Complementary Upgrade Stories
 

Curious to hear stories of your experience getting a complementary upgrade. I almost got one once at check in at Rome Fiumicino but I had to decline as I needed to be on my original flight.

Have you ever been offered an upgrade? Under what circumstances did it happen?

A few times...

-For chatting up the TG staff at CGK (Y to J)
-For filling out a frequent flier application with EY (Y to J)
-Op-up with DL (Y to J)
-No idea, with CX (Y to J)
-Seat, but no meal upgrade, JS (Y to ?)

Operational upgrade from Y to F, mostly because I boarded late. I remember that the FA wasn't quite as cordial toward the operational upgrades as toward the rest. But this was a while ago so I can't remember exactly what happened.

Never got an airline upgrade. I just pay to sit where i want and I'm happy. Only had hotel upgrades

Weather delay at TPA. Very angry couple ahead cursing out the gate agent if they didn't get on the next flight . When it was my turn I said she didn't deserve that kind of treatment and if they complained about her I'd be happy to speak to her managers in her defense.

I was bumped to business class for the flight to Detroit. The angry couple didn't make the flight.:D

On a CX 747 as part of one of those wonderful and much missed SQ J fares MNL-YVR.:D...with such generous routing rules....

Went to board and was asked if I was travelling alone... replied in the affirmative... was told they would need to change my seat... I jokingly said

"You can move me all the way to the front if you like"

The reply?

"That's exactly what ive done sir"

Seat 1K.... niiiice!

I must try this sometimes...

My son had two in a row which massively irritated the rest of the family. He, as a 21 year old searching for a job, was flying from London to SFO to join us for a summer vacation, on my dime. He refused early to commit to dates, during which time prices were rising. Finally, he commited, and the only sensibly priced fare involved three changes of plane on the way out, and one on the way back. He was not happy at all and felt somehow cheated, whereas the rest of us thought he deserved it. We were not happy when he got an OP-UP on the LON-YYZ leg outbound and very unhappy indeed when he got an OP-UP on both SFO-ATL and ATL-LHR on the return.

Separately, flying LHR-SFO with my daughter, who I had not seen for some years, I got an OP-UP but she didn't. They then reallocated my seat to someone else. As we had lots to catch up on, I tried to decline the OP-UP but it was too late - so I had to go to the individual on board and persuade him (not too hard) to take my Business Class seat in my place.

One word of advice: on many airlines, making any sort of special request, such as a special meal, will preclude and upgrade.

Just before Christmas last year I was booked in Y on a Qatar A380 flight from Doha to Bangkok. The queue at the Y gate, there's a separate one for premium class passengers, was horrendous, and the priority lane for QR Privilege Club members was non existent. I walked away, then returned a minute later to find the Priority Lane board in place. I formed an orderly queue of one, and was called forward more or less straight away. The looks on the faces of those in the normal queue could have killed. I handed my passport and boarding pass to he agent, and, for the umpteenth time, I saw red! The agent said I had been upgraded to business class, but that I would need to go to the Premium Class gate for the re-issue of my boarding pass. As I walked away I was again subject to countless glares from those in the Y queue who were probably convinced that I had tried to jump the queue and had been sent to the back of it! If only they knew!

My bold.

This is when a section of the C accommodation is declassified for the use of Y passengers, something that's only possible on larger aircraft with two totally separate C cabins and when all the genuine C passengers can be accommodated in one of them. Is it an op-up? No, but nice to have all the same.

There are stories on FT of some airlines doing this for individual seats.

Rather, they actually separated half of the J cabin into Y, and the other half, J. No curtain/galley served as a de facto threshold. The flight wasn't full, either...though perhaps they didn't want us to sit with the DPRK citizens.

Otherwise, your example has happened to me before, in Japan.

Few years back I was boarding Y at LHR for a BA flight to Detroit. I got the "We've changed your seat Sir" from the desk clerk, "to Business class." The guy next to her smiled jokingly and suggested they mistook my name for Lord and not Lloyd.

DEL-EWR.

It was the day after New Year's, the flights were jammed for several more days, and I was hoping for a chance to volunteer for a bump because I had all the time in the world.

Get to the airport at 8 PM, flight is badly delayed - 8 hours. Finally boarding, I'm the second person in Y to board. I had just put my bag in the overhead and was about to take my seat, when the FA came up and announced he had a new BP for me - 1B.

The sweetest upgrades, IMHO, are the ones when you've already boarded.

The one and only time that it happened without status, miles, or money was in 2004 on a Qantas flight from LAX to SYD.

Thanks to traffic, I arrived at the airport about an hour before departure and I checked in at the desk (yes..seriously). They had given my seat away..but offered me an UG to Biz. Nice for a 12 hour TPAC. It also happened to be the exit row on the upper deck of a 747.