Upgrading From Economy To Business

[kunash]

I have just travelled from Heathrow to Doha, en route to BKK. I now have a 3 hour stop over in Doha.

I travelled business class with Qatar, and it was very nice. The service and seating was good. Unfortunately i had not got much sleep in the last 36 hours so was a bit tired and slept much of the 6 hour journey. I am now sitting in the business lounge in Doha, eating and drinking. Seems I can help myself to as much spirits as i want. Easy to get drunk, but I will try and avoid that. /burp. Thank you very much Doha.

One thing I noticed on the flight from Heathrow,was that about 60% of the business class seats were empty. I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

[tw25rw]

If economy is overbooked, they might upgrade you. But it's for their operational convenience, not the passenger's.

[kunash]

If economy is overbooked, they might upgrade you. But it's for their operational convenience, not the passenger's.

economy was the same as business, underbooked i guess

[tartempion]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

[kunash]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

True I guess. I would feel a bit gutted if b class was suddenly being filled up with people from economy.

[rak sa_ngop]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

True I guess. I would feel a bit gutted if b class was suddenly being filled up with people from economy.

I flew back to BKK from Saigon last night in Qatar business class and I was the only one there. I would have liked to have see another passenger face.

[barryFunk]

I flew back to BKK from Saigon last night in Qatar business class and I was the only one there. I would have liked to have see another passenger face.

Upgrades to frequent travellers still do occasionally happen when Economy isn't full. I'm Star Alliance Gold with bmi (British Midland). My wife, a friend and I were all upgraded on Lufthansa from Saigon to Bangkok a few weeks ago even though the plane was pretty empty in both Economy and Business. According to the check in agent it was out of pure generosity because only two of us could use the lounge at Saigon as per Star Alliance Gold policy.

Nothing beats an upgrade - even on a short flight!

[Qman]

I am Qatar Airways Gold Card holder and have asked before about upgrades. They are consistent in answering that only when economy is overbooked will they do upgrades and I never received a freebie when travelling in economy. QA considers themselves a premium airline and only want full fare paying travellers in First and Business.

[bkk_mike]

I flew back to BKK from Saigon last night in Qatar business class and I was the only one there. I would have liked to have see another passenger face.

Upgrades to frequent travellers still do occasionally happen when Economy isn't full. I'm Star Alliance Gold with bmi (British Midland). My wife, a friend and I were all upgraded on Lufthansa from Saigon to Bangkok a few weeks ago even though the plane was pretty empty in both Economy and Business. According to the check in agent it was out of pure generosity because only two of us could use the lounge at Saigon as per Star Alliance Gold policy.

Nothing beats an upgrade - even on a short flight!

FYI - BMI doesn't treat other Star Alliance Gold cardholders travelling with family very well.

i.e. Was on a flight from Aberdeen to London with them - I have Gold with Thai, and they wouldn't let me sign my wife into the lounge. I was only allowed to go in by myself (which as I'm still married - obviously I didn't).

[IMA_FARANG]

There is no policy to upgrade economy class passengers to business class unless the economy class seats are full.

You can however pay the difference between your economy class fare and a business class fare and fly business class. That isn't usually a good option, you have to pay the business class fare. So there's no savings there.

However I was once provided a economy class ticket by the company I worked for then. The ticket was for economy class from Istambul to Bangkok. When I got to the airport to check in for the flight, I found that the economy class seating was just about completely full. I asked about business class and was told business class was virtualy empty. Since my company had supplied me with a free economy class ticket (no cost to me), I opted to pay the extra cost for a business class ticket, about $700 at that time as I recall. It was worth the cost for the extra comfort and space on the 10 hour flight from Istambul to Bangkok.

Now if I was an airline executive I would push for a policy that allowed passengers to pay a reduced cost (let's say 50% of the difference between the two fares) and purchase a business class ticket by paying that reduced fare for a business class seat as long as:

1. There were more than 50% of the seats in business class unsold at the time (and)

2. It was within two hours of the scheduled flight departure time. (first come, first served).

My rationale would be that the airline wasn't going to make any money on flying empty business class seats...so why not make then available at a reduced cost to last minute flyers if they paid for them.

