Upgrading - dymanic pricing etc?

[yellowperil]

Apologies if this has been done to death of late (or generally)... anyway, am thinking of upgrading from Premium Eco to Business on United tomorrow - check-in opened a few minutes ago and the cost has fallen from c.£1800 which they previously quoted when selecting your seat to a (relatively) more wallet friendly c.£800.

My question is whether it's likely to fall further as take-off approaches and there are no takers for it, or is more likely that the seat gets occupied by the pax who bought it in the first place, or another upgrader? Appreciate the answer could just be maybe, it depends, or some other variation on the length of a piece of string, but I'm wondering whether to jump now, or simply rock up to the check-in desk tomorrow and see what they say?!?

[Captivep]

Yes, no, maybe! It depends on so many factors.

The best advice I was given about this sort of thing was "If you see a price and you're happy with it, buy it and don't look again!"

[crewmeal]

The chances are that others are looking as well. As Captivep says if you’re happy go for it. Where ever you’re going to/from you have to decide if £800 is worth the mileage. I had a similar experience with Egyptair a few months ago when they reduced to fare and I upgraded from the cheapest fare to Business for £300 flying from LHR to Cairo and it was worth every penny.

[Union Jack]

Originally Posted by Captivep

Yes, no, maybe! It depends on so many factors.

The best advice I was given about this sort of thing was "If you see a price and you're happy with it, buy it and don't look again!"

Curiously enough, I looked at upgrading from Club to First on a BA flight to the US East coast in June. The additional figure quoted was over £2000 westbound and around £650 eastbound, although when - contrary to the "best advice" quoted above! - I checked the current rates fo rClub and First for the same flights and discovered that the difference was actually only about £250 in each case.....

Jack

[Hartington]

Different airlines have different pricing policies. Some even have different policies for different routes and even different days of the week or hour of the day. I've seen a previously sold out flight which suddenly had 4 seats available in every class three days before departure except if you booked a seat in any of the available classes all the others went to 3 available. I can also remember being or a really cheap economy ticket coming home from the USA and being plucked for an upgrade to club. I was clean(!) but with a backpack and a 49ers jacket hardly the typical "well dressed" upgrade target everyone believed was the way to go in the '90s and I didn't have "status".

Don't try and second guess airline pricing is my motto!

That said,here's a story from a good few years ago....

Swissair (not Swiss) had a DC10 that came from New York did a quick turn in Zurich and came to London full of "Gnomes" at high fares. I was told they made enough money coming to London that they could have flown back empty. They didn't but it became know as a flight that often offered "reasonable" fares.

Just occasionally if you use lateral thinking there can be clues. But only very occasionally.

[DonkeyBrains]

I've never tried to play the wait and see game last minute like that, but I can tell you for sure when booking months out it's good to watch it daily for a few weeks. I cut our flights from the US to Paris in half like that. It would go up, then down.... then back up, then down even lower, then up again and I'd think I missed my chance, and then back down again.

And I'm talking about $700-800 swings per ticket. I caught it on the low side eventually .

[TCU]

I flew QR CPT-DOH-LHR-DOH-CPT in economy in 2023.

On each leg I was offered an upgrade fare via the QR app, which for the first 3 legs was around £1,000 each. I declined. Then on the last leg DOH - CPT, daytime flight of around 9.5 hrs...up came the upgrade offer....£400. No brainer! And it was a lovely A350 to boot.

[justapax]

Originally Posted by yellowperil

Apologies if this has been done to death of late (or generally)... anyway, am thinking of upgrading from Premium Eco to Business on United tomorrow - check-in opened a few minutes ago and the cost has fallen from c.£1800 which they previously quoted when selecting your seat to a (relatively) more wallet friendly c.£800.

My question is whether it's likely to fall further as take-off approaches and there are no takers for it, or is more likely that the seat gets occupied by the pax who bought it in the first place, or another upgrader? Appreciate the answer could just be maybe, it depends, or some other variation on the length of a piece of string, but I'm wondering whether to jump now, or simply rock up to the check-in desk tomorrow and see what they say?!?

It wasn't 'done to death' but 'SQ - another airline that thinks we're stupid' covered some topics that run parallel to this thread, and you might like to spend five minutes glancing through it.

[PAXboy]

One related problem is that, if you wish to use your miles to upgrade - they know who you are and there is only way to get those miles ...

Drifting the subject to price gouging (which is what most of the topic actually is)

1. Hairdressing salon that I have used for 20 years. Even when I left the area, I still went back, a 35 minute journey.
2. Business taken over and due to rising costs of rent and electricity - both genuine - they doubled the price of my haircut.
3. They also took other actions to centralise control and leave the staff with no flexibility.
4. My lady suggested that I go to her friend who (as well as a salon) has cut/done the hair of friends for many years.
5. I now pay what I used to and that shop has lost a long term customer.