View Full Version : "the great airline business upgrade auction is ready for take-off "
PAXboy
29th Apr 2013, 23:44
Article in the (UK) The Independent.
Online upgrade auctions that allow travellers with cheap tickets to make blind bids for unfilled business class seats are on the rise, as airlines across the world catch on to the innovative new way of making extra cash.The end of the free upgrade: the great airline business upgrade auction is ready for take-off - News & Advice - Travel - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/the-end-of-the-free-upgrade-the-great-airline-business-upgrade-auction-is-ready-for-takeoff-8595560.html)
Discuss!
MathFox
30th Apr 2013, 13:42
It certainly seems a way for the airline to extract some extra revenue from the passengers that (like me) do feel that business fares are too expensive. If the passenger can bid on a leg-by-leg basis, it gives the passenger freedom to influence the class of travel more flexibly than currently is possible, giving the passenger a better match for his travel demands.
It looks like a win-win situation for me.
LondonPax
30th Apr 2013, 16:29
Soon there will be a site - maybe there already is - where pax can share info on prices that they bid successfully. Obviously the clearing price will change depending on various factors but shared info would be helpful. Now, is there a website where frequent passengers regularly post, that could be a forum for such information sharing?:8
strake
30th Apr 2013, 20:55
What an absolutely dreadful idea. Sniff
MathFox
1st May 2013, 11:10
Soon there will be a site - maybe there already is - where pax can share info on prices that they bid successfully.
I have no doubt that upgrade bid information will be shared and in some time a "fair market" price for upgrades will be established. (And that price will depend on season and time of day; traveling business on the daytime westwards Atlantic crossing has less value for me than on the red eye east.)
And no, i don't think that "upgrade bid tracking" is something PPruNe should do; but there are other websites for frequent fliers.
What an absolutely dreadful idea.
Motivation please! :8
Metro man
1st May 2013, 12:32
Good idea really, if the airline have unsold business class seats then why not get paid something for them. An unsold seat is as perishable as an unsold hotel room.
Those who want confirmed business class pay extra and get the FF miles and airport transfers. Those who upgrade only get the miles from their original class of booking and have to make their own way to the airport.
Typically the offer includes an indicator of what price to bid with a minimum which has little likelihood of success and a top price which is almost certain to get it.
I will pay business class fares if I really want that class of travel, which would normally be a long night flight with multiple time zone changes. Six or seven hours of day time flying, with an hour or two time change, is tolerable in economy on a decent airline. If an upgrade is available to business at a decent price I'm interested.
Curious Pax
1st May 2013, 14:59
US Airways (and possibly others) do it with a fixed price available from 24 hours before departure (though I think it changes depending on season). We booked a cheap economy trip to Florida last year via Philadelphia, and then upgraded the transatlantic flight on the day at the cost of around £300 each if I remember rightly. Did the same on the way home - worked out a lot cheaper than buying business seats originally.
Always a gamble depending on the load on the day, but it worked for us. We had been told that Business was full when we enquiried by phone the day before, but assume they had no-shows as we got the seats on the day. We felt that we actually enjoyed the trip more as the upgrade was unexpected.
strake
1st May 2013, 21:36
Motivation please! :8
Blatant snobbery.. :p
If you peruse Flyertalks forums in the airline specific subsection, you will find numerous examples of info being shared on bids being made for upgrades and the levels they were accepted / rejected at.
If I'd paid for First or Club and had some oik placed next to me, I would not be best pleased!
rgsaero
11th May 2013, 16:59
Air NZ have been offering this for some time and it works very well. The booking site shows a bid window with a dial which reads from "poor" to "excellent" depending on what you bid for the upgrade. You can amend your bid at anytime until a few days before the flight.
I picked up a Premium Economy seat (separate "capsule" type seat and so very private) for LAX to AUK leg for £250 which made the 24 hr LHR to AUK journey bearable.
And, "Basil" - Tut, Tut! You sound "Faulty".
smith
18th May 2013, 08:30
These kind of things can be bad for revenue too. It can put people off buying a seat for say£2k when they know they can have a chance of getting it for say £500.
Major airlines would not even enter into dropping fares. Say someone needs a last minute flight and they charge him top whack, they would need the spare seat and it would take 4 pax to cover those costs on a discount fare. It pays to keep the seat prices artificially high.
Planemike
18th May 2013, 11:35
If I'd paid for First or Club and had some oik placed next to me, I would not be best pleased!
......and more blatant snobbery I fear. Their money is just good as yours Basil, they just havn't hander over quite as much which of course is theri good luck!!
Planemike
strake
21st May 2013, 17:48
......and more blatant snobbery I fear. Their money is just good as yours Basil, they just havn't hander over quite as much which of course is theri good luck!!
Not true really....
The airlines sell an holistic image of the flight experience to business travellers and to the companies they work for. Equally, they then sell an "exclusivity image" to First Class passengers. Those seats and passengers are the family jewels. Whilst most will accept that discreet upgrades happen from time-to -time, once you start obviously flogging the seats off on the cheap, I think you will eventually devalue the product.
PAXboy
21st May 2013, 18:45
I agree strake. Of course, in the days when carriers pursued long term strategies they didn't do this - which is one of the reasons why the rush to provide freebie upgrades in the 1990s was dropped.
Nowadays, there are not many companies that think beyond two or three years. They might be planning machines and buildings for 10+ years but they know that the people who will be running the company then - won't be them. :suspect:
So get the money in and then get your personal money out. Not that they would say that.