Elchanan

Any one knows if you can buy a last minute upgrade with china airlines
form SFO to Taiwan ??

gleff

Though China Airlines partners with Delta, Czech, and China Southern, they aren't a Skyteam member. As such, I'll move this through over to the Other asian.. forum

Regards,
Gary
aka gleff
Senior moderator

cathaylonghaulff

you will be charged full fare C less what you paid for your Y ticket. You can upgrade online cheaper or buy a discounted F seat which is cheaper than C full fare. BY the way C class on CI is awful.

Elchanan

I just found out that my flight is super overbooked
So I hope I have a change to be bumped and upgraded
I think its good to wear a nice pants shirt and tight for the upgrade???
How can I increase my luck?

TerryK

Be top tier elite of CI FFP, Paragon, or be friends and families of CI SFO station.

Ben777

The only way is if you are a Paragon, Emerald, and to a lesser degree, Gold, and the plane is completely full in economy, and I mean *completely* full, w/o even one empty seat left. In order to get more economy passengers on the plane, they will upgrade as many of the elite members as they can.

That is the only way to get a complimentary upgrade on CI, and only happens once in about every 15-20 flights.

How you dress, or if you know the ground staff and/or cabin crew does not help at all. There is an elaborate system of checks and balances to make sure that no complimentary upgrades are given except in the case above.

If you are willing to use your miles, then it's pretty painless to get an upgrade as long as there is space in the cabin you are upgrading to.

coolfish1103

Yes, you would only get upgraded if the cabin is completely full. I recently got my 2nd upgrade on CI for flying regional on TPE-CAN v.v. from Economy to Dynasty (though I would be seating upstairs if I didn't get upgraded).

caviarwire

unless you're U.S. military..... CI staff seem to give give out upgrades
like candy, if you're a current or former member of the U.S. military.
(even if you're only a corporal....)

threemillionmilesflown

I have a good friend at CI and always get upgraded along with what appears to be lots of other people, I dont fly too often as I have fears about this airline but I always get the upgrade both ways and lots of personal attention

TerryK

How can you tell?

Henry82

I read on various tips/tricks blogs and articles that it is sometimes possible to get a discounted, last-minute upgrade at the airport. It is said that upgrades arranged this way are far cheaper than the cost difference to the higher class ticket. I was hoping people could share their experience on this, particularly with China Airlines (CI).

Please try to cover the points:
- coach to business? business to first?
- upgraded at check-in counter or gate?
- what did you say to the CSR?
- FFP status
- cost?

TIA!

Ben777

I haven't taken a CI flight since December 2010, so unless something has changed in the last 6 months, there are no unpaid or discounted upgrades on CI, no matter what your membership level or class of ticket. The only exception to this is when you are an elite member (Paragon, Emerald, and sometimes Gold), and your ticketed cabin is completely full, you may get an upgrade to the next cabin class up, in order to get more people on the plane without bumping anyone.

At the counter upgrades can be done, but you will have to redeem the full amount of miles to get that upgrade, with no discounts. Now, sometimes they do promotions where you can upgrade for less miles, but those are announced in advance, as opposed to something you can get by wheeling and dealing at the counter.

There is an elaborate system of checks and balances in place to make sure that nobody gets a free or discounted upgrade outside of the above mentioned overbooking scenario. This is likely because of past abuses by those who happened to know ground agents or cabin crew. To get a free upgrade, would take a coordinated effort between the check in counter staff, the gate staff, and the cabin crew, and everyone in that chain who would possibly find out has to agree to it.

As for using cash to buy an upgrade at the airport, I've not had any experience with this scenario, so no comment there.

Henry82

Ben777, thanks for the insight. I've read a number of your CI posts and learned a lot. My original question is referring to "cash upgrade at the counter" not the unlikely "free upgrade". It's wishful thinking, but I imagined that if there were unsold F/C class seats 30 mins before takeoff, airlines could offer these seats at a discount to make additional revenue.

Ben777

No problem. Hope I've helped.

Not sure when that may be, as I have no plans to fly CI in the near future, but if I get a chance to talk to the people I know at CI ground staff, I'll ask them about using cash for upgrades at the counter.

If you have miles, it's relatively easy to use those to upgrade at the counter, I've done that many times for myself and to redeem upgrades for those traveling with me. CI mileage redemption amounts favor redeeming for upgrades over redeeming award tickets.

lolstebbo

They generally don't have discounted upgrades, but they have had such promotions every now and then (or, at least, they've done it at least once; it came up when we were checking in about.... five years ago?).

I don't think it's limited to elite members, but more like it's extremely unlikely to get bumped up unless you're an elite member; I've gotten bumped to business before and I'm far from ever getting Gold.