Buy first class refundable to secure upgrade?
 

Has anyone tried purchasing first class refundable tickets (under a friend or family members name) on a flight which you have a coach ticket so that you can cancel it on the day of the flight and upgrade to first? Thinking of trying this on Virgin America. Any experience, tips, or warnings?

Get ready for the "don't that" comments

Gosh, I wonder if an airline has ever oversold capacity? The bottom line is that the airline will happily sell that seat to someone on a waitlist as soon as you cancel and make the cash. I guess it doesn't hurt to try, just don't get your hopes up that an upgrade will automatically be available, even if they don't sell the seat.

lack of ethics
 

This OP clearly has some questionable ethic and moral values. Definitely wrong in approach. Persons engaging in such behaviour should lose all ff benefits and be banned for life IMHO.

I wonder how the original poster would feel if their employer or customers treated him the same way.

We wonder why our culture is in decline and this clearly represents the decline in ethics that is such an issue today.

If you do attempt, I can only hope that...
1. Someone else gets the seat/upgrade
2. You are caught and penalized

Good day.

I try not to get up on the moral highhorse about stuff like this. FT is about maximizing the travel experience by playing the game by the rules. Nothing the OP has stated seems to exceed the rules. If the rules allow this, then I'm generally OK although I'll admit my position has evolved on this since I came here. And if the rules don't allow this, the people who try it will get blasted either by being banned or by paying a cash penalty for their efforts.

There are some people, however, who don't realize there's one less smart person in the room than they think. If this worked, there'd be an entire thread about it. And bloggers posting about it. And a thread here blasting the bloggers for ruining the deal. . .

Don't you think you're being a little over dramatic? We're talking about airline tickets here.

At least one online explicitly bans this in their T&Cs and has do one things like lose frequent flyer accounts, cancel tickets, etc. in other words don't do it.

Here you go (although not sure if it was booked under a friends name as suggested above):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ecure-swu.html

Thanks for the heads up, I will avoid this. I appreciate the feedback.

Thanks for your courteous response in the TravelBuzz Forum. BTW, I love Virgin America and the 6 hour upgrade prior to departure has twice worked for me. Good luck
Now, that you are satisfied with the responses on this thread, I see no need for further discussion.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator