Best way to get upgraded?
 

So how is it done?

I am off to visit Boeing in Seattle soon and I was wondering how or why people are upgraded. It seems that everyone at my place has been upgraded to Club, but never me.

I do travel alot, a few times a year to Seattle, but as the tickets are booked by my company we do not get frequent flyer or airmiles.

Any ideas?

One absolutely foolproof 100% garaunteed sure-fire way of getting an upgrade is to pay the extra.

The other is to do a search in this hallowed forum for 'upgrade'

Whoops, sorry you're right.

I didnt mean it to sound like that. I fly BA to Seattle BA0048/49 and I am reall really impressed with the service in WT. The crews are all first class and very polite. I was just wondering what people did different to get upgrades, as I said everyone at my company seems to have been upgraded!

I agree with you though. If you want an upgrade pay for it. I would but WT is fantastic value and as i said the service is great, but alsoo the chances of my boss giving me a BC ticket are zero!

One dead serious tip, to build on what's been said: When you check-in on your way back, see if check-in are selling WT -> WT+ upgrades for small 3-figure sum (often $150-$250). This will increase your comfort on the overnight sector enormously: WT+ is a lovely product, and at that price it's a steal. The only thing about this strategy, of course, is that there's no guarantee that it'll be offered on the day.

Dress smartly, look like a business traveller even if you're not and travel alone.

Hope the airline has double booked your seats, worked a treat for my sister travelling to New York. Twas far from first class we were reared. She never let me live it down, left a message on the answerphone for me on the stopover in Shannon on the way out just to rub it in while pretending to sound all casual about it.

Her & her friend were loaded with so much booze she was amazed she wasn't totally p*ssed by the time they landed in JFK (so much so for the dangers of excessive booze at altitude :rolleyes: ). It would have been wasted on me, the grub wouldn't have been though. I saw the menu, but what's so exotic about a bleedin curry & worth forkin loads out for? I can get that for €4.40-€6 in my local Chinese takeaway. The rest of the menu wasn't up too much either considering the cost if you had to pay for it? :\

On her return trip she had to come back down to earth with a bang, she was seated right at the rear with the toilets. :ok:

If upgrade places are available, preference will usually be given to frequent flyers (Gold/Silver Exec Club in BA). Is it not possible for Cessna 210 Heavy to get an Exec Club card and make sure the flights are credited (this can be done on-line or at check-in)? Of course if your company has cut a really good (cheap) ticketing deal with the airline, you may not get many (any?) points/miles!

Airlines' computers are usually pretty good at identifying regular travellers on a route and giving them preferential treatment - on VS flights to California, we used to be disappointed if we didn't get an upgrade on at least one leg of a trip.

If that's the case Pax Vobiscum I'll be lucky to be travelling in the cargo hold with SQ when I go to NZ. :\

Fly a hundred thousand miles a year on the same airline. I used to do that and I did get many upgrades.

Now I don't fly that often and I'm much, much happier for it...

Been said before but . . .
 

Smart - doesn't need to be a suit - just "look First Class"

Try to get a flight where Coach is horribly over-boooked (unfortunately, that's something the airline won't tell you - unless you're "well in" with a Res staff member!)

Be a Frequent Flyer, or Club member.

Never a guarantee, but I fly as much as possible with the same airline (GF) and have been upgraded quite often. (Thanks, Guys!) Like you, my company won't pay for Business unless they have to get me somewhere and coach is full:*

Guaranteed? - Yes, buy a Business ticket!!!

Hope you "make it" :0

if the flights overbooked and when you check in you dont get a seat the agent will make a call to the relevant close outs dept who will either give you a seat or ask them if you are you 'sfu' suitable for upgrade, so that bits up to you pal.Its all luck really

Our whole family got upgraded to World Traveller Plus (oh yeah!) on the way to Kenya once, merely by arriving at check in early, being smart-ish i suppose, and saying "any chance of an upgrade". Luck of the draw, but try it.

Ginge :)

Getting an upgrade is easy. You have to turn up at the end of the check in period, but be one of the first to check in. You need to dress formally, but not appear stuck up. You need to ask for an upgrade, but you must, on no account, come across as pushy......

In the end, there are only two ways of being sure of an upgrade; pay the full fare or travel hundreds of thousands of miles with the airline. Otherwise, when they come to do the upgrades (if they do on your flight) there will always be someone higher up the airline's pecking order than you.

here's a big big tip. Be extremely nice to the groundstaff. There is no real way of getting an upgrade, groundstaff and crew have heard all of the stories before. As said if they are going to upgrade, they will upgrade all high level frequent flyers, Commercially important Pax etc etc first. and remember, once onboard you won't be upgraded as most airlines won't upgrade once you board the aircraft, although i have heard that BA do, others generally not though.

Oz

Oz,

sorry to contradict, but Emirates upgraded Mrs WNE and myself after pushing back (Business to First).

I have also been upgraded by Qantas on board due to a broken seat and full flight - they off-loaded positioning crew in business (Sorry !) to make room.

Well as I have said I was really impressed with the service in WT. Looking at this forum it seems that not all of you agree, maybe its all of my travelling I have experienced with Ryanair and easyJet.

I do agree that the only way that I should have a business class seat is by paying for it, but it would be a nice surprise to get a wider seat. I will try a little experiment when I fly with BA to Seattle in July. I will be very polite (I always am as I understand that Airport staff do not have the easiest of jobs) I will dress smart say black trousers and a nice shirt, but no tie. Also I wont ask for an upgrade, I don’t agree with this, I will just see if I can get one by being quiet and polite. I will also check in early, as I always do.

Fingers crossed, and thanks for all your information.

Nick

WNE,

that was nice of Emirates to do that.

Upgrading due to a broken seat etc though, isn't upgrading you just because they feel like it. That is fair enough if you have a broken seat with a long flight ahead of you or whatever then something like that should be done, ie we upgraded a compassionate traveller to j/class the other night to make it more comfortable for her, that is however at the Purser's discretion, normally this would not be done. For the simple fact that there are often one or two seats left in j/class and we tend to get business travellers seated in economy whinging as to that they should be upgraded, like every other passenger on the planet. If it was a policy to upgrade onboard, these passengers would expect this every time they fly. Also a lot of the time in j/class, catering is loaded to the exact number of pax booked up there, therefore if an upgrade is going to be done onboard it is only usually if there is catering for them. Not a good look serving an upgraded j/class pax an economy meal unless it is really necessary.

Oz

Ask nicely and smile big. You've got a bigger chance if there are more than 3 cabins.

Must admit, I've been upgraded to First a couple of times, or Upper Class in the case of Virgin and it's certainly been nice but it's always struck me that I would never pay my own money to travel up front.

I reckon if you went round a typical first class cabin and offered them £3-4K in cash to sit in the back for 8 hours, most of them would snatch your hand off.

Would it make any difference if I booked with an agent or direct with the Airline? I have booked with an agent and I cant prebook my seat, my a friend of mine booked direct and has booked his seat already!