skel

Hello,

I've purchased an economy ticket for next Tuesday (1 week from now) on Expedia. It's LOT Polish Airlines. ORD-WAW.

Their website advertises a bidding system to bid for an upgrade — http://www.lot.com/us/en/lot-upgrade

It says that in order to qualify I must have a confirmed ticket for LOT flight departing 72+ hours ahead of my purchase time.

I think I met all of the requirements, however, I don't see an option to bid when I go to their website / my reservation. It doesn't say it's not available either... The only available options in their "A la Carte Services" are: "My Favourite Seat"; "My Premium Menu"; "My Extra Baggage" and "My Leisure equipment". Nothing at all about bidding or any other type of upgrades.

Should I wait longer to get this offer? Or there are no tickets in Business / Premium Economy available for upgrade on this particular flight? Or should I cancel this flight on Expedia (free within 24 hours) and rebook it directly on LOT.COM?

I'm a little frustrated. I searched here and googled, but I only found out that my booking class (T) is eligible, seems like booking directly with LOT is not required and by all means I should be eligible to make a bid to upgrade.

I even tried getting an upgrade from "Miles & More", but it gives me an error saying "Unfortunately there is no upgrade possible. (7075)"

Couldn't reach LOT customer support, will try again tomorrow.

theSaladDays

After you've gone into your reservation, below your itinerary there's a box called 'flight notes', and just below that there's a box with a photo of a person sleeping labelled 'Check out our new program LOT Upgrade and enjoy the benefits of a higher class at an attractive price' with a red box labelled 'Get upgrade'. If you click on that it should take you to the upgrade.

It is easy to overlook actually, maybe because it looks like advertising. Good luck!

skel

Nope. Unfortunately it's not there. Right below the "flight notes" I have a section to make a hotel reservation, but nothing at all like you described...

mmff

Are you using ....... or any other similar software? If yes, disable it and try again.

skel

Yeah, I've tried 4 different desktop browsers, a mobile browser and a few VPNs. Will try calling LOT again.

skel

Ok, so after waiting for LOT representative on the phone for 40 minutes I decided to cancel the reservation on Expedia (will get a full refund) and booked again on LOT.COM (exactly the same fare/flight/price) and I was now able to make a bid for an upgrade.

The minimum bid is 545 and in their advertisement and rules it says there is should be no minimum bid. Well, anyway, I've tried and bid 555, let's see if I get upgraded.

Kinda strange that exact same fare through Expedia is not eligible for this upgrade and there is absolutely no info on it online.

nanyang

Just out of interest, why would you rather book via expedia and not directly with the airline?

In any case, good info and thanks for sharing!

fassy

Same happens on SK if you book trough an (O)TA and try to upgrade via OptionTown. They just assume the (O)TA has control over the ticket and the airline cannot touch it until the day of departure.

Interesstingly enough it is quite inconsitent. It works with some (O)TAs, not with some others.

Lack

You can get expedia rewards points, which discount the ticket ever so slightly. Also LO used to charge for issuing their tickets, so OTAs saved you a couple bucks on top (+ the option of some cashback).

skel

So it seems like LOT tried to upgrade me, but my credit card failed. I called my bank to remove a temporary security block minutes after I've got that email alert from LOT. Tried again, but it came back as "Upgrade Unavailable", even though I still see plenty of seats available on this flight.

So if you're trying to get an upgrade through this ultra modern system you better make sure your card goes through right away, they don't give a second chance. I'll see if I can get an upgrade with LOT agent at ORD tomorrow.

And yeah, Expedia gives you points and allow 24 hours free cancellation (in many cases) even on nonrefundable tickets. That's why I originally bought it through Expedia.

TravelinSperry

Copa Air offers the same auction option to business. I sort of like it and hope more *A airlines offer it.

On another note - can one use United miles to upgrade LOT flights?

SK2751

I believe most *A airlines in Europe now has a similar system. I used the OptionTown system on SK successfully in the past. I believe LH and OS have an upgrade system as well.

boguszw

What a strange method in LOT… I won bidding for EU upgrade WAW-LHR. Original booking class was the lowest “U”, and I got upgraded to Business booking class “I” that gives me 0 miles? Thank you LOT. Such a great method…..

gojko88

You should still get the mileage accrual of the underlying fare in this case, but I was pretty sure Plusgrade upgrades book into a revenue fare class, not an award one?

romans

if you check terms and conditions you will see it and btw this is about Lufthansa MyOffer Plusgrade not LOT.