Tipping to get a flight upgrade will it work? has it worked?
 

i have never tried tipping at the airport in an attempt to get an upgrade and was wondering if anyone ever tried. If I am flying intl, I would be willing to tip 500-1000 if they upgrade my seats to business.

I did it about 10 years ago in St. Thomas on AA, but things have changed since then so not sure it would work ;) I am sure the more experienced FTers know much more about this than I.

I would have to say no to this. Not too many employees are willing to risk their jobs for a one time tip. Biz travellers are far too savvy these days to let someone bump ahead of them for an upgrade.

I don't think "tipping" is quite the right word for the transaction you are describing.

Agreed. I think the proper word starts with a 'B' and is quite likely to get the agent fired immediately. The computers have gotten much more sophisticated.

also down right offensive suggestion I would say

If you're willing to "tip" up to $1000 why not buy an upgrade?

I'll chime in. My boss attempts to bribe his way into C or F every single time he flies. Well to be fair, sometimes he "asks" about the cost of a paid upgrade, but more often than not, he simply utters the words "first class" and throws money ($50 intra-China, $100 intra-Asia, $300 for tpac or Asia to Europe) on the counter in a discreet way. His success rate is VERY high. In fact, I just noticed EK F tags on his luggage today and I'm positive he didn't pay for F. I think part of his good fortune has to do with his personality; while he's not attractive in the slightest, he's not the kind of guy that gets told "no" very often. Oh, and even more impressive, he doesn't do the FF thing at all! I'm doing a 3-city trip with him this week and would be shocked if we ended up spending any time in Y seats (the bad news is that he likes early AM flights).

Wonder what the results of trying this at LAX, JFK or ORD would be? :)

If he is flying with EK, is he mostly flying with that airline and local chinese airlines? My understanding is that most of the major, long-standing airlines (SQ,CX, BA, UA, AA, etc..) control upgrades pretty carefully due to the "family and friends" issues and the need to manage their elite paxs. Maybe some of the outstations might be able to pull off an ongoing scam due to the looser internal controls, but I can't imagine this working from an airlines' primary hubs.

I could see EK having a problem in this respect given their sheer growth - systems that worked when they were much smaller aren't viable. No or insufficient monitoring, very rapid growth and lack of training of new employees, vague or constantly changing policies (making a "paid" exception easier to slide through), or the possibility of having one of the outstations going rogue due to the bad apple getting promoted and being in charge of a station.

He flew DXB-PEK on a Y fare (I know this much because I audited it; it was damn expenisve, mind you, but still Y)... and flew F. BTW, he always attempts the same in the US as well; while his success record is lower there, it's still well north of 50%.

I'm assuming with EK for both the DXB and US parts (although going PEK to US via DXB seems rather roundabout)? If so, EK definitely has some major internal control problems. Any properly designed system should be able to detect this type of activity - one reason internal auditors exist. To make sure that the control system actually can catch this type of activity:)

Just a simple DXB-PEK, which is quite expensive, btw (more than double DXB-HKG and 3x DXB-MNL).

You should try uttering "11AM flight" while discreetly throwing some money up on his desk.

B/c an upgrade from LAX to HKG would set me back about 8k-9k

I knew someone who use to this all the time back in the 80's/early 90's, except his M.O. was to ask the inflight purser in a discreet manner. He had a good success rate (>70%) and would do this mainly on long-haul flights operated by European carriers. He usually tipped at least US$10 per flight time hour. He said that European crew are very discreet and if it didn't work they wouldn't give him any attitude during the long flight if he had to remain in the back. Also, European unions are very strong and one would have to practically commit a crime to be terminated from a job.

I think you could argue that the purser would be committing a crime by accepting personal payment for something that the airline sells. If that isn't theft or embezzlement...

As a member of one of the strong European Unions (not as strong as people might think), I'd say that the purser accepting a bribe to upgrade someone wouldn't have a leg to stand on if he were caught and sacked. Unions are not against wrongdoers being disciplined - especially in situations where co-workers have lost out through the wrongdoing - but they do ensure that proper processes are followed and that workers who are accused of wrongdoings have access to good advice and a fair hearing.

Worth a go I'd say.. Or do you get Guantanamo treatment for attempted bribery in the States?

That's not a tip. It's a bribe.

I'm sure some people working out of Heathrow back in the 80s for a prominant British airline were running this scam and got prosecuted (and presumably fired).

This sort of thing seems to work well for Vegas hotel rooms by all accounts on the Vegas forum.

[QUOTE=moondog;8412037]....My boss attempts to bribe his way into C or F every single time he flies. ....more often than not, he simply utters the words "first class" and throws money ($50 intra-China, $100 intra-Asia, $300 for tpac or Asia to Europe) on the counter in a discreet way.

.... I think part of his good fortune has to do with his personality; while he's not attractive in the slightest, he's not the kind of guy that gets told "no" very often. Oh, and even more impressive, ....[QUOTE]

I'm not sure I'd have used the word "impressive"