Tomas1981

Hi Al

I am flying once a month long haul flights of 12 hours non stop on Turkish (which doesnt have economy-plus class)

My company wont fly me business, I always get anxious before the flight hoping that I will get upgraded because its overbooked but this rarely happens and I am free to choose the flights according to my agenda which means I will be happy to learn on ways to find overbooked flights (I am Elite Plus FF on Turkish)

My questions if you can kindly help or give some suggestions:
1. How can I convince the company to upgrade me (they say - just fly a day before and take a hotel to recuperate)
2. What can I do to increase my chances to get upgrade (perks and suggestions - legal ofcourse)
3. Any program that can find me overbooked flights?

Thanks in advance!!

starflyergold

Hi and welcome to Flyertalk and the TK forum

TK is not like some US airlines that easily and freely upgrade their elites. Your options are limited. You could pay to upgrade, from many outstations TK allows you buy a seat up front. THY Now Offering Paid Discounted Airport Upgrades For operational upgrades have a look here at past success stories: Post your recent Operational Upgrade as Miles&Smiles Elite Plus/Elite/Classic Plus And of course as Elite+ you get your free upgrade vouchers Elite Plus upgrade voucher

ISTFlyer

Hi Tomas1981 and welcome to FlyerTalk!

As starflyergold mentioned, TK would not upgrade you automatically like US carriers if you wish.

As you are an Elite Plus member,
-you could use your Elite Plus vouchers
-you could upgrade your cabin using miles
-you could purchase a discounted upgrade for flights from several outstations
-you could pay the fare difference at an airport sales office

Unfortunately, you could not increase your chances for a free upgrade as it's the system that does the upgrade automatically.
Also, unless you book at the last minute, it's impossible to predict if the flight is overbooked or not. There are no software detecting potential overbooking situations at the moment.

If your company allows traveling on Premium Economy and does not have an upper limit on tickets, I would have preferred an airline that has Premium Economy instead of TK.

craigthemif

I've found that it's much easier to change employers than it is to change an employer travel policy. It's one of the things I ask during later stages of an interview process. A company that is stingy on travel policy often has with other employee-unfriendly issues.

trooper

If they are happy to fund you to fly early and have a night in a hotel to recuperate I think it would be an uphill battle to get Business.

IAN-UK

It's a bit silly stressing out about getting upgraded. It just doesn't happen. Well, it does, but not in any regular, frequent or predictable way. In a pretty long affair with THY, my record is just one upgrade (Istanbul Cairo).

Outside the US most airlines wouldn't dream of giving upgrades unless they absolutely need to.

I'd shift to another STAR carrier for those trips, one with Y+. Hello Lufthansa. You can still stuff the miles into your M&S account: and there'd be quite a juicy amount of those, compared with economy-class miles on Turkish.

You might also consider marriage to an upper-echelon TK employee, preferably a pilot, or to a Turkish politician.

LondonElite

I’m not aware that US airlines hand out free upgrades to their elites like candy.

ISTFlyer

They do, however, not on all routes. For example not on international long-haul flights. There is an upgrade list but it's generally for those who use their vouchers ( similar to ELPL voucher ) or waitlist for a mileage upgrade. However, they upgrade their own elites ( not alliance elites ) if there is an empty seat on domestic routes.

On domestic routes ( excluding premium routes ), the only perk of having an upgrade would be a wider seat ( 2-2 instead of 3-3 ) and a snack basket that looks more premium ( however not ) than the Economy class pretzels, plus maybe more premium alcoholic beverages. You could also deboard first; as generally if you're sitting in the very back of a US domestic aircraft, it would take 10-15 minutes after the aircraft door opens that you leave the aircraft; passengers in the US tend to be slow when deboarding.

aircommodore

From a miles accrual point of view one or two Premium Ecomony LH fare bucket earns 0 miles like the P Fare Business Class tickets

ISTFlyer

For Miles&Smiles all Lufthansa Premium Economy fare buckets earn either 100% ( N ) or 125% miles. ( G,E ).
However, you are right about Business Class Discount 'P' fare.

LondonElite

I fly quite a lot of domestic and international on UA, so I'm pretty up to speed on the upgrade system . My point was that upgrades to international business class don't happen for elites any more frequently on UA (and AA/DL) than most other airlines. Sure, there are certificates and miles etc that higher elites can (in some cases more easily) redeem, but if you want to fly up front you should be prepared to pay for it. As far as domestic upgrades go, these are beginning to get pretty rare, and the upgrade lists are very long indeed. My solution to these problems is just to by the front row tickets if that's where I want to sit.

tobegold

A few other Star Alliance carriers also have premium economy products, all Air Canada PE buckets earn 130% miles, Air NZ an excellent product. Have not tried any other carriers PE but have noted a few earn no miles (ANA discounted PE). Wish TK would bring back Comfort Class, it was an excellent PE product.

chalf

What route are you flying on TK? While I'm a fan of TK business class, the best part IMHO is the lounge in IST. If personal circumstances permitted I would go for a nice hotel for the extra night(the best permitted under policy) and enjoy the TK lounge rather than worrying about working around the policy.

Depending on the route you may find that TK J compares favourably on pricing with PE on some other airlines. If so, if there are reasonable decision makers you might be able to argue in favour of J.

freetgy

i got upgrades two or three times in Summer in the last two years for me and my wife on my return flights from IST to Germany. Upgrade happened during boarding at the gate with an automatic print of a new seat. I checked in as usual the day before.

I think it really depends on if eco is overbooked or not.

ISTFlyer

Summer and IST to Germany. That's the key.
Many German-Turkish ( a.k.a. Gastarbaiter ) travel to Turkey for their summer vacation and usually Economy Class is overbooked on these flights.