Random Upgrades?
 

a co-worker was flying IAH-FRA-RUH a couple of days ago and was Upgraded to Business at the gate for the FRA-RUH leg. we all travel on H fares and were all surprised by this given that the aircraft was maybe 30% filled and LH's reputation for never upgrading.

anyone have any insight on why this happened?

Thanks, in advance.:)

He did an upgrade with miles or vouchers and was too shy to admit

no status, no miles or vouchers to use. :cool: first trip for new job, previous job didnt require travel.

indeed very strange.. :confused:

what about if he paid upgrade cash ? (somehow in the meantime)

otherwise i cannot realize, with no status... VIP ! ;)

all the op up i scored in my LH saga, have been after I reached SEN and only on overbooked flights...

:D

I received upgrade twice during this year, but do not know why.

WAW-FRA February

and FRA-FLR June

In Europe it makes no sense, but....

Don't know if LH does this but I've read that Emirates (and probably others) upgrades business travelers that they find valuable. For example those in charge of corporate travel in their organization, C-level executives, etc.

Happened to me on a LOT flight once. Low T fare, FF number or status weren't on my booking, but the agent said Y was oversold and she had to bump some people.

It was strange....it was an ATR, so the J cabin should have been 1 person per 2 seats...in 12 seats, they had 10 people...so rather than move the curtain and make a smaller J cabin, they gave all 10 of us J food and service, while cramming us in like Y....

As you mentioned, the aircraft was only 30% full. So LH might have decided to use a reduced number of cabin-crew for this flight and consequently for safety reasons they had to reduce the number of pax in the Y-cabin. As all of you were flying with a usually quite expensive H-class ticket, this could have qualified anyone in your group for an operational upgrade.

thanks,
very good explanation.

Which would make any loyal SEN on the same flight in a lower booking class wonder why he/she should remain loyal to LH. But one-off money being more important to LH than long-term loyality is another subject altogether, being clearly demonstrated.

HTB.

We will all be sens or p1ks in a year, just wondering what could have prompted the gift.

Some time ago a friend of mine was upgraded on a nearly empty flight, and it was just because of a weight compensation problem. There were no status pax as he understood.

So, there might be cases were people get upgraded without status on an empty flight. Nice, isn't it? It makes the whole game a bit more interesting and funny ;)