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Paid Y seats vs. op-up
Had this debate with a friend and I would be curious about this crowd's opinion:
Assume that a LX long-haul flight is overbooked in Y, and there is a need to operationally upgrade 1 passenger to C (yes yes, after all the seat monetization efforts have run their course). There are two Tier status members of equal value (same status, same booking class etc.) in coach: - A is in a regular seat - B has paid CHF100 for an exit row seat Which one would get the upgrade? A, because there is no fuss about "but I have paid for a special seat, I want a refund now etc." or B, because the airline has alredy made CHF100 more in cash from him than from A? And if B, should B get the CHF100 back? |
I’m not sure which one would get the upgrade, but there is no way person B is entitled for a refund for their “special seats”. This isn’t even a point to debate imo! How entitled must one be to claim compensation for seat selection after having been upgraded by the airline? Like they did not only get a better category of seats, but also better service. I would argue if that refund was claimed that the person if they wanted to sit in their seat they paid for could have rejected the upgrade and switched with the person sitting in their originally reserved seat. |
According to my experience, op-ups are so rare, except on short haul, that it is difficult to apply theories, except to apply the general rules of booking class and status. I tend to believe - but I may be completely wrong - that other factors may kick-in. Being personnaly known to the gate agents may increase the chances. It helped me on a regular route that I was flying when irrops occured. (It never got me an op-up, though.)
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I think that with the new upgrade possibilities such as bidding, gate cash upgrade, the actual regular upgrades are fewer and far between. But in your case, I don't think there would be any difference. So many factors affect upgrades...
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It's more of a philosophical question. I know that the "grading list" of passengers to be operationally upgraded in oversell situations is entirely system-generated, based on several parameters and weightings. But somebody's got to input these parameters in the first place.
One of the parameters, FWIW, is a special meal request. Since no special meal to C standards would have been catered, Y pax with a special meal are deprioritized on the grading list. As for the frequency of op-ups, there is a route and time that I used to fly regularly, with an exceptionally good op-up rate. High leisure, low business routes / times are the key. |
Overbooking may lead to op-ups, but statiscal data and algorythms + the factors described by ced_lx render those occurences rare.
When there are irrops because of weather/strikes etc, and the manager of a station needs to have 300 passengers from a cancelled flight fly to their destination, his aim is to put as many of those passengers in a flight. In those chaotic situations, anyone can have luck. |
fully agree it is a bit theoretical but I think A would get the upgrade - less trouble and at the end these upgrades would always come last minute therefore whatever causes less troubles (special meal requests, seat assignments etc.) would get the upgrade
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Originally Posted by airoli
(Post 30318437)
As for the frequency of op-ups, there is a route and time that I used to fly regularly, with an exceptionally good op-up rate. High leisure, low business routes / times are the key.
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