NickRivas

If a long haul flight is upgraded with the “fixed amount” option online by LH, is this option basically a ticket change, as in if upgraded the ticket will now count as F in regards to status & award miles earned…or will I still only earn the business class miles?
I know if you upgrade with miles or bid you only earn the miles from the original booking, but wonder if the price set by LH is just the difference between biz and F and therefore a ticket change to get the full F benefits/miles

Chiller3333

Bid and cash upgrades lead to a change in the booking class and miles and ground services per the upgraded cabin.

oliver2002

The process changes the booking class and you get the full F/A mileage credit. The underlying C ticket remains attached to the reservation and limits the rebooking options as well as the baggage allowance.

NickRivas

thanks, you seem so experienced so though I’d ask further;

Is the set price set by LH just the fare difference between Biz and F or do you find it usually higher/lower?

I am trying to get a booking in which I want an F fare going forward and business coming back. However, it’s multi city / different destinations on arrival/departure, so when I click F as my itinerary, it lets me select flights but then basically freezes without telling me the flight prices. If I just select business it works fine and gives me a fare price. The flights are on 747-8 with so far empty F cabin so not sure why it glitches when selecting F. I notice that if I search a dummy itinerary where I have a round trip to/from the same destination, F selection works perfectly fine, so it’s a glitch with the multi city option, I believe the system gets confused.

Wondering if calling LH they’d be able to book it or if it would glitch with them as well.

So thought maybe I could just book business and then upgrade with the set price, if it gives me miles/status miles for F after the change.

MumbaiDan

I have to contradict the other guys. If you do a "cash upgrade" on the website it merely assigns you an F seat with full F service, but the ticket does not give you the triple status miles and rebooking is only possible into the original fare and then you need to cash upgrade again if possible. They will in the case you rebook or the is irregularities etc refund you the cash upgrade amount for the cash upgrade though. So this is not changing the ticket to an F ticket. Also in case of irrops your original ticket counts for rebooking.
What you can do if you want to really up-pay to an F ticket is rebook your ticket on the webpage, if flexible, then book it back to the dates you want and select the upgrade option when rebooking. In such a case they will offer you the best fare difference. And as a bonus on top many times A class is available online through this, but not for the call centre guys or travel agents (for whatever reason i don't understand)

Chiller3333

You're correct regarding the treatment of cash upgrades when it comes to IRROPS, but miles are awarded for the higher travel class. At least they should be LH's T&C, so if your experience differs that likely was due to some issues with LH.
I've upgraded a few flights with cash over the years and every time I've received miles according to the higher travel class (which is or at least used to be one of the advertized features of the upgrade).

mb752

Can confirm this: I've upgraded an economy LX flight with cash to busines, and got miles credit for business. Also it is possible to then do a further upgrade using eVouchers to first.

oliver2002

Myoffer bids and fixed price upgrades change the booking class in the reservation that is relevant for mileage credit. The ticket remains whatever you originally booked, but is not relevant for mileage credit.

FriendlyConfines

...And this approach by LH means that a Premium Economy ticket in E (e.g., ORD-FRA-MXP), which earns 150% on the ORD-FRA leg and 1000 miles (Y fare bucket) on the FRA-MXP leg, when upgraded to Business with cash, rebooks into P, earning only 100% on the ORD-FRA leg. If one also upgrades the FRA-MXP leg with cash, one earns only 750 miles (P fare bucket) on the FRA-MXP leg.

Thus one has paid more for the enhanced privilege of earning fewer miles.

An upgrade with miles retains the mileage-earning power of the original booking...

oliver2002

Yep, life is tough, you can’t have everything