My upgrades
 

My successful upgrades are as follow:

^May 2011-Upgraded to Business on EWR-OSL

^November 2011- Upgraded to business on OSL-EWR
^November 2011- Upgraded to Eco Extra on EWR-OSL The Norwegian Royal Family was onboard an took a lot of the seats in Business, so I blame them for me not being upgraded to business ;)

:td:January 2012 - Not upgraded on OSL-EWR, fairly full eco, but some available seats (upgraded to eco extra with points instead)
:td:January 2012- Not upgraded on EWR-CPH, eco wide open. I even got 4 seats to my self, so I had a flat bed anyway ;)

All tickets bought in low economy.

Just got an email from OT that I was upgraded to Eco Extra.

Has anyone had an experience with being upgraded to C from Eco Extra after an OT upgrade?Looks like this flight is fairly full -- I wonder if I have a chance for a further upgrade to C, either via OT or an op-up. I'm an EBG and I'll be traveling alone, no special meal, etc.

I have been upgraded to C after upgrading to Y via OT, along with my wife. I was EBG and her EBS at the time. This was New Years day 2011. Since then I have not been op-uped to C from Y when using OT to upgrade to Y from M. I have been successful with using points to get into C after an OT upgrade to Y.

It seems recently that SK is milking their customers for points ahead of giving out op-ups. On a recent flight I took a VDB, after I agreed to stay behind, they were still asking if anyone wanted to use 10000 points to upgrade to Y from M. Also on the return the flight was full and they had to upgrad pax to C, but they systematically called up those on the waitlist to pay with points before they did any op-ups. Got that info from a lounge attendant.

When OT has processed your upgrade to Y, I don't think your upgrade application will be considered again. But you could for sure get an op-up or use 20k points (if needed or if availability, respectively).

I did exactly the same, last time I flew BKK-CPH, using 20k points to be upgraded to C. M to Y via OT, then points to C.

I haven't seen any data on Optiontown for NRT-CPH in terms of price and success? Any guess about price? The flights are wide open in all classes and my impression is that they don't sell much in Y and C. I hear that the rear C cabin is often closed off.

I have 30k something EB points left and nearly 20k expire in November so I need to use them.

Economy Extra is USD 500 more than Eco each way so I need to be strategical in what to book. The flights are wide open in all classes about 5-6 weeks in advance (July).

I could book Eco Extra outbound (NRT-CPH) and try to use 20k and then book Eco on the return and use Optiontown and keep the 10k for back-up (to Eco Extra) if I don't get Optiontown.

What are typical savings between upgrading Eco vs. Eco Extra to C using OT?

Just a note about that: I think that the collected experience around here says that SAS will not sell upgrades via OptionTown unless the flight is full or almost full in Economy, so it's probably a good time to use those points. But you lose only €5 in the gambling process if you want to test the theory...

Good point, so NRT will be difficult with OT, although summer should be peak for Japanese tourists. I don't have much opportunity to earn points on SK anymore apart from Hertz rentals because I am just squeezing by with my UA 100k status since 2009, so I should conserve at least 10k EB points for another trip. I used to be able to put some miles on SK and even earned *S one year.

Also, I now get 150% status miles for Eco Extra (or C) with UA. So, I'll buy it and use the miles from TYO and try OT on the return and save the 10k for another time. The unfortunate thing with miles is that you retain the old booking class; otherwise I would book Eco one way.

Optiontown worked well
 

I just used Optiontown on my flight from Chicago to CPH and it worked well. Have not yet got the miles credited but expect BIZ miles.
150EUR for BIZ was OK.

I'll be flying IAD-CPH and back in August. I checked OT and it's $238-268 (depends on if outgoing or incoming) for Eco Extra and $529-559 for Business.

My question is -- can I just wait until a few days before my flight? The OT prices are already fairly high for this routing (I've paid lower in the past, but never higher). If I sign up for OT now, then that's $1,100 that gets charged to my credit card now that I'll have to pay on my next bill. If I wait until a few days before the flight, then I might end up with the charge and the credit (if I don't get the upgrade) on the same billing cycle, so I'm not loaning OT my money interest-free for 2 months.

Any advice? I guess another possible disadvantage, even if the price remains the same if I book OT later on for this flight, is maybe I end up further down the queue by waiting, so someone else who buys OT now may get the upgrade ahead of me.... or is some other ordering used, like FF status?

The flights are:
SK926 IAD-CPH on August 8
SK925 CPH-IAD on August 20

I'm guessing 926 is quite full as I was booked in K, so OT is likely on that one. 925 was booked in W if I remember correctly.

K is actually one of the lowest booking classes at SK, and if you check the availability at flightstats.com, you will see that both flights are rather open.

Ahh, didn't know this varied by airline. Yeah, once I booked and went to choose my seats, I did notice lots of seats available in the back, so I'm guessing the OT chances will be low. When I few this route two weeks ago, I managed to get an aisle seat in the middle section with the adjacent seat vacant, so that was fine for me comfort-wise. I guess I just assumed that mid-August trans-Atlantic flights would all be full due to holidays.

May 3th no upgrade CPH-BKK. Eco half full.
May 27th upgrade to business BKK-CPH. Eco full.

June 11th CPH-IAD, currently booked in E class (Y-)

OT offers Y+ for Euro 149 and C for Euro 333

EF shows:
A0 C6 D6 J6 Z0 R0 Y9 S5 B0 E9 M9 H9 Q0 V0 W0 U0 K0 L0 T0 G9 N0

The seat map looks quite filled up in all cabins. Not sure I'd want to pay for Y+ for a middle seat, but also not sure I want to offer the C upgrade price.

Opinions? Worth it to try for an OT upgrade? I don't have any status on SK any more, but am *G (US Air) - but my EuroBonus number is in the booking.

Susan

I registered for both Y+ and C with UTO for CPH-IAD on Monday, June 11.

I'm not sure it looks very good, EF shows:
A0 C9 D9 J0 Z0 R0 Y9 S0 B0 E9 M9 H9 Q0 V0 W0 U0 K0 L0 T0 G9 N0

I'm trying to transfer enough AmEx Membership Rewards points to SAS in time to have a back-up plan in case I need to ask for a standby upgrade at the gate, but the transfer isn't going through and AmEx tells me it can take up to 14 days for SK to confirm the account link. (It was an unexpected, last minute trip, so I wasn't prepared in advance.)

Does anyone know if SK has started offering cash upgrades on day of departure out of CPH? I saw this mentioned in some older threads referring to ARN.

To top it off, I dug out my US Airways Platinum card for *G access to the lounge, and it's expired, although I'm still Platinum/*G in their system (just don't have the new card).

I have a ton of work to do on the flight and have to go straight into meetings on arrival, so really hoped to upgrade.

Susan