I always ask for the upgrade at check in. Before the mid of last year, it was no sweat buying an upgrade with points or cash. Now they seem to upgrade to Y instead of C and they already know at check in that they have no catering at ORD..... Last week they said to check at the gate (this was 3 hours before the flight) Nada, neither from M-Y-C (for my friend) and for Y-C for me...

I'm working on a tripreport, you will be amazed...

My wife and daughter were on that flight. Sorry you couldn't have the cashews (SK messed up Baby Swede's allergies and loaded the wrong snacks).

Now a related question, do they deny upgrades to Y+ due to catering? I'm hoping they would be able to upgrade to Y+ on their flight back in a few weeks.

Aha, so that was a FT'ers doing (sort of) ;)

The food service was the same in M and Y, so that shouldn't be a reason to deny an upgrade. There was at least one pax that did the M-to-Y upgrade on the plane after all the C upgrades where denied at the gate.

OT: Also, as an observation, on this flight they apparently were short staffed and only did one (1) run with the drinks cart. So you had to order pre-meal cocktail, drink for the meal, after-dinner drink, plus anything else you thought you might like... all at once. My tray table looked like a bar ! :rolleyes:

They do because of the "enhanced service". You have 2 meal choices in Y compared to 1 in M. The tray and one of the meals are the same as in M...

The breakfast comes on a tray in Y compared to the little bag in M...

So they can, but it doesn't make any sense...

All of a sudden what happened to me at IAD earlier this month makes sense. I asked for a point upgrade at the gate (I had arrived on UA flight) and was told that there were people ahead of me and that I probably wouldn't make it.

As it turned out the upgrade did go through and the flight departed with the Business cabin only half full. I was wondering why the gate agent was so hesitant about doing the upgrade but it must have been because of catering.

Some observations
 

This entire upgrade procedure is truly a way under par by SK IMO. :td:

1. If you're connecting you're put at a disadvantage since you can't get on the list until you're physically at the departure gate.

2. Instead of relaxing in the lounge you're queing at the departure gate for the GA to arrive. (And after their arrival, waiting while they take their sweet time to set-up/log-on/etc.etc. Which is fine, but a quick "give me 2 minutes please while I set up" would be a lot better than the feigned ignorance of paying customers)

3. No publizied order of priority beyond the first-come-first-serve. (My suggestion: EBG, *G, EBS, *S in order. Tiebreakers within each EB/* level is ticket class)

4. And unfortunatley SK joins the long line of airlines where this type of 'transaction' is extremely dependent on the mood of the employee you talk to.

Just my 2 c.

Edited to add: I'm sure these are old gripes well known to all you SK road warriors, just had to get it out there :)

OK, while I'm on this litte mini-rant-roll:

So, the way SK has differentiated Y from M in the meal area is by lowering the level of service/selection in M rather than increasing it in Y ?

Granted, I havent flown SK in a while, since before they even had Y+, and most of my international Y experience is with CO, but don't most airlines offer 2 meal options on TATL (or similar length) flights in Y ?

What selection did SK offer in economy prior to the separation into Y/Y+ ?

I have experienced the "denied upgrade for points" twice in ORD due to lack of catering and "C has checked in full". :mad: :td:

First time I wrote to SAS about it. They didn't even bother to answer with a standard reply. Next time it happens I will complain again - this time to the manager of EuroBonus.

Oh no, it's been quite pathetic in M for a while now. I remember several years ago when SK meal service in M was fairly decent, at least edible. I don't recall if there was a choice, but it was fine.

In the past few years, if you're stuck in M, it is invariably the 'frikkedella' (sp?) main course ex-Scandinavia. I don't eat the meal ex-U.S., but our seatmates were served a quite horrible pasta dish on our last return in M.

Susan

I got an upgrade out of IAD on Wednesday evening. I don't fly this route more than twice a year these days but have had good luck with upgrades to either Y or C. The flight was C1 Y1 M0 the day before, so didn't have good expectations.

This time I checked in relatively late. I had BP 258 (!), I think. First I wanted 14H and it was still available. I commented that it was probably small chance of getting an upgrade, and I saw a paper with C Y M and numbers next to them and was trying to process them in my head. The agent looked at it and commented that there were still a few seats.

The Duty Manager checked me in and a put a note in the record about the upgrade request, but I didn't really trust that this would be effective and the lounge (NW) is far from the gate and not staffed by SK. You pass the SAS gate from the tunnel and there was no queue (it was maybe 75 min before departute at this point). The agent told me that her colleague, an older Danish woman, was in charge of upgrades. When I came back everything was ok and I got 1G, which is arguably on of the best seats, but maybe not so if you are tall. The guy next to me was also on a Y ticket and he was a Pandion and got an op-upgrade he told me. C was full.

It will be interesting to see what happens when SK joins the *A upgrade system for Y/B fares, which will be good for me at least on business trips.

I was flying to Tokyo yesterday (with an Y+ ticket), and went for the gate in CPH well in advance, as the experiences here seem to suggest as the best strategy... And then the gate agents only showed up one hour before departure time :( :rolleyes: On the plus side, I think I may have got an op-up instead :) ; when I asked for an upgrade to C, the agent just said 'no problem today, Sir' and handed a new boading pass without any mention about points. Neither have any points been deduced from my account until now though the flight itself already posted. Is there usually a delay to show the deduction? I think the flight was overbooked in P-class, since it showed all zeroes except G9 the day before, but plenty of availability in C, and yet the C cabin was full, so probably many upgrades.

Any upgrade experiences in NRT? Is it the same gate annoyance, or any chance asking at check-in or lounge?

At IAD they make me sign a document that I agree to having points deducted. Although, my situation might be different since the reservation has my UA number in it.........

Certainly sounds like an op-up to me! ^

You would have had to sign off on a points ugrade, so you were op-up'd. Congrats!

Susan

I asked the staff in GOT if you were better of as EBG for the upgrades, and they said it was only on firts come basis. But in Washington the american SAS-agent told me the EBGs gets first, and then EBSs.. so.. they take the FF first...

I just came home from Washington-CPH, and had asked for a upgrade M to C, to my surprise I saw at the note I had signed, that I accepted 20000 p to upgrade from Y+ to C... so I was already in Y+....

It was a nice trip and got 5 h of sleep, well worth the points.