Yes, imagine the utter horror of flying coach like the peasants. In between ISIS, hunger and Orwellian surveillance, why save the drama when you're faced with having a confirmed business class seat.

Just paid for OT on my IAD-CPH-IAD flights next month. I'm booked in Premium Eco, and it was $301 on IAD-CPH for C, and $287 for CPH-IAD. According to SK's site, the IAD-CPH leg is on a A330 (so definitely upgraded cabin), while CPH-IAD is on a A340 (so.. 2/6 chance of upgraded I think it is?).

I wonder if OT pricing is higher on the A330 leg since it's a better product -- upgraded cabin is guaranteed.

nailed it. terrified of coach? Buy a biz ticket... problem solved

For your reference:

ZRH - CPH and CPH - ORD
Signed up on optiontown a bit more than a week before departure, selected both Plus and Business.
Exactly 72h before departure SK602 ZRH - CPH (Jan 1st) was upgraded to Plus for $45 and SK943 CPH-ORD (Jan 1st) was upgraded to Business for $467 (from cheapest economy booking class).
Well worth the money considering I need the status miles, 150% on TK / 200% on A3 rather than 25% without the upgrade.

Does anyone have the load for these flights? I'm just interested in OT's strategy as I sincerely doubt that Y is overbooked (departure is Jan 1st...).

is it the first time you use OT? To my experience there is a first timer bonus getting upgrades even though the flight is not overbooked.

Probably hard to find someone with the loads, but here is the availability

Results from ExpertFlyer.comand

Results from ExpertFlyer.com

Yeah, that's probably it: first-time user and I didn't have to pay the non-refundable OT fee.

thanks!

This probably has been answered before - but: if I upgrade at the airport from go to plus using a paid upgrade, does my booking class actually go to Y (the receipt and new boarding passes say so) and would mileage accrual change accordingly?

Read the fine print in the wiki above: the ticket is reissued with a new booking class (BK) and becomes upgradable and earns the miles of the new BK.

Oops, I opened the thread on mobile and did not see the wiki. Thank you for the information - that's good news ;)

BTW, I was following optiontown upgrade options right up to the flight and paying at the airport turned out to be about 10-15% cheaper (though I suppose there is a risk airport upgrade will not be possible)

But there is no guarantee for getting the Optiontown upgrade either... And the cash upgrade is not giving you the extra points, so I would always prefer OT :-)

Wait, so the ticket is not reissued with the new fare class if I do a cash upgrade?
I guess I'll just wait and see how it posts.

Haven't tested the cash upgrade myself, but according to many other reports you should expect the original booking class, but can sometimes be lucky to retro-claim the new booking class. There have been similar discussions in other forums about the topic, and their conclusions are as above.
Yes, please report the your outcome if you choose to try the cash option :-)

At LH group cash upgrades at check-in do not change the booking class. I assume it is the same at SAS, it's probably to late for reissuing the ticket that short before departure? Same happens with OT when the upgrade clears last minute - you will get the points for the original booking class and you have to retro claim the additional points.

Interesting course of events for my wife's ticket on our trip to ORD later this week. We signed her Plus ticket up for OT and points upgrade, the OT upgrade was declined but a few hours later she got an email that she received a complimentary upgrade instead.

It is strange to see that SK neither wants our points or our money when they have the choice. We appreciate the "free" upgrade and the fact the OT money will be reimbursed but I don't understand this business practice.

I was just checking the Earn chart at
http://www.flysas.com/eurobonus/poin...s-charts/#tab4

At the bottom under the restrictions, it's clear that you not will earn the extra points when doing a cash upgrade:

First time SAS flyer, flying ORD-ARN (overnight flight, of course) and then back CPH-ORD. It's me and a 12 year old. We have SAS Go booked right now. Looked at expertflyer and the premium cabins seem pretty wide open (2 months out). I'm mostly worried about being comfortable on the flight there when I'm trying to sleep - but, really, I want to always be comfortable. ;)

It's eur 219 to upgrade to Plus, eur 476 to Business (strange that it quotes in Euros?). I'm not willing to pay Business upgrade x4, but I would be willing to pay Plus x4. So would you pay to fly Business outbound for excellent sleeping and stick with Go back or would you pay for Plus both directions?

If you were me, what would you do?

Hmm. I switched the website so it knew I was in the US and the dollar quotes was quite a bit more than the numbers in Euros -- two passengers upgraded to plus outbound was EUR 438 (~$477), but in USD, they quoted me $255 pp for a total of $510. I'll book in Euro, thanks.

I would put it all to biz on the outbound. Getting semi-decent sleep on a red-eye means a lot to me, as it affects the first few days at my eastbound destination. The new SAS go on the return (daytime flight for you) is pretty good.

EDIT: actually that depends on the day, as I currently have a uTO to biz pending for ORD-ARN next weekend, I don't want any competitors! Just kidding. Seriously tho, for me personally, all things being equal I would prefer BIZ and GO to PLUS and PLUS

Changed flight date = expensive fees to OptionTown
 

I just had a bad experience with OptionTown. I frequently fly CPH-->SFO for work, and use OptionTown to try for a C upgrade every time. I just found out I needed to change my flight dates for an upcoming trip, and OptionTown charged me more than 100 EUR to change the dates in their system. The worst part is they said I had no choice but to pay extra. If I didn't make the additional payment, I would lose my original payment and not have any chance of an upgrade. They also said that the additional 100+ EUR would not be refunded if I don't get the upgrades on the new dates.

