Interesting. I know of a few people who saw this approach before I did. No logic to it that I can discern as we were on different flights at different times.

Well, SAS is gonna SAS. It will likely be coming to a flight near you, eventually. For me this showed up just before T-24.

Thanks for sharing.
I wonder how it takes into account people going from Go->Biz as opposed to Plus->Biz since the points required is going to be different?
Then there is the Gold and Diamond boosters, how are those accounted for? Maybe the number you see if offsetted somehow? Just speculation.

If I could best describe the process, I would call it opaque.

From a points perspective, I think there is balancing that happens between SAS Plus --> SAS Business and SAS Go --> Business because the points cost for the former is usually lower than the latter. If they went only by the amount of points, no one in SAS Plus would ever get upgraded. There was a bid for 146k points. I don't know why anyone would bid that for SAS Business - not even a SAS EB Millionaire.

The other thing I found peculiar is that I raised my bid a few times. And each time I raised my bid, the system would display the new minimum bid to exactly my revised bid amount (and would classify the bid as weak). However, there wasn't a direct correlation to my place in the ranking. Sometimes my ranking went up and sometimes it stayed the same. Maybe I was the lowest bidder so every increase I did raised rhe bidding floor for others, but I suspect this is just a method SAS is deploying to get people to bid higher and draw down their balances. My worst fear is that SAS is somehow manipulating the bid amounts and ranking to personalise them (making them "dynamic") and thus there may not actually be a minimum other than what the SAS bidding algorithm thinks you'd be willing to pay.

I also have a theory that SAS has two bidding tracks. If at T-24 you have a strong bid, you may get upgraded right away. The rest of the available seats then follow thw live bidding process from until T-6.

I did find the additional visibilty to be a bit useful, but I still have a ton of questions. I won my bid in the end, but I think I paid a 10% premium over the old process (factors driven all by me).

I feel like something is "off" about the new live bidding process. However, I need to go through it a couple of more times and get some more (admittedly subjective) data.

SK 931 (CPH-LAX)55000 points
Plus to Business ✅️
(new live bidding system)

SK 924 (JFK-OSL)
4200 SEK
Plus to Business ✅️
(existing bid system)

CPH-LAX was notified at exactly T-6 before departure. In the Live Bidding feature I always ranked between #8 and #10. I don't know how my EBD status impacted that bid. I was just happy with the upgrade even if the points total was higher than I budgeted for. Luckily with the 2x bonus points promotion for this trip, the impact is lessened.

JFK-OSL was notified at T-18. It used the existing bidding system where you enter an amount and then wait patiently. Decided to use cash over points since I considered the ROI on points for this route to be poor and the cash amount relatively low.

CPH-BOS EUR 350 Plus to Biz
 

SK927 CPH-BOS EUR 350 Plus to Biz (old system).
Minimum bid when I booked: EUR 650, later went down to EUR 320. A couple of weeks before the flight it went up to EUR 420.
I put in a "weak" bid of EUR 350, which was accepted a little over 24 hours before the flight.

SK 984 (HND-CPH)48000 pointsPlus to Business ✅️(existing bid system)

For notified at exactly T-6 before departure. I probably could have bid 40k and still won, but didn't wanr to take the chance. Besides, given the complimentary upgrade on the way over, it all balances out.

Just noticed this tidbit, which may explain why we don't see the live bidding everywhere:

https://www.flysas.com/gb-en/travel-...tras/upgrades/

> To boost your chances of securing an upgrade on flights to North America and Asia, you can participate in live bidding on selected flights, starting 25 hours before departure. Place your bid, track your ranking, view the highest bid and raise your bid anytime – right up until 6 hours before your flight departs.

(Emphasis mine)

SK926 IAD-CPH Plus to Business.

the minimum bid was 340 Euro, I made a 350 Euro bid. A week before the flight, the minimum bid was increased to 460 Euro, but I did not increase mine. Got upgraded exactly 24 hrs and 15 min before the departure.

Has anyone had success with bidding on a OTA (travel agent) booking? My work makes me book tickets through an agent, and even though I could bid to upgrade in the past on those tickets, it doesn't offer that option on the SAS website now. I phoned an agent and they said that any changes had to be done through the travel agent-blablabla.

Yes, this is possible. Could it be that your ticket hasn't been issued yet?

Pretty sure it’s issued as I have a ticket number. I guess I’ll have to just try and up at the airport.

I would try the app too, it’s usually a better experience than the website.

If it’s not ticketed you won’t be able to make or see seat selection so it’s easy to determine

I can’t pick a seat but I do have a ticket number visible in the app (13 digits)?

Can you try to go directly to the upgrade URL? Replace XXXXX and YYYYYY below with your PNR and last name.

https://www.flysas.com/travel/upgrad...Y&market=lu-en

Says "Upgrade not available"