Jrunway

I have reached Silver on EY. Having used miles to upgrade to J on my last flight, I will very much be longing for the Business cabin when I'm sitting in economy on my next flight. I am hoping reaching Silver will influence my chances of being the lucky recipient of an Op-Up someday. Although I can find quite some information online on the order in which pax are selected for upgrades on Emirates, there is no 100% clear list of the Op-Up policy for EY. This post from Sam Chui is the closest I could find.
A few months ago, there was quite some commotion about EK shifting priority to airfare bucket over Elite status (e.g. non-elite Flex Y would receive an upgrade before Gold Saver Y). What is the policy on Etihad? Does anyone have a clear view of the hierarchy used?

flying_fozzy

I cannot recall the last time I had an op-up from EY, even in a flex ticket bucket, but I would have thought that it is based on status. Friends who are silver and fly east from AUH seem to have a great op-up rate, even on cheap tickets.

csdf

It just so happens that I keep track of op-ups. I've received a total of four, out of 137 segments flown on Etihad in the last 7 years. Almost all of those segments were flown as, at least, Etihad Gold.

Fun stats: the last upgrade was in July 2013, from LHR to AUH and from J (miles booking) to First. Since then I've taken 43 flights on Etihad without an upgrade.

BobFF68

New to FT. I have no ideas of op-up policies, I can share my personal experience, three times in less than one year on my usual CGK-MXP route:
first time traveled in J as I found a breaking deal so no issues.
Second time last January 2017 in Y, no status yet, Flex Ticket, op-up to J in 2 legs above four, op-up always in AUH at gate, one to MXP, one to CGK, thus a 50% rate, Y cabin did not seem full.
Third, June 2017, Silver, traveling with family in Y on different PNR, Flexi Ticket, op up at gate on AUH to to CGK, Y cabin packed and few seat in J as well, refused as I need to be near my small daughter, swap my J seat with the happy Y traveler. Got now Gold status.
On the same route I experienced all ME3 since 2010, got many op-up with EK when Gold and few with Silver until 2013, shift to QR as the new policy I could not keep even
the Silver as traveling less, 4 years with QR 2-3 trips per year not one single op-up even with Silver. Last year found a breaking deal thus tried EY and stick with them, up to now cannot complain abut op-up rate, even QR product still better but very stingy in this respect.

brsm

I've been EY Gold for some time and I had 4 op-ups in 2016 (1 AUH-SYD and 3 times on mid-haul flights from AUH) so the ratio of opups per segments flown 4/14. The AUH-SYD was in L fare class.

In 2017 I had one op-up from Y to F (14h flight) and one Y to J (14h flight). Both were in T fare class, so the cheapest ticket. I did upgrade one segment this year too so the ratio is 2/9 so far.

My partner is EY Platinum, travells with them more often, and never been upgraded when flying on his own, funnily only when travelling together. There was an occasion in April when the SYD-AUH flight seemed to have been overbooked, when we checked on Sabre several times, but he didn't get an upgrade (maybe because travelling on a cheap ticket) and it was packed in Y. He thinks he saw somebody else getting an upgrade.

So not sure on the rules, although we did get it together on a T ticket.

Jrunway

Did you usually book a high or low fare class?

csdf

Of the four, one was an upgrade of a flight booked on miles (J-F) and two were upgrades from cheapest non-flex Y to J. Not sure about the last one.

Speedbird676

Assuming the process is being followed, Etihad process upgrades as follows:

Instant upgrades (cash/miles)
Staff who are eligible for an upgrade (usually business travel or annual ticket)
Etihad Guest cardholders in order of status
Everybody else

eddibabyyeah

I have been silver or gold status for about 9 years now with EY. I never had any Op-Up until 2 years ago. In the last 2 years I have flown 24 legs and been upgraded 6 times. Four of these as silver and 2 as gold. Upgrades were on the following routes and all Y-J:

AUH-MAN *1
AUH-BKK *3
BKK-AUH *2

One of the BKK-AUH was interesting. I was on a separate PNR to my wife and child and they only upgraded me (no surprise there). But the seat I was originally assigned in Y was not taken by anybody, meaning the flight was not oversold in Y.

ss1710

I know someone who flew EY yesterday from BOM to JFK (via AUH of course). They were on a business saver ticket and are EY Gold. Op upd on both flights to first.

Recondite

I found that merely being a part of Etihad's FF programme seemed to give me a good chance of an upgrade on flights to/from AUH to Indian Subcontinent.

I am Etihad Silver now, but even before this, I received upgrades on >50% of all flights as described above. Also had one upgrade from AUH to LHR in my last four legs.

Not sure if they take air miles into account, also (I have a lot of those) - but I am assuming that they don't.