Ptmlinh

Hello everyone,

​​​​​​We booked core seats from SFO to Cancun end of this month for $209 one way (red eye 5 hours to FLL followed by 2 hour layover and 2 hours to CUN). Then I learned of the Mint service on the first leg and the idea of getting quality shuteye is great. Mint seat is currently selling for $823 which is ok with our budget. My question is should I bite the bullet now or wait for the chance of upgrading for lower at check in or gate?
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I read on this forum that upgrade fee *could* be a flat $499 or less depending on demand and seat availability. Someone traveled this same route 3 weeks ago paid just over $300 to upgrade. Then I'll be betting on $300 up to $499 to upgrade then vs $823-209=$614 to upgrade now, quite a saving per person. Even the flat $499 is still a better choice. Can someone opine if the flat $499 is still true?

​​​​​​And is it possible to pay the same difference at check in counter vs gate? I hope to enjoy the perks of Mint including free checked bags but if we have to wait until gate then I suppose cost of check bags are additionally on top of whatever we pay for the seats.

Appreciate everyone's input.

TastyPlaneEats

This is not from personal experience but from my friends who were on the same flight ... I bought my Mint suite seat ahead of time. The Mint upgrades at check-in are usually full fare. The upgrades at the gate one hour before either boarding or takeoff (forgot which one) are usually the cheaper $300-$400 upgrade, first come first serve.

MSYtoJFKagain

It's a gamble and in this case I'd recommend just buying the fare if you're comfortable with it.

Red-eye flights with lie-flats tend to fill up even during COVID and you could also end up not next to each other unless B6 is still separating all non-group Mint flyers.

lowfareair

I'd say it's filling up more because of COVID rather than in spite of it. People are more willing to pay for an area with way fewer pax within 6 feet of them, especially if a suite is available and they're flying solo.

truncated

Here's another data point — flew on the redeye SEA-BOS last weekend, booked in Core ($153 OW fare) but Mint was looking fairly empty (9/16 booked). Asked at gate if they were selling upgrades and yes, but needed my name since apparently pricing is now dynamic — got quoted $299 which felt like a fairly easy decision and went for it. Didn't see anyone else buy up although they did announce that upgrades were available for sale about an hour before boarding started, and flight was very empty overall (overheard 57 passengers total).

MSYtoJFKagain

That's a really nice price point. I wonder if it's different between blue basic/regular/plus/extra.

truncated

Yeah I was fairly surprised to hear 299 and was expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of $399 – 499 (or higher), and would probably have taken the upgrade at 399 but maybe not above that (since I already had a row to myself in Y). Also IIRC the day-of-purchase Mint fares were something like $700 anyway.

secamp32

We flew EWR-SFO and back last month. They were offering $500 upgrades to Mint on the EWR-SFO leg. I didn't hear them announce anything on the return.

pregabalin

Has anyone upgraded to mint at the gate recently? Is pricing still dynamic?

edit: to answer my own question, it doesn’t look like it is dynamic, just a flat fee of $499 from EWR to LAX. There were about 10 empty mint seats on my flight.

bgasser

The pricing for transcons to NYC seems not to be dynamic on B6. I saw a price sheet at LAX for walk-up Mint upgrades taped to the ticket counter by my gate. $499 seems excessive on a low demand flight. I paid $241 for an upgrade to J when I checked in for my AA flight from SNA-JFK. The cabin was less than half full. B6 seems to be leaving money on the table.