upgrading to World business class
 

So i've been wondering about last minute paid upgrade to world business class. On the KLM website it's written that if there are available places that people can get a paid upgrade and sometimes at a discounted price.

1. Has anyone has experience with this? Any idea what the discount is?
2. Is there a condition about the class you have booked your economy ticket in order to get a discount or is there no difference between V and Y ticket for instance?
3. Will the miles you receive afterwards be the miles you have booked before under the S or Y rate or does the person get the business class miles (meaning with 125-175% extra miles)?

Thanks in advance

I have not used it myself, but if I understood their concept properly ...

1. The price will depend on your original ticket (i.e. the cheaper the ticket, the more you will have to pay for the upgrade).

2. You will receive the miles based on your original ticket.

3. Note that when you get an upgrade offer during online check-in (and decide to accept it), KL might change their plans later. This means, there is no guarantee for the upgrade to really take place. (Of course, you will not have to pay if you do evenually not get the upgrade.)

Where are you guys getting the information please?

I looked here:
https://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/pre...conditions.htm

I cannot see anything about miles awarded there.

I got my info from the same source, but there wasn't anything mentioned about miles and upgrade price so i was wondering about it for my next flight

Where did I get the information from?

1. Reasoning: These upgrades are typically less expensive than paying the price for a real ticket in Business. (Otherwise it would not really make sense for KL to say that the upgrade is not automatically guaranteed.) The entire concept of this upgrade is close to the concept of Day of Departure upgrade via miles (+ cash if necessary). So it would be pretty inconsistent if you got the full miles that you would get for a real C-ticket.

2. If I remember it correctly, it was mentioned here on FT a couple of weeks ago by someone who actually made use of this option.

Hi all,

Here's a link to the upgrade information that we have heard of, using cash and miles:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/flyin...eable-fee.html

Note: except for possibly one or two outstations, it can only be done at AMS, and you will need to go to the ticketing desk.

I did find a reference to a promo for Nairobi using this scenario:

https://secure.klm.com/travel/ke_en/...ture/index.htm

Finally, for the paid upgrade, I think this will only be offered in the case of an overbooked flight, where, rather than upgrading people for free, KLM will try to make some extra money by offering upgrades during check-in.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Let's not forget that even without paying the premium to buy up to a high economy fare, KL upgrades are one of the worst uses of miles possible.

IMHO, this is not true.

Upgrading from an expensive fare is certainly a bad use of miles, but miles + cash DoD upgrades, when done from a very low Economy fare, can be (depending on the details of the fare structure) of a miles per money value comparable to an award ticket in C.

I think you make the fallacy of concluding that, because a miles upgrade is a bad use of miles, upgrading with cash + miles must be even worse. Quite the opposite is true. If the difference between a low Y fare, such as T, and a regularly upgradable fare, such as M and beyond, is large enough, you'll get a good value (provided that Z isn't too cheap, in which case using miles is a questionable activity in general).

I was actually very happy to pay the 25k miles for UG on the YVR-OTP BREE fare (UG'd 9 of the 12 TATLs - and they didn't charge me any for one. :D )

I've heared when you are in an overbooked flight in economy, you have to make a big turmoil and stuff and they will eventually give you a seat in Business (70%) otherwise they need to give you a refund (not fully, but partially) and a place to crash (nearest hotel).

I've got this info from a former employee at Korean Air. He said KLM has the same protocol. Dunno whether it's true though

Yes, I got offered a paid upgrade when checking in for AMS - SIN about a year ago.

I remember that half the price of the economy (class V) round trip ticket plus the upgrade price was about the same as half the price of the lowest business class round trip fare. So there is no point in upgrading both legs of your trip in this way (if at all possible) when you can get the lowest business class fare for the round trip beforehand.

It's not a generous discount. I accepted it because flying east against the clock the convenience of business class has a high added value to me. I flew back in economy (and did not get offered a paid upgrade again).

Unfortunately it was based on the economy class rate (V in my case). I expected business class miles and wrote a complaint to Flying Blue. However, FB confirmed that the miles were calculated correctly and I could not find any proof to support my claim. So, I left it at that.

Seems like it's not worth it at all.

Anyways, never got this opt, was just wondering... If we would got like business miles then it was worthwhile to me

There used to be a time when KL check-in counters at outstations (never AMS) would from time to time offer WBC upgrades for a flat €500 one way on selected flights with plenty of availability in the Z bucket.

Johan

Of course there used to be a time when we enjoyed WBC and loved our FFP. :D

I've had this option twice
 

I've been offered this option twice while checking in online during the last year. Once AMS --> JFK, and the second time last month for AMS --> PVG. The one to New York was 200 euro, and the one to Shanghai was 330 euro to upgrade to WBC for the first leg. My experience is they only offer this on the way out, I've never been offered it on the way home.