But I guess that's why I'm not a airline executive.

Edited January 9, 2011 by IMA_FARANG

[Monokuro]

Whilst that's true most of the time, I've been upgraded on an Asiana flight for no reason whatsoever (I didn't even ask) when economy wasn't full.

The nice JAL lady at Narita also upgraded me on a flight to LAX once because I wanted a window seat and none were available in economy!!

KLM will upgrade you to business class on a "first come first served" if the plane is 100% full - so in that respect, it pays to arrive early (or maybe online check-in early works? I always forget to do that)

[smokie36]

There is no policy to upgrade economy class passengers to business class unless the economy class seats are full.

You can however pay the difference between your economy class fare and a business class fare and fly business class. That isn't usually a good option, you have to pay the business class fare. So there's no savings there.

However I was once provided a economy class ticket by the company I worked for then. The ticket was for economy class from Istambul to Bangkok. When I got to the airport to check in for the flight, I found that the economy class seating was just about completely full. I asked about business class and was told business class was virtualy empty. Since my company had supplied me with a free economy class ticket (no cost to me), I opted to pay the extra cost for a business class ticket, about $700 at that time as I recall. It was worth the cost for the extra comfort and space on the 10 hour flight from Istambul to Bangkok.

Now if I was an airline executive I would push for a policy that allowed passengers to pay a reduced cost (let's say 50% of the difference between the two fares) and purchase a business class ticket by paying that reduced fare for a business class seat as long as:

1. There were more than 50% of the seats in business class unsold at the time (and)

2. It was within two hours of the scheduled flight departure time. (first come, first served).

My rationale would be that the airline wasn't going to make any money on flying empty business class seats...so why not make then available at a reduced cost to last minute flyers if they paid for them.

But I guess that's why I'm not a airline executive.

Imagine if you had booked and paid for a biz vlass seat six months in advance then later discovered others had upgraded at half the cost less than two hours before boarding.

Would you book to fly biz class with the airline again paying full fare?

[gk10002000]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

Why would they? Well, it would be good public relations and make for some happy customers and that might motivate them to continue flying that airline in the future. Perhaps lottery give away any of the seats or give them away based on frequent flyer mile status etc. Just a thought of a nice "free" thing an airline could do that people would aappreciate.

[ExpatJ]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

Why would they? Well, it would be good public relations and make for some happy customers and that might motivate them to continue flying that airline in the future. Perhaps lottery give away any of the seats or give them away based on frequent flyer mile status etc. Just a thought of a nice "free" thing an airline could do that people would aappreciate.

If they upgraded economy passengers to fill empty business class seats, the regular business class passengers who paid full fair would soon move to other airlines- and since most profits are made from business class, airlines prefer to keep them (business passengers) happy by not upgrading too many econ passengers.

[gk10002000]

I always thought they tried to upgrade economy class passengers if there was avaiiable room in business, but seems not. So, does anyone know the policy of upgrading?

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

Why would they? Well, it would be good public relations and make for some happy customers and that might motivate them to continue flying that airline in the future. Perhaps lottery give away any of the seats or give them away based on frequent flyer mile status etc. Just a thought of a nice "free" thing an airline could do that people would aappreciate.

If they upgraded economy passengers to fill empty business class seats, the regular business class passengers who paid full fair would soon move to other airlines- and since most profits are made from business class, airlines prefer to keep them (business passengers) happy by not upgrading too many econ passengers.

A fine point, counter point. No disagreement on what most of the buisness class people might be feeling.

[TobiasMattsson]

Why would an airline upgrade customers for free who paid inexpensive tickets when economy class has many open seats???

Only when cattle class is overbooked will they upgrade their better customers holding high status (frequent fliers platinium, gold, silver cardholders) and depending paid rate type. When full over 100% economy passengers might be offered seats on later planes, even flying other airlines and get compensation (in Europe 600 euro for intercontinental flights)

Why would they? Well, it would be good public relations and make for some happy customers and that might motivate them to continue flying that airline in the future. Perhaps lottery give away any of the seats or give them away based on frequent flyer mile status etc. Just a thought of a nice "free" thing an airline could do that people would aappreciate.

