Viennafly

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?

birsti

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

more4less

Hi,

Today I have received a mail with this info.

Still I am not sure if I will try it in the future or not.

ym1

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.

NewbieRunner

And if your bid is successful you will receive:

Miles & More Business Class miles (booking class "P")

LukasVIE

Just an important observation:

According to the OS Facebook page booking class X (Economy award) is not eligible for a "smart upgrade" bid ... too bad

DFW-SEN

If you fly short-haul you do not need to upgrade and if you book a long-haul as an eco award you are obviously not smart enough to deserve a "smart upgrade"...

kenmlove

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.

NewbieRunner

Welcome to FT, kenmlove!

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

TRAVELSIG

I had a colleague booked in Y on VIE/BKK last year who paid 900 EUR to move from "V" to C for the one leg. 600 GBP should not be too far off. By the way August is usually a good time to get a good deal on upgrades as Y is frequently oversold while C is relatively empty during at least the first 3 weeks of the month due to European holidays.

kenmlove

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.

sokolov

This will teach you NOT to try to throw extra money at Austrian.

;-)

CzeSEN

Just another data point: a colleague of mine bought cheapest (i.e., sub-€300) available VIE–TLV RT. Got upgraded via SmartUpgrade €125 OW.

davidcito

Given this is a continental C product, he essentilly paid 125 EUR for a slightly better food and a free seat next to him...

gojko88

And the DYKWIA rights.

Never underestimate the intangible aspects