from out stations (it will never happen for flights from dxb if not available at t-48 in my experience). I had an experience out of Man where my wife and kid were in F (paid for what it’s worth BadoRas ) and I was in J on a different ticket). No seats opened up at check in but using twitter I got one 24 hours before - they unchecked me in and upgraded me. This will not happen in DXB in my experience.

Both times I upgraded onboard I was told I'd get J meals, but plated as F.

Thanks so much for all your answers!

Would you mind talking through the scenario (/in what ways different) when flying out of Dubai itself?

Do you mean that from DXB, with 48hrs to go until departure, if no reward seats have been opened up in First, then they won't upgrade anyone until on board at earliest?

In the above MAN example, do you sense the same would have been achieved by calling up, or do you think Twitter support was the magic sauce in this instance? (& any speculation as to why if so?)

Thanks again!

And in reality once on board... if there are surplus First meals, do they offer those up once other passengers in First have been catered for?

Presumably First class drinks are no issue... what about caviar service? Pyjamas etc, presumably they have plenty of this stock on board in any case?

In 2019, I upgraded for 2 at the airport which was a steal. In 2021, I upgraded for three in advance (could be a month or so via the auto upgrade feature). In 2022, We were also three and I was only able to upgrade one in advance (months prior).

London is always packed, but my main suggestion is don't go for the 777 as they have only 6 seats, where the A380's has 14.