If they upgraded economy passengers to fill empty business class seats, the regular business class passengers who paid full fair would soon move to other airlines- and since most profits are made from business class, airlines prefer to keep them (business passengers) happy by not upgrading too many econ passengers.

A fine point, counter point. No disagreement on what most of the buisness class people might be feeling.

I totally agree to most of the above mentioned, that it would be unfair among those who payed full price business.

But consider this: You booked a full price business 2-3 months prior departure, say for example LHR-DOH-BKK with Qatar. The flight is aprox 80% full in Y and 15% in business...

While at the airport, 3 pax with FFPC, regardless 5000 or 100'000 miles, asks if they may be upgraded to business for free due to FFPC and another 5 pax without FFPC pays for example 50% off the price in between Y class and business. The total would be 8 pax upgraded for business... After boarding you won´t have a clue if they payed full price or not unless you overheard the conversation at the check-in counter 1½ hours earlier.

So, in my mind, you would not have a clue if they payed full price for their business ticket or not. Right? At the same time, in this case Qatar would have gained good public relations against their FFP customers and earned aprox $3000-4000 extra. Have in mind tho... If you dress sloppy the chances are definitely none for an upgrade, so I guess dress casual with a jacket and be smart, polite and act like a frequent business traveler and you might get an upgrade despite eco being full.

But I still understand and agree that it stings for those who payed full price. But flying coach most of the tickets sold on almost all scheduled international flights has a huge variety in prices, many times a couple of hundred $. So it´s basically the same, right?

Cheers!

[tartempion]

Airline seat/yield marketing is a dark science and airlines have different approaches to this subject

Many different prices for the same seats depending on so many factors decided by the airline.

They use letters to identify a given fare, but not all have the same meaning for each airline.

But in general JCDWX are business class fares and YBHKMQLVUET are economy fares , at least for the Etihad example mentioned hereafter.

The number after the letter indicates the number of seats bookable in that fare for a given flight/date (9 means at least 9, 0 means zero)

I am booked on these flights, flying business class and two seats seem occupied on EY401 and 3 on EY57 checking their seat maps (yes, I have the tools to check that)

No first class on these flights.

Thus I mention again: free upgrades are mostly nonexistent.

Station managers however have some marginal freedom, depending on company policy, to react to some passenger situations and Operational Upgrades will/might occur at check in time when eco is overbooked, following that specific airline's priority rules.

Above poster is dreaming, it will not happen

EY () 401 0 BKK

27/04/11 20:35 AUH

28/04/11 0:05 77W

M,T,W,F

NA / NA J9 C9 D8 W3 X0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M5 Q0 L0 V0 U0 E0 T0

EY () 57 0 AUH

28/04/11 2:45 BRU

28/04/11 7:55 332

Su,W,Th

96% / 10m J9 C9 D8 W3 X0 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M5 Q0 L0 V0 U0 E0 T0

[tw25rw]

Would be good if there was a last minute upgrade fare where you could pay an upgrade fee between economy and business and get to sit in the bigger seat, but forfeiting the other benefits like business class food, fast track, lounge access etc. I would certainly pay more for the big seat without the other benefits.

[sting]

Would be good if there was a last minute upgrade fare where you could pay an upgrade fee between economy and business and get to sit in the bigger seat, but forfeiting the other benefits like business class food, fast track, lounge access etc. I would certainly pay more for the big seat without the other benefits.

[/quote

Hi i did a upgrade last week bkk- osl.(norway)for 120€ but i dont now what airlines it suports but for sas it whas ok

https://www.optiontown.com/

[smokie36]

Hi i did a upgrade last week bkk- osl.(norway)for 120€ but i dont now what airlines it suports but for sas it whas ok

https://www.optiontown.com/

Thanks for that link.

[clinique]

Why would any airline upgrade fare paying passengers to another class of travel at no cost !!

