steveo

Interesting information. I am wondering if they are able to add / subtract seats based on demand? When I flew them a few weeks ago they just had a curtain they moved to decide who is in Saga class and who is in economy comfort. So I think they had 5 rows of Saga, and 2 rows of Saga seats that were the economy comfort. I also got my upgrade on the bare minimum amount. Your doing yourself a favor though in getting out of those economy seats.... they were tight.

nologic

On the 767, there are 5 rows of 5 Saga seats. People are currently assigned in seats thru row 4. If that holds true, perhaps row 5 becomes premium economy?

On the 757, there are also 5 rows (one row of two and two rows of 4), and people are assigned into row 4, so again, perhaps row 5 can be made into an Economicy Comfort row.

Overall, though, based on this, doesn't seem like getting a Saga seat in Economy Comfort is a high probability. Will advise from actual flights.

LGACIC

I've been following this thread with great interest. Thanks nologic! I'm flying PDX-KEF in May; anyone have any data points about class up possibilities out of PDX?

nologic

So, CPH-KEF was showing 1 seats, and I bid $155 and -- no surprise -- bid was rejected, which I expected. So, I flew in economy (gasp). Similar to Jet Blue (wondering, does J8 have 1" more space, or otherwise the J8 seats seem slightly comfortable/ergonomic). Video screen is better than J8, and nice to have USB port in each screen, although mine was broken.

nologic

I wimped out and kept my bid at $275 for Saga upgrade. I just wasn't willing to lose out for $50-$75, and there's too little data points or people reporting their experiences for me to get any kind of sense about lower red and orange bids.

3+ days prior to my bid, this KEF-BOS flight was showing 8 seats available in Saga.

T-73+ hours, I was confirmed that my $275 bid upgrade was confirmed, but no new data point here, as I was unwilling to bid less, and I'd already won at $275.

But I can say that there were 8 seats available prior to my bid and now there are 7 seats after my bid has been accepted, so presumably, I was the only person to ClassUp (now, in both directions), and I highly suspect I could have got these UGs for approx $100 less on each of these flights, but again, too few data points, and c'est le vie.

garethlewis

do you know if you'll get more saga points due to the change in seating class?

Donna49

This is from the FAQ page at Icelandair about Class Up:


Are all the benefits of Economy Comfort and Saga Class included in the CLASS UP upgrade?

No, passengers do not receive the Saga Points for the upgraded seat as they would if they had purchased a seat on Economy Comfort or Saga Class. The fare basis also stays true to the ticket originally purchased.

http://www.icelandair.us/information...u-go/class-up/

meowmeow

So my husband and I will flying out from YYZ to CDG on Mar 19 and back on Mar 26. It's showing on the Icelandair booking website that there are 3 seats available in Comfort and 2 seats available in Saga on Mar 19 and 2 seats available in both Comfort and Saga on Mar 26. Are these accurate or they are just seats available for that "class" of tickets?

Here are my Saga Class Upgrade bid ranges (in Canadian $):

The total range for upgrade bids are as follows:

The "red" zone runs from:
YYZ-KEF (or KEF-YYZ), 5+ hours: $265 - $310
KEF-CDG(or CDG-KEF), 3+ hours: $225 - $265

The "orange" zone runs from:
YYZ-KEF (or KEF-YYZ), 5+ hours: $310 - $375
KEF-CDG(or CDG-KEF), 3+ hours: $265 - $315

The "yellow" bid zone runs from:
YYZ-KEF (or KEF-YYZ), 5+ hours: $375 - $435
KEF-CDG(or CDG-KEF), 3+ hours: $315 - $370

The "light green" bid zone runs from:
YYZ-KEF (or KEF-YYZ), 5+ hours: $435 - $555
KEF-CDG(or CDG-KEF), 3+ hours: $370 - $470

The "bright green" zone runs from:
YYZ-KEF (or KEF-YYZ), 5+ hours: $555 - $665
KEF-CDG(or CDG-KEF), 3+ hours: $470 - $565

I am indecisive on what I should bid at. I really want to stay in or near the red zone as I already paid their expensive change fee to change my trip.

TIA!

LGACIC

I was just told the opposite by an Icelandair rep. Anyone have direct experience with booking class after a bidup?

nologic

I was conservative and bid at the early / initial end of the yellow zone for 3 of my 4 segments, all of them cleared, but there were always 7-8 seats available. On both of my longhaul flights, there were empty seats in Saga at takeoff. But I think I could have got them for $50-100 less. But I asked myself: how would I feel if I didn't get them for $50-100? I would have been disappointed and I didn't have enough evidence that bidding at the low end of the red zone would be accepted (now, I have 1 reported case of that).

