Have you ever been upgraded on a plane?

[TheRozzers]

I never have. Never flown anything but economy.

If you've ever been given a free upgrade on a flight make me jealous and tell me how it happened?

Once coming back from new York on BA. The seats were overbooked and they gave my boyfriend now husband a first class seat. He asked if I could have it instead and they said yes.

It was amazing I slept well drank champagne ate steak and was very refreshed at the end.

Well kind of

we were flying to NZ from East Coast UsA and connecting in SF. DH and I were meant to be in business as I was 3 weeks post pacemaker surgery and really needed to elevate my feet. The plane had had a problem and they had switched it for another one that had a smaller business section, so we were unknowingly downgraded to economy. When we got to check in and found out I was horrified. DH explained and at the gate the airline put out an announcement that anyone with a business seat would be offered 500 dollars to switch to economy. That didnt work so they increased it to 750. Someone took that and they gave me the seat. So it was kind of an upgrade!

Many years ago I worked in travel. We were flying to LAX from LHR and flight was overbooked by loads. We were bumped and they said there was nothing available on BA or any other airline. We called around our contacts and found a flight via New York - dreadful connections etc but worked. Asked to see staff at BA to change ticket and were ushered into a room where we were told to be very quiet.

They upgraded us to Concorde. I got quite smashed in the first class lounge 😂

Yes I have several times - just last week from Washington to London. It has only happened when I am a frequent flyer with the higher tiers on that program. They always bump up passengers with loyalty first. So my advice would be to rack up as many air miles on the carrier and alliance you travel on most frequently as this significantly increases your chances of an upgrade. FWIW the OneWorld alliance has been the best for upgrades in my experience.

On a flight to Boston, years ago with BA. Unexpectedly got upgraded to first class from Business in seat 1A. I felt extremely spoilt by extremely comfortable, quiet and private, lots of freebees, including travel suit, eye mask and comfy socks, plus really excellent food and wines. If only I could travel this way every time! 🌹

Just once on a return flight from Tobago to Heathrow. It was overnight and I only got bumped up to club class, so it wasn't really that exciting! I've never flown first class long haul and would love to

It has only happened when I am a frequent flyer with the higher tiers on that program. They always bump up passengers with loyalty first

Yep, once upon a time being well dressed and nice to the relevant staff (as someone mentioned upthread) might swing it - TBF it might still do if there’s a real need to upgrade due to over sales…but at many airlines it’s become a very regulated process tied to loyalty status, tier points etc.

A friend of mine got bumped up to first on a flight from New York. She said she didn’t enjoy it properly as she was sure they were going to come over and say they’d made a mistake.

Twice. First was a flight to Hong Kong when the flight was overbooked on Boxing Day. We flew Cathay Pacific and it was amazing.

Second time was a flight from San Francisco back to London on BA. That was really good.

I used to fly a lot with work and was upgraded frequently. Every other flight at one point.

I was ‘gold’ status on BA ie they probably viewed me as a good customer, and most critically I was usually travelling alone so an easy person to move.

Either PE to business or business to first.

Always long haul so it was great when it happened!

Yes, on Lufthansa short haul. No idea why, but was nice to have better food.
dh from business to first again Lufthansa from China to Germany. He had a senator card. Was very swish with complimentary pjs!

Once, Singapore to U.K. in the early nineties. Annoyingly we ate as much as we could and watched the film on the first leg, Brisbane to Singapore. Then we got the same film in business class and we were too full to enjoy the champagne and lobster fully

Only once, to business, but it was a short haul flight so hardly worth it. And only IIRC because at the time Dh had some BA frequent flyer card.

A Dsis who lives across the pond has been upgraded a few times, even when once flying with her dd of maybe 12. IMO it’s because she looks and sounds like the last person in the world to get pissed or cause any trouble.