Airlines are a business and Business and First class is where htey make there money, generally speaking.

Over my 30 years of flying I have been upgraded one time only on international flights for gratis, and that was becasue the airline was overbooked in economy and I am a frequent flyer.

As far as i am aware and as stated earlier post there is no 'policy' for upgrading by airlines. Frequesnt flyers are upgraded if the class in which they are booked is overbooked and there are vacant seats in business - but even this does not apply on every airline or every flight.

Unless Ihave paid the fare that business travellers have paid i would not "expect" to be upgraded for free or out of the "kindness of the airlines heart".

As others have said that if airlines upgraded economy passengers all the time then their 'paying' business class travellers would not be happy.

If you went to a restuarant and ordereda hot dog , would you expect them to serve you a fillet steak !!

[ExpatJ]

I am a TG gold member and have been quite lucky on upgrades- i have had 3 upgrades from econ to business in the last few months. The last one was this week- bot upgraded to business from Beijing to BKK, which is nice as its a 4-5 hour flight! In two of the three cases i just asked for an upgrade and they gave it to me (i notice i only get upgraded when i am wearing suit/tie and I have also reached the mileage requirements to get gold membership 3 times over in the last year or so, so that may also be a factor).

[RabC]

On the LHR-BKK Thai used to have an offer of USD800 to upgrade if there was room, not sure if they still do it. I know USD 800 looks a lot but compare the prices for economy and business.

[Captain Chaos]

You can certainly still do a paid upgrade at the airport if there are biz class seats available. I decided to try it a few Xmas's ago for BKK-LHR-BKK. No problem at Swampy, big TG booking office there of course. Not so good at LHR, one person operation was overwhelmed and there was a big Q as a result. Did get my upgrade (apparently the last one). Afterwards did the maths and hadn't saved very much compared to just booking biz class, plus all the messing around time at the two airports. So nowadays I just decide up front if I'm going in luxury or slumming it and book the ticket I want.

I do still go TG quite often to the UK, they offer keen fares for SIN-BKK-LHR return (i live in Singapore now) and I can live with spending a couple of hours in the TG lounge at Swampy in exchange for a sometimes 30% cost saving over flying SIN-LHR direct on SQ!

CC

[Chivas]

I am Qatar Airways Gold Card holder and have asked before about upgrades. They are consistent in answering that only when economy is overbooked will they do upgrades and I never received a freebie when travelling in economy. QA considers themselves a premium airline and only want full fare paying travellers in First and Business.

Nope incorrect-I held Silver status (forget actual name) tail end of 2008 with a half full economy section but I was upgraded from Doha to Heathrow to a Business Class section that was virtually full.

[zzaa09]

There is no policy to upgrade economy class passengers to business class unless the economy class seats are full.

You can however pay the difference between your economy class fare and a business class fare and fly business class. That isn't usually a good option, you have to pay the business class fare. So there's no savings there.

However I was once provided a economy class ticket by the company I worked for then. The ticket was for economy class from Istambul to Bangkok. When I got to the airport to check in for the flight, I found that the economy class seating was just about completely full. I asked about business class and was told business class was virtualy empty. Since my company had supplied me with a free economy class ticket (no cost to me), I opted to pay the extra cost for a business class ticket, about $700 at that time as I recall. It was worth the cost for the extra comfort and space on the 10 hour flight from Istambul to Bangkok.

Now if I was an airline executive I would push for a policy that allowed passengers to pay a reduced cost (let's say 50% of the difference between the two fares) and purchase a business class ticket by paying that reduced fare for a business class seat as long as:

1. There were more than 50% of the seats in business class unsold at the time (and)

2. It was within two hours of the scheduled flight departure time. (first come, first served).

My rationale would be that the airline wasn't going to make any money on flying empty business class seats...so why not make then available at a reduced cost to last minute flyers if they paid for them.

But I guess that's why I'm not a airline executive.

Imagine if you had booked and paid for a biz vlass seat six months in advance then later discovered others had upgraded at half the cost less than two hours before boarding.

