Austrian Bid Upgrade using Plusgrade
Apr 18, 2013, 9:45 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: FRA
Programs: LH SEN**, IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 682
Austrian Bid Upgrade using Plusgrade
Just found this on the OS homepage (not sure how new it is):
http://www.austrian.com/Info/Book/Sm...=AT&sc_lang=en
In essence, you can place a bid for an upgrade to C up to 72h before the flights. OS then decides who gets the upgrade. This is then booked in booking class P, conditions of the original ticket (rebooking, cancellation etc.) do not change. This is for all long-haul and very long medium-haul flights.
The question is obviously if the prize/booking class of the original ticket will be factored in? E.g. if I have a ticket in Y for 2500 EUR and bid 500 EUR for the upgrade, will I get the upgrade rather than someone with a ticket in L for 500 EUR and a bid of 1500 EUR.
For booking classes Y and B, this is also a bad deal, as one gets less award and status miles in P than in Y or B ...
It is also not clear to me how much of a competition this is for upgrades with miles and award bookings (and op-ups).
Any experience so far?
Some other airlines have this type of system as well, right?
http://www.austrian.com/Info/Book/Sm...=AT&sc_lang=en
In essence, you can place a bid for an upgrade to C up to 72h before the flights. OS then decides who gets the upgrade. This is then booked in booking class P, conditions of the original ticket (rebooking, cancellation etc.) do not change. This is for all long-haul and very long medium-haul flights.
The question is obviously if the prize/booking class of the original ticket will be factored in? E.g. if I have a ticket in Y for 2500 EUR and bid 500 EUR for the upgrade, will I get the upgrade rather than someone with a ticket in L for 500 EUR and a bid of 1500 EUR.
For booking classes Y and B, this is also a bad deal, as one gets less award and status miles in P than in Y or B ...
It is also not clear to me how much of a competition this is for upgrades with miles and award bookings (and op-ups).
Any experience so far?
Some other airlines have this type of system as well, right?
Apr 18, 2013, 12:13 pm
#2
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: VIE
Programs: QR Gold, TK Gold
Posts: 148
there is a system in place called plusgrade used by some other airlines like Etihad, Air New Zealand, el al and others...
I've used it once with Etihad. AFAIK they take into account original booking class and status but not sure how that really works
I've used it once with Etihad. AFAIK they take into account original booking class and status but not sure how that really works
Apr 18, 2013, 12:26 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: LH SEN, FB Plat., HH D.
Posts: 5,062
Just found this on the OS homepage (not sure how new it is):
http://www.austrian.com/Info/Book/Sm...=AT&sc_lang=en
In essence, you can place a bid for an upgrade to C up to 72h before the flights. OS then decides who gets the upgrade. This is then booked in booking class P, conditions of the original ticket (rebooking, cancellation etc.) do not change. This is for all long-haul and very long medium-haul flights.
The question is obviously if the prize/booking class of the original ticket will be factored in? E.g. if I have a ticket in Y for 2500 EUR and bid 500 EUR for the upgrade, will I get the upgrade rather than someone with a ticket in L for 500 EUR and a bid of 1500 EUR.
For booking classes Y and B, this is also a bad deal, as one gets less award and status miles in P than in Y or B ...
It is also not clear to me how much of a competition this is for upgrades with miles and award bookings (and op-ups).
Any experience so far?
Some other airlines have this type of system as well, right?
http://www.austrian.com/Info/Book/Sm...=AT&sc_lang=en
In essence, you can place a bid for an upgrade to C up to 72h before the flights. OS then decides who gets the upgrade. This is then booked in booking class P, conditions of the original ticket (rebooking, cancellation etc.) do not change. This is for all long-haul and very long medium-haul flights.
The question is obviously if the prize/booking class of the original ticket will be factored in? E.g. if I have a ticket in Y for 2500 EUR and bid 500 EUR for the upgrade, will I get the upgrade rather than someone with a ticket in L for 500 EUR and a bid of 1500 EUR.
For booking classes Y and B, this is also a bad deal, as one gets less award and status miles in P than in Y or B ...
