A word of caution regarding the upgrade when booking trick
 

in this thread, a couple of FTers suggested a way to get a business class ticket for a lower cost; book economy and upgrade during the online booking process. Everything looked great and I got two tickets in business (P) for about CHF140 less, enough for a sandwich and a beer in Zurich ;)

now our travel plans are uncertain due to the Covid19 pandemic and I wanted to explore our rebooking or cancellation options. at this moment, our GVA-ZRH flight is not operating and our ZRH-ARN) is only 3x weekly but LH flights are flying through FRA so we would be able to get to our destination if we were flying today but our flights are still a few months out and a lot can change in that time, for better or worse.

So I called Swiss and they told me that tickets are not refundable unless the flights are cancelled. I enquired about rebooking and was quite surprised by the response; if we rebook, we will be rebooked in economy and no refund of the upgrade cost will be made.

Right now I've got two questions; first, are flights considered "cancelled" if one can still get to their destination, albeit on a different route, and in all fairness in an acceptable manner? two, i don't understand how i can have the money i paid for an upgrade taken from me. I'm kind of just thinking out loud here and i'd love to hear other FTers' thoughts. thanks.

The flight is cancelled if Swiss cancels it, it has nothing to do with whether you can get to your destination by some other route. There are plenty of reports of people receiving travel vouchers rather than their cash back. See the LX forum for more on this. I suspect the same applies to your upgrade cost, unless you used a ‘creative’ way to do this (not sure). Finally, are you sure you would have been able to travel anyway given entry and transit restrictions?

no "creativity" involved. just click to choose the economy fare then accept the offer of an upgrade to business.

our travel is still a few months out and i'm having serious doubts about whether we will be allowed to fly or not and more so whether or not we would even want to fly assuming it is allowed.

i could live with the vouchers since it's just a matter of time until we go. it's the rebooking in economy and forfeiture of the cost that is simply not acceptable.

The issue here is most probably the underlying economy fare being non flexible although I was pretty sure the upgrade costs were refundable if any change were to be made...

Have you inquired if you would take advantage of the LX goodwill policy for the voucher if the ticket + the upgrade cost would be included in this voucher?

I would suggest to wait until one of the flights is cancelled in which case it is LXs responsability of rebooking you (IN J!) on a date of your preference. (most probably tied to P availability).

As I currently see the situation I wouldn't want to decide this far out, especially since the circumstances change all the time. And considering that the current outcome (only addition of the price of the Y ticket and not the upgrade), will still be possible in a few months all you can do by waiting is improve your situation.

thanks nick. i have not enquired about the voucher. i think i'll just wait it out and see how things develop. we'll decide closer to the date.

That's what I'd do in your case as well. I had a booking at the end of may/start of june and my travel partner kept pushing for cancelling the trip as it was obvious we wouldn't be travelling. By cancelling we would have gotten nothing but that voucher which is quite unusable imho, so by just waiting Lufthansa now cancelled the flight and is rebooking us with no additional cost for the same trip next year (if everything goes according to plan). Another option would have been requesting a refund, but it was a good priced ticket so I'm happy I'll be able to use it next year.