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?

Dh has gold membership with BA and gets upgraded from business to first fairly regularly. Sadly we have never been upgraded when travelling together. I think it’s all down to loyalty points and being a solo traveller these days

Yes !! Hong Kong to Heathrow. Plane was overbooked and we were just lucky that we were next in the queue after ecomonybhad filled up. It was awesome!! I haven't done a long haul flight since then, but if I ever do, I will definitely save up to go business class 😁

For free once when my flight was delayed and they put us on a different flight. Moved from economy to first class.

multiple times when just before boarding they offer a first class or business seat for a ridiculously low price and I act fast.

for me its the difference between getting off a plane in pain or feeling ok, so it’s absolutely wonderful. I really don’t care about the amenities, just the extra space.

Always flown business for work when I have overseas flights.

Yes! Dh & I were both upgraded on a flight back from NYC.
It was a strangely quiet flight in the evening, easily the most relaxing one I’ve ever been on. I actually slept for a few hours & I NEVER sleep on flights.

Not upgraded as such, but Dh has been given the extra leg room seat a couple of times (he’s 6’4)

Yes, first class to St Lucia twenty years ago. No idea why.

Because he was yelling I’m not a terrorist I’m schizophrenic, this was while we were still seated in his row. He’d attracted cabin crew attention as he was screaming this planes going down.
I felt very sorry for him. He was so frightened.

We were upgraded when flying for FIL's funeral (LHR - JFK on BA).

As it was a funeral, we had booked just a few days before the flight, not getting any discount on the economy fare.

When we tried to bag-drop, the computer said no and directed us to a desk. DH assumed I had fluffed up the booking. The agent said, "I am pleased to inform you that you have been upgraded". That was for three of us, and I am still annoyed at DD for not using her lie back seat! It was such a lovely flight, contrasted by being in a narrow pipe for our connecting flight to the mid-west.

A few weeks ago, we were travelling to Toronto with Iceland Air, via Keflavik. We booked Saga class, which is the highest level of service Iceland Air has on short-haul flights (top service apart from the lie back seats). Whilst on the Tube from T5 to T3, I got a text telling me about our connection in Montreal. I thought, we are not going to Montreal, but I am not going to worry about it until we got the terminal. When we entered there was a message about our flight to KEF having a two hour delay, which would have scuppered our flight to Toronto, so they booked us on Air Canada. The AC flight was full business class - lie back seats, champagne and pampering.

Big shout out for Iceland Air. Their Saga class seats are less than half the cost of BA/AC with great lounges, fast-track, etc.

We had difficulty checking in at the airport on a flight to Tampa.It said please see the staff. We did grumbling and they told us that flight was overbooked and we were being offered , a flight to Orlando 500 dollars each and chauffeuring back to Tampa or a business class flight to Orlando ( including business class lounge) and private chauffeuring to Tampa. The flight to Orlando went 30 minutes before the Tampa flight. We could obviously have said no. We had a quick chat and my husband said, we'd saved our spending money and although the 500 dollars was nice, the business class flight was about 3 times that and we weren't likely to pay for it ourselves, so that is the option we took. It was bloody lovely and the private chauffeur was pretty great too. We got to Tampa about 50 minutes later than planned.

Yes once from Bangkok to London to first class it was us in comfortable wear or scruffy looking soap dodging real travellers types.

another time from economy as the aircon above me couldn’t be switched off so freezing cold air was blowing on me, I had a cold anyway and within an hour was coughing and sneezing constantly the cabin staff were really nice and took care of me

another time as flight was over booked and I had to get to a wedding (showed them invite)

Yes I have, I had to go to Australia for a funeral, on the way home there was an issue at check in, they had incorrectly checked me in already (another passenger with a similar name), as I’d traveled for a funeral it hadn’t been a nice trip, it was also the longest time I had spent away from the kids, the longest distance and the first time I’d been abroad without our daughter. So that was the straw that broke the camels back, I’m always a bit wary in airports anyway as I’m nearly always ‘randomly’ selected. So when she said it would take a while to solve I just stood and cried at her, poor woman she and her colleague were lovely. They didn’t actually even tell me I’d been upgraded, I noticed in duty free my ticket number was different but assumed I had been given the seat of the person who had originally been checked in as me, had a quick look on seatguru and saw it was a business class seat. I hastily stopped buying booze and got myself in the longue instead.