It's a pity because I like OptionTown and have used it a lot (with a bit less than 50% success rate). But this is an extremely poor customer experience and it makes me unlikely to use OptionTown again. Especially when I'm flying for business and I don't fully control my schedule. Anyone have similar experiences?

If it is a choice I would sign up for both Plus and Biz on the outbound (good sleep, arrive well rested for your time in Scandinavia, etc). Back is a day flight and you can better cope with the "economy comfort".

Do note that if you first sign up for one leg - and later for the return - the price will go up.

If you're worried about sleeping I'd spend $15 on sleeping aids rather than 2x 200+ EUR for the chance of getting an upgrade.

I'll have earplugs, a blanket, and an eye mask - but when traveling with my child (without my husband), I don't like to take any medications to knock me out since I need to be able to parent. Not that I expect any problems - he is 12 after all - but still.

I'm not going until Easter break. :D

I put together a detailed post about my retro-claim to Aegean when the SAS OT upgrade cleared late. I was successful but took a lot of chasing.

How long should I wait for an upgrade decision before checking in? It is 12 hrs to my flight.

T-4

Perfect. Thanks.

throughout this thread there are tips about long-haul upgrades, both to Plus and Biz. Just a few posts above is about the time to checkin for example. Some of you have a lot of experience with OT. Is it worth it to edit the wiki with tips?

Hi,

Sorry in advance if this has been asked before.

I recently used OT to attempt upgrade on my upcoming ARN-HKG from Go to Plus for around 200 Eurs. At the time, Plus upgrade was showing as 200eurs and Business was showing as 450eurs.
I've just checked OT again and it now lists business as around 250Euros.

Can I assume that the price is just an add-on from the original Plus price, and not a sudden slash in price for Business class? In other words, if I do pay the 250 and ultimately get upgraded to business, will I get a refund for the original money I paid for Plus, or is the business class upgrade price the combined price of the original amount + the now additional price?

Thanks in advance! :)

It's the difference between what you already paid and the next cabin. Since you can request upgrades for both cabins, it allows you to increase your odds. Best case you get business, second best you get plus, worst case you get neither and a refund minus sign-up fee.

Massive thanks for the quick response! :D

My first try at OT. Paid for Go->Biz on SK946. Under 72 hours. No email. No notificatoin from MyFlights. 15/24 biz seats assigned. C9 D9 R0 J0 Y9 S9 B0 P0 A0 E9

Should I regret that I didn't tick the plus box and shot for moon?

If you wanted to get business class or nothing... no. If you just wanted to get out of the eco/GO cabin... yes.

You did not post the GO loads, might be that even the Plus upgrade would have been denied since the flight is not full.

Just got the email. Denied. That's a bummer. Maybe I'll pay the $250 for plus.

Flew ARN-HKG last week. Applied for optiontown from Y to C. Denied.
There were ten seats available for C upgrades on day of departure. Bought upgrade instead for 2499 SEK. That was cheaper than the Optiontown. Departed with three empty seats. M and Y had many empty seats.

Flying back next week. Similar situation. C is more than half full (based on seat assignments and expertflyer); M and Y similar empty.
I expect a denial from Optiontown. The question is then, does anyone know the cash price for upgrading Y to C at HKG airport?

Thanks HJ

I've noticed a strong increase in rejected OT requests recently despite wide availability in premium cabins.

On a recent trip my wife's OT was denied while there where 6 empty C seats. Plus was full and people where trying to upgrade from Coach to Plus with points but where told there was no availability. SK's upgrade strategy makes no sense but it doesn't seem like they particularly want to support OT, even less with upgrades being sold for cash which in return doesn't favour OT's case. Unfortunately OT keeps stating that the more you use it the higher your chances but this doesn't seem to stand, or at least in the past few months seems to have the opposite effect.

Maybe SAS should consider a similar approach as LH with their new upgrade project. A fixed price (a little bit high), but it is then confirmed.

Just to give a little warning. When I tried to upgrade using cash from ARN, I spoke to the persons in the lounge. They can not do anything, until the service center (open 2,5h before departure) give them a go-ahead. That requires them to call the service center in F-pier. The lounge staff was very helpful and did try to call. But the persons sitting at the service center was not helpful and gave them a story of problems with cash upgrade.
Impatiently I monitored the seatmap and saw that more and more C seats got assigned. I.e. upgrading was being processed.

Although the staff told me to sit down an relax, I decided to go to the service center at the f-pier. That was a good decision. Upgrades was being processed and I got there and got the cash upgrade immediately. I asked why they did not give the lounge the possibility and they just said "don't know" and continued talking to the colleagues.

I had a good experience with the staff at the F-pier service center. It was a daytime flight and we discussed upgrade costs. 15k for Plus and 40k for biz. Then I asked about cash. 1999sek for Plus seemed like a good deal for me, and I was placed in bulkhead aisle with the middle seat empty. I was awake the whole flight and generally enjoyed it. I found the service desk helpful and friendly, of course I spoke only english (mother tongue) instead of showing off my immigrant Swedish.

On the return, with my OT Go->Biz denied, I managed to get the middle section of row 50 all to myself. With four seats to spread out across, I went right to sleep upon take-off and woke up with 1:19 remaining in the flight. I call it "poor man's biz" because I had a lie-flat in Go.

Was upgraded on both legs of a ARN-ALC-ARN direct turn MR. Email came around 48 hours before the flights. Price was around 35€ per leg, which was around the difference between Plus and Go when I booked in November.

ARN-ALC was full in Plus, looked pretty full in Go. ALC-ARN was 50% full in Plus, no idea in Go.