I got today at seven in the morning an email from SAS with Electronic Ticket Itinerary and receipt. I was happy to read that my booking class for CPH-NRT was changed to Z. From SAS site I saw that my seat was given to row 7. I´m satisfied, really! My best friend got business upgrade too for the same row, for other side of cabin.

Two separate booking, two OT requests, mine was done at Oct/2013 in the same day after flight booking, friend did OT bid two days after. SAS handled this in a good way!

My OT fees: SK983 PLUS EUR 143 Business EUR 297 + 5 EUR fee. Total EUR 302.
My friend´s: EUR 5 more for B and Z.

Availability as of today:
C/0 D/0 Z/0 J/0 Y/0 S/0 P/0 A/0 E/0 M/0 H/0 Q/0 W/0 V/0 U/0 K/0 L/0 T/0 O/0 G/0 B/0

Flight was almost sold out two weeks ago with availability B/1 Z/1. Then the very next day availability was G/9 K/9 T/9 Z/5 and in website there were Go Saver fare available. Week before departure it stayed Y/1 and D/1.

I guess I get priority tag for my luggage at HEL as this is HEL-CPH-NRT flight. CPH flight is in GO. This is also my first long haul flight with SAS as others have been with LH, SQ, MH in whY. If product and service is ok, I´ll switch to SAS. This is a good way to see their old Z class. Thank you.

Congrats, Abducted Alien! How far in advance did you get email? When is the flight?

Sorry, I thought I included, they did sell upgrades for miles/points at gate; 15,000 for
Go Plus and 40,000 for Biz. I am not sure if coach was sold out, I never looked around to see. I only posted what the agent at luggage/document checks told me about not selling upgrades.

Giving out upgrades for points is standard practice. I was never rejected upgrading for points at check-in when there were free seats in Y+ or C. You just have to ask - but I guess being EBG doesn't hurt.

Even if its an award flight?

Optiontown.com paid upgrades on SAS
 

Yes, so far I was lucky. Don't fly SK long haul on business that much.

I'm not even sure the agent will see the concrete booking class on the screen when they check you in.

I have never bought an upgrade for money on SK (other than through OT), but AFAIK it is only supposed to happen on flights from the US to Scandinavia, not from Scandinavia to the US.

The stand-by upgrade for points has been widely advertised and has been around for years, so if what you originally posted had been correct (i.e. only for full flights) that would really have been news.

I have decided not to go for OT for our transatlantic vacation flight this summer. I have earlier counted on OT to get the extra points to qualify for EBG. With earning now back on Norwegian domestic, I am well on my way to qualify for Diamond on segments (I only need 22 more segments before the end of July). With the rising price of OT as reported here, and plenty of available points, I'll rather try to spend 160.000 points for a business upgrade for two. For our trip in June/July OT quotes EUR 422 (+5) for CPH-EWR in C (EUR 174 in Y) and 406/180 for EWR-CPH.

I have experienced, connecting in IAD, that there were so many wanting upgrades for points, that they only accepted requests from EBGs.

Optiontown.com paid upgrades on SAS
 

Spending 160k points plus paying for two economy trips is not a great value in my opinion. The 160k translate roughly to 1600 Euros... with the AMEX companion ticket you get even a lot more like a long haul business class award for two - e.g. CPH-NRT for 140k with a total value way over 5k Euro.

If you can bear flying economy in case the upgrade doesn't clear I would always opt for OT.

Prices are really going up. Just booked a trip for a friend and see for UTo:

CPH-SFO: Y+ to C for 360€
SFO-CPH: Y to Y+ for 317€ and Y+ to C for 731€

But the flight is already in two weeks outbound and three weeks for the flight back.

I tried to upgrade with Optiontown yesterday for a flight tomorrow, but I had some technical issues with my credit card. I was phoned up by Optiontown today, but I did not have the time to speak. Now on the website it says tomorrows flight is not available so what can I do? Phone them up? Guess I have to stick with GO. :(

I guess you won't have a chance since the 36 hours check-in dateline already started...

Another factor about my previous comment: The ticket itself was already 2.500 Euros, 1500 for the Y+ outbound, 1000 for the flight back, so the UTo price for Y+ is really not attractive - and even for C questionable.

Availability for bonus trips in business class in summer is very low. And the AMEX Companion ticket is very restricted in use (no open jaws for instance).

I'd rather spend 160.000 points than 1676 Euros (which is the OT price for my flights)

Hopefully availability will change now with EBD :D

My thoughts exactly!

But as I won't hit EBD until May, I couldn't wait for that.