Would you book to fly biz class with the airline again paying full fare?

I don't believe it would be much of a hardship on that respective business-class flyer, as most passengers of that consistent class will have mileage points and gold cards.

[cardholder]

I am Qatar Airways Gold Card holder and have asked before about upgrades. They are consistent in answering that only when economy is overbooked will they do upgrades and I never received a freebie when travelling in economy. QA considers themselves a premium airline and only want full fare paying travellers in First and Business.

Nope incorrect-I held Silver status (forget actual name) tail end of 2008 with a half full economy section but I was upgraded from Doha to Heathrow to a Business Class section that was virtually full.

QATAR are the only airline that has upgraded me.

I would not have been happy paying a business class fare for that seat though.

[yermanee]

I am Qatar Airways Gold Card holder and have asked before about upgrades. They are consistent in answering that only when economy is overbooked will they do upgrades and I never received a freebie when travelling in economy. QA considers themselves a premium airline and only want full fare paying travellers in First and Business.

Nope incorrect-I held Silver status (forget actual name) tail end of 2008 with a half full economy section but I was upgraded from Doha to Heathrow to a Business Class section that was virtually full.

QATAR are the only airline that has upgraded me.

I would not have been happy paying a business class fare for that seat though.

Contrary to you I have not had any free upgrade from Qatar Airways. Am now denoted to silver from gold because was 50 miles short.

Have had many on China Airlines who I used to fly a lot years ago, and most recently free upgrade from business to first on Etihad.

However am booked with Qatar for my next flight purely because of a very good promotional price.

Yermanee

[bubba]

There is no policy to upgrade economy class passengers to business class unless the economy class seats are full.

You can however pay the difference between your economy class fare and a business class fare and fly business class. That isn't usually a good option, you have to pay the business class fare. So there's no savings there.

However I was once provided a economy class ticket by the company I worked for then. The ticket was for economy class from Istambul to Bangkok. When I got to the airport to check in for the flight, I found that the economy class seating was just about completely full. I asked about business class and was told business class was virtualy empty. Since my company had supplied me with a free economy class ticket (no cost to me), I opted to pay the extra cost for a business class ticket, about $700 at that time as I recall. It was worth the cost for the extra comfort and space on the 10 hour flight from Istambul to Bangkok.

Now if I was an airline executive I would push for a policy that allowed passengers to pay a reduced cost (let's say 50% of the difference between the two fares) and purchase a business class ticket by paying that reduced fare for a business class seat as long as:

1. There were more than 50% of the seats in business class unsold at the time (and)

2. It was within two hours of the scheduled flight departure time. (first come, first served).

My rationale would be that the airline wasn't going to make any money on flying empty business class seats...so why not make then available at a reduced cost to last minute flyers if they paid for them.

But I guess that's why I'm not a airline executive.

Imagine if you had booked and paid for a biz vlass seat six months in advance then later discovered others had upgraded at half the cost less than two hours before boarding.

Would you book to fly biz class with the airline again paying full fare?

I don't believe it would be much of a hardship on that respective business-class flyer, as most passengers of that consistent class will have mileage points and gold cards.

Quite true, and it's interesting to note that most American airlines provide free, space available upgrades at the gate for gold card holders on domestic flights. If one of the Asian airlines began to offer than, they would have my business in a heartbeat, as I am sure would be the case for many other very frequent flyers. Doing standby upgrades at the gate really doesn't cost the airlines all that much, since it's only a slightly better meal service. Free booze is already included in economy. The attraction of gate standby upgrades would surely draw in enough revenue from frequent business travelers to offset the added cost of a business class meal.

[kunash]

i bought economy seats with thai air back in january, in thailand, for my girlfriend's trip from thailand - uk, return, the cost of economy and business flights bought in thailand are about double what you would pay in the uk. at the thai airport, last week, i was on stand by for 2 business upgrades and got them ( 2 people did not turn up ) paid about 600 pounds + the price of the economy ticket - each. will do the same at heathrow when we return. the thai business class is not the best in the world, but i like the direct flight.