With only 2-3 seats available, I think you have to bid aggressively. Also, on both of my 767s, there were no Saga seats in Comfort. On the 757s intra-Europe, there was one row of Saga seats in Comfort.

cyberwolf777

So I'm based in Iceland, and while I recently got Saga Gold status and don't need this option much anymore, I've bid on upgrades countless times in the past - here are my observations, after trying different strategies, and anecdotally I can say that I have had approximately a 60% success rate:

- Saga Class availability before the flight can often be deceiving when it comes to the chance of success of an upgrade bid. I once got an upgrade KEF-FRA with one seat available, and got rejected a few times with C9 in availability.

- The main reason for that (there are others which I don't want to get into) seems to be that they do seem to take into account how many Icelandair Saga Gold members are booked in E+ and also Y on a flight, because they (and their spouses) get upgraded at the gate, and with the competition from WOW Air, they want to make sure that their Gold members always get the upgrade.
Icelandair even operates some (few) flights without E+, in which case Saga Gold members regularly get upgraded in advance from Y to J, instead of having to clear upgrades at the gate. The same applies to flights where the number of E+ seats is maxed out and that cabin is full with mostly non-Gold pax, but that is something I've only seen once.

- I have gotten the majority of upgrades bidding the minimum amount. YMMV, but there have only been very few instances where I noticed that I bid the minimum amount, got rejected, but noticed the J cabin not being full or almost full. From what I hear, extremely few people use the option to bid on upgrades, although it is more common on some routes (apparently SEA, but I can also imagine MCO and JFK) than others, so you'd have to be rather unlucky to be outbid.

- Most upgrades clear well in advance (48-72 hours), and to me it only happened once that one of my upgrades cleared just 3 hours before the flight. So if you haven't gotten your confirmation a day or two before your flight, you can expect a rejection e-mail shortly before boarding.

- They don't take your base fare into account. I got the upgrade twice on a super-cheap OSL-KEF flight for $80 or so bidding the minimum amount.

- You don't need to wait for an invitation to bid, but you can rather do it on the Icelandair website right after booking your flight, even if it's half a year in advance. Also, regularly check back if they say that there is no offer for your flight, this changes over time.

- If your upgrade clears, you always get the service associated with the class you're upgraded to, including food, priority check-in, priority boarding, etc.; the only thing that doesn't change are the fare conditions of your ticket.

- Do consider just bidding for E+, on the vast majority of flights to Europe (CPH being a notable exception) you'll end up in a Saga Class seat, but YMMV when it comes to North American flights. While the service and food in Saga Class is considerably better and in my opinion also quite nice for the duration of their flights, it is far from amazing.

nologic

This is very helpful and in retrospect, I am pretty sure on my flights, I could have been the min and won and saved $300+. In this respect their red zone is deceiving and not fair marketing, because the message is that this bid level is UNLIKELY to EVER prevail.

I chimed in on this thread so elaborately because I was very surprised there was so little bidding history/info for people to evaluate their bids.

If this was Priceline, I think people would have a very good clue what to bid for what, etc. So much info.

I do have a sense few ppl on IcelandAir bid to UG...I think most ppl fly this airline for it's cheap fares, are fine with economy, and don't want to spend more, although they sure will spend a lot once in Iceland. But that's where they want to spend their money.

I am very surprised that you can't get UG'd when it's C9????

Maybe intra Europe? I don't see that happening trans-Atlantic...but who knows. That's the whole point of the thread.

LadyShiva

I give up; how can you bid for upgrades ahead of the email? I have a US booking (icelandair.us) and see no buttons to bid for upgrades.

Found it: http://www.icelandair.us/information/before-you-go/class-up/

CDKing

When i initially big for Saga for tomorrow night flight BOS-KEF it was empty up front, my $200 bid declined like expected and now its completely full (not sure if the fact i deleted initial request since work had not approved time off and rebid yesterday had anything to do with it)

Surprisingly when i went to see if better seats opened up after upgrades and its letting me select Economy Comfort, and an auto seat block follows me. Hopefully they let me keep the seat, my guess is someone will get seated in the blocked seat since the flight is nearly sold out in all cabins. Hopefully wont get sent to the back. i was already booked in the back and moved closer to the front since I only have hour connection and would love to try to dash in to the lounge for a quick bite (i have lounge access due to AS partnership).

nologic

I don't understand what you "not sure if the fact I deleted..." what are you saying?

How do you know Saga is full?