We were flying from London to Calgary with dd1 age 5 and 20 month old twins. They can’t put two babies on laps in the same row as there’s only one spare oxygen mask so dh and dtd2 was going to sit behind me, dd1 and dtd1. Airline made an error and put dh two rows behind. We accepted it as we felt the flight was going to be about survival and weren’t going to stress the small stuff. We got to boarding and they called our name, took our passes and tore them up, then led us to the first class counter and upgraded us. I felt bad for the amount others had paid to then have to see us get on with 3 small dc (thankfully they were very well behaved).

on the way home we were in economy and the doctor next to us was loudly telling the cabin crew he was a doctor and their baby needed their own seat so as there’s one available, could other passengers be moved to accommodate their baby getting that spare seat…. Cabin crew politely told him that no, the couple with twins were being offered the seat (us). That was a bit awkward. We hadn’t even asked!

DH is one of the highest BA frequent flyers tiers, he gets things like lifetime admittance to the business lounge I think. We very occasionally get upgraded but when he was flying on his own he would get upgraded quite regularly from business to first.

He once got offered an 'upgrade' to Concorde when his regular flight was cancelled.
I've also seen him decline an upgrade to first when we were all flying together. We went to board the plane and they gave him the first class boarding pass. He declined the upgrade much to the amazement of the crew. 😅

It's actually shite that he gets offered all these upgrades as it's a reminder of all the time he has had to spend flying. 😭😭

When we fly first we generally take the jammies they give you home with us. Unlike the pompous PP may think we don't consider it "pleb" behaviour.

I was working in East Africa and waited way too long to get on the plane home, was sat in the airport bar and there were no announcements. Dashed on the plane with moments to spare and was upgraded to first on an overnight flight.
I used to fly MASSES for work so got into Business a few other times.

Not really, although the whole family was once bumped up to BA's premium economy on a long haul flight. We concluded that it was definitely not an option worth paying extra for! I think we got a few inches of extra legroom and metal cutlery, but that was about it.

Yes. I find it happens more if I've already paid for a BC seat and upgraded to First. Not so much from EC

To be honest within Europe (flying from the UK) on domestic flights Business isn't worth it (it just Economy with the middle seat taken out) and first doesn't really exist on domestic flights

Twice from economy to business class.
First time was with Qatar from Heathrow to Mumbai about 10 years ago and to be honest wasn't a great deal different to economy, just bigger seats and better food.
Now Emirates upgrade was brilliant. I suspect they upgraded us due to sending our luggage to the Philippines on the outward journey and we were in Ho Chi Minh and had to wait a couple of days until they delivered it to us. We got extra attention from the stewardess after we had been chatting and found out she knew my husbands cousin in Adelaide. Never had so much free Moet and expensive cheese and wine. Wish we could afford to travel long haul like that all the time.

Three times.

If you check in last on long distance they sometimes have double booked seats. Also much more likely if you are alone.

Yes, just to premium economy but it was long haul BA so very welcome! Got it by giving a box of chocolates to the crew as we boarded!

I have, coming back to the UK after backpacking in Mexico and Honduras with my mate. The airline screwed up the return flights somehow so we had to go Mexico City-Miami-Chicago-London and the only free seats from Miami to Chicago were first class.

I had just turned 21 and was given endless champagne. My friend was a couple of weeks younger so had to sit with orange juice watching me getting poshly sloshed. She was not happy 🤣

Yes, on a flight from Nairobi to Zurich in 2003.The flight was overbooked and people were being offered hefty incentives to travel the next day. The chap I was travelling with discovered that the bottleneck was in economy not business class and managed to persuade the airline staff to upgrade the three in our group so as to free up more seats in economy. It was great. The food and drink were excellent, and I was sat next to a very interesting man who was a lawyer involved in the Rwanda genocide trials. I certainly wasn't very pleased to find myself back in cattle class for the connecting flight from Zurich to London!

How did you know he was schizophrenic?

Twice. Once on a domestic flight, so not much different apart from legroom really. Once on mid haul. I did usually fly club (dhs company paid for our flights), but I think I'd just booked a last minute cheapy in economy. I was a BA Silver member at the time. Got to the boarding gate, scanned my ticket and it made a funny noise - the flight attendant tore up my boarding card and gave me a new one in club. I was travelling with my then baby ds so this was most welcome.