AFAIK there are various options:

1) the regular upgrades purchased with miles before your trip through FB (fare classes M and higher only)
2) Day of Departure upgrade at airport: you pay a fee to bump up your initial fare and then pay the required miles. Available at most stations provided sufficient seats in J-cabin.
3) Fully paid upgrades to the lowest available J-cabin fare at the airport or on board with the purser (pretty steep rates).
4) Random upgrade offer through internet check-in or kiosk check-in when J-cabin is very open, you only pay a cash fee (not sure of the fee but see post by sixbit). Regular fare class miles are earned and regular Y baggage allowance applies. You cannot be sure that this pops up every time though, it's been a hit-and-miss on my recent flights.
5) Operational Upgrades (Op-ups) when Y oversold and J has seats, based on a number of factors like FB/Skyteam status, travelling alone or not, fare class, etc. And note: when you order a special meal you won't be Op-Up'd.

Any one knows if checking-in online before going to airport affects chances to get a paid upgrade option at the kiosk check-in?

K

When I've been offered a paid upgrade at OLCI, it has also been availalbe at the same price at the airport kiosk, at least on those occasions I've bothered to check.

Johan

But why would you even be doing a kiosk check in at the airport, if you had previously checked in online?

To print your BP if you didn't have a printer when OLCIing?

I do that all the time and also for checking the seat map!

Even though I've checked in online, I print a boarding card at a kiosk when flying from CPH, because the procedure at security for verifying non-paper boarding cards is slighty cumbersome and takes some time. I also take the opportunity to check the seat map, and move myself to somewhere with a vacant adjacent seat if necessary (usually) and possible (usually not).

Johan

+1. I check at the last minute if there are 2 adjacent seats unoccupied.

I've had only intermittent success in accessing the seat map from the "blue robots" in the past few months. (I started a thread back in March wondering if the facility had been withdrawn - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/klm-f...ter-check.html )

In most cases, I am not able to change seats anymore - so perhaps the clue is to select the "collect boarding pass at the airport" option during the online checkin (though I really don't see that this would/should prevent you from looking at the seating map again at the airport).

Last Friday I checked the seatmap from the lounge, only to discover I'd been op-upped to 1A. So although the system should have realised that I really did need to print a new boarding pass, it wouldn't let me, merely printing the "information voucher" showing flight number, boarding time, and gate.

What I am actually asking for is if a paid upgrade offer is most likely to happen when doing an OLCI in advance or at the kiosk. And if an OLCI affects chances to get a paid upgrade at the kiosk. I now understand that if a paid upgrade is possible on my flight, I will get the offer at both olci and kiosk, right?

I don't think there is any way of saying when it is more likely.

We don't fully understand the logic and pricing behind the offers. If it's as a result of an overbooked economy cabin (so: they are trying to see if anyone might want to "pay" for an upgrade, rather than having to give free upgrades at random) then the later you check in the more chance you have of receiving such an offer.

If it's just offered semi-randomly as a way to try and increase revenue even when the economy cabin is full, it could happen at any time.

When you OLCI and you do not see an offer, then try again later. That was the case recently. When i got an email that i can check in online, there was no iffer, but when i woke up, there was one available. Another time i chose a seat, but apparently someone was faster than me (either upgrade or regular J passenger) and I got a message on the screen that the iffer is not available anymore. Some 15 minutes later, i was presented one again, but the seat I chose previously was taken.

does KLM often offer this promotion ?

i recently flew from Vancouver to AMS

and at online checkin time (30h prior to the flight), i was really surprised to see the option available

therefore i costed me 549€ to upgrade from Eco to Business

i was really happy to pay for this option

that was a smart move from KLM, because i was reluctant to paying more than my regular eco class
at first, i would not have paid more for something like Premium Eco
and Business was way to expensive

finally, 549€ was a quite fair deal to get a Business Seat

See the following thread, then draw your own conclusions.

You may wish to add your own data point to that thread, too.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/klm-f...-ups-olci.html