It is also not clear to me how much of a competition this is for upgrades with miles and award bookings (and op-ups).
Any experience so far?
Some other airlines have this type of system as well, right?
Today I have received a mail with this info.
Still I am not sure if I will try it in the future or not.
Apr 18, 2013, 12:30 pm
#4
Join Date: May 2008
Location: All around
Programs: M&M, AVIS, HH, GP ...
Posts: 325
Not sure how it's working but as the airlines need to be profitable I'm not going to be surprise if the will take the higher bid, why not to have extra 1500 than extra 500 your 1500 they already got
.
In other airlines that I saw they mention that as your bid is higher you have more chance to win.
. In other airlines that I saw they mention that as your bid is higher you have more chance to win.
Apr 19, 2013, 10:45 am
#5
Senior Moderator, Moderator: Community Buzz and Ambassador: Miles & More (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: 150km from MAN
Programs: LH SEN** HH Diamond
Posts: 29,657
And if your bid is successful you will receive:
Miles & More Business Class miles (booking class "P")
Miles & More Business Class miles (booking class "P")
Apr 19, 2013, 6:29 pm
#7
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: IAH and HAM
Programs: LH Sen, PPS, FB Platinum, Enrich Silver, SPG Plat
Posts: 1,496
Apr 22, 2013, 2:55 pm
#8
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 7
Austrian (os) upgrade bid
Austrian Airlines have brought in a 'bid for an upgrade' scheme similiar to other airlines. I am flying from London to Bangkok in August for my honeymoon and would love to go business class. We paid £600 each for our return flight and the business class option was £2200 each at the time. We just want to upgrade on the flight out from Vienna to Bangkok. Anyone have any idea of how much we should bid? I was thinking in the region of £600 each. I have researched what people have paid for similiar upgrades on Eithad but their flights were all generally shorter by 2000 miles.
Apr 23, 2013, 2:58 am
#9
Senior Moderator, Moderator: Community Buzz and Ambassador: Miles & More (Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, and other partners)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: 150km from MAN
Programs: LH SEN** HH Diamond
Posts: 29,657
Austrian Airlines have brought in a 'bid for an upgrade' scheme similiar to other airlines. I am flying from London to Bangkok in August for my honeymoon and would love to go business class. We paid £600 each for our return flight and the business class option was £2200 each at the time. We just want to upgrade on the flight out from Vienna to Bangkok. Anyone have any idea of how much we should bid? I was thinking in the region of £600 each. I have researched what people have paid for similiar upgrades on Eithad but their flights were all generally shorter by 2000 miles.
As you will see there has been some discussion on this but since Smart Upgrade is fairly new there hasn't been any report by FTers either successful or unsuccessful. There is a thread in the German language forum VFT where people are speculating how much the going rate might be based on what OS used to charge for last minute cash upgrades (post #28).
http://www.vielfliegertreff.de/swiss...t-upgrade.html
Apr 23, 2013, 5:00 am
#10
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: VCE
Posts: 14,165
Austrian Airlines have brought in a 'bid for an upgrade' scheme similiar to other airlines. I am flying from London to Bangkok in August for my honeymoon and would love to go business class. We paid £600 each for our return flight and the business class option was £2200 each at the time. We just want to upgrade on the flight out from Vienna to Bangkok. Anyone have any idea of how much we should bid? I was thinking in the region of £600 each. I have researched what people have paid for similiar upgrades on Eithad but their flights were all generally shorter by 2000 miles.
Jun 9, 2013, 2:56 am
#11
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 7
Austrian Smart Bid
Has anyone used the Austrian Smart Bid business class upgrade bid yet. We are flying out to bangkok in 4 weeks for our honeymoon and really want to upgrade. I have searched all over the internet and cant find out anyone who has used this yet. Basically its the same as other airlines in which you make them an offer and they notify you 72 hours before the flight if you have been successful. On the website the sliding scale goes from £250 to £1400 to upgrade from economy to business class. At the moment you can actually book business class from London to Bangkok for only £350 more than we actually paid for our economy tickets but we got a special deal on ours so they wont let us change the tickets. Many thanks folks.