Upgrading at check in possible?
 

Hi

I'm half way through an economy return SYD-LHR, and service was so good so far, but its probably the longest I've done in Economy straight and I'm dreading the return now.

I have the return leg coming up and I was wondering how easy it would be to upgrade the return leg at checkin - either all the way LHR to SYD, or just even just the DXB-SYD at the very least. Does anyone have any experience of this?

I know on the SYD-DXB list some people got free upgraded at the gate, so I wouldn't mind paying a small premium to ensure that that was me this time, but don't really want to get stung the whole upgrade to business fee.

(Plus if I could get some extra tier miles say by doing the SYD-DXB I would actually get silver.)

Any advice/experiences on this topic to share?

Thanks

I was flying Y last year from Beijing to Cairo, had excess baggage so decided to upgrade to J at check-in, seats were available and I was upgraded. Of course I had to pay for the difference. At the gate I was upgraded to First.