Upgraded to First
 

I've been a Gold member for the past 18 years. On my recent flight from Rome to Dubai, I was unexpectedly upgraded from Economy to First Class. While in the lounge, they called my name, and when I approached the reception, the staff member informed me of the upgrade, which really took me by surprise. It wasn't an upgrade to Business, but straight to First Class. Curious, I asked why, and he checked the computer before telling me that I'm a Level One Gold member. Does anyone know what "Level One" means? Just to clarify, I had only booked an Economy Flex ticket.

Have you got over 100K tier miles? Anecdotally there seems to be a ‘Gold +’ level. There certainly are no official / published benefits for that level and I sort of assume that the existence will be denied but I recently heard from another member (who now is Plat) about it. He did not experience such a ‘double upgrade’ though!

I used to have this happen all the time when I was based in SIN and before there was a Platinum level. I would book Y all the time between SIN and MEL and the Y cabin was always oversold. It helped that I got to know the lounge and ground staff as well as a SIN station manager :)

I'm glad EK recognized your loyalty. Now go forth and travel and remain up the sharp end where you belong!

I only have about 45,000 miles at the moment.

I must admit this year has been fantastic. I have taken around 40 flights so far and I’ve been upgraded more than half. My home base is Bangkok and you’re guaranteed the EK385 will be fully booked every day.