I had been business class before, and once in a suite, it would have been wasted as an only experience, I did get some decent sleep though, well I think that was the alcohol more than comfort.

Asking for an upgrade won't get you anywhere as there is a computer algorithm that decides who gets them and they are only generally given when there are operational reasons - e.g. a cabin is oversold.

The best chance is in Premium Economy because it's a small cabin which is often full so they roll people forward to Club.

I have had quite a few upgrades but I have a gold card and DH is lifetime gold / Concorde card holder (a less well known higher frequent flyer tier). They don't only go to gold card holders though. Sometimes the algorithm singles out flyers who might be tempted to book a higher class once they've had a taste if the highlife.

I was quite young & flying to The US for a job - it was the first time I had ever flown on my own. Got upgraded to Business Class if I remember rightly & couldn’t get over actually going upstairs on a plane!

I was offered an upgrade once but said no - I was travelling with DP, and he wasn't upgraded (I had lots of airmiles, he didn't). It was only a European flight; if it had been long-haul I might have been tempted...

I think it has very little to do with charming the staff or looking expensively dressed these days, and all to do with frequent flier points and flying solo.

Twice in the last year - both travelling on my own. One was long haul to Asia so that was very nice. And a few times with my husband but he has lots of BA points and I forget which club membership.

Do you use the app just before boarding or ask at the gate for a paid upgrade?

I was downgraded once, does that count?

Yes,when we flew to Las Vegas to get married. We flew from Birmingham to Chicago and were meant to catch a connecting flight to Las Vegas,but American Airlines had overbooked the second leg of the flight. We said that we absolutely had to get there that night,as we had arranged to go and get the wedding licence that evening,as we were getting married the next day.
They bumped us up to business class,which was very nice.More space, complimentary drinks and better food.My parents and sister who didn't have to be there that night,were offered free flight vouchers if they gave up their places and flew later that night,which they did. They all got free flights to Chicago out of that,so they were very happy.

Nowadays I think any upgrades tend to go to people in the frequent flyers club with the airline who are regular customers.

A friend and I were upgraded to first class with American Airlines from London to NYC. Didn’t do anything, they called us before boarding to ask if we minded moving 😂

Twice, from economy to business.

The first was with BA, I was late to check in (but not after the cut off, I had just made it). However, they had already given my seat away so they gave me a new seat in business.

The second was on Lufthansa. I was only 20 and at check in about how this trip was a break from chemotherapy. The agent upgraded me so I can have a more relaxing journey.

I have never been upgraded on a flight. I have however been upgraded to a better hotel. Several years ago when we arrived in Malta we were told our (prettty average) hotel was overbooked and we had to go to a different one. We were put in a fantastic hotel in Valetta. It had several premium restaurants and because we had booked half board in our original hotel, we could eat in any of them and the meal was included.

I haven’t done it in quite some time. Pre-app, they would sometimes make announcements just before boarding that there were seats available in first for X price. If you hung out by the desk and were ready with your credit card, no indecision, you could have the seat for a song.

Interesting, I've never been upgraded and have never flown solo but my best friend frequently does solo transatlantic flights and has been upgraded several times. She said virgin first class was incredible.

I used to fly Emirates a lot for work, often business, so made my way up their frequent flyer tiers. Then I started getting upgrades if flying solo in economy. Once got called when I was already at the gate, thought I was going to be told the flight was oversold, I was very relieved to be told I was being upgraded!

I have to 1st class too 😱😱
On a long haul flight.

And I didn’t really appreciate any of it lol.

My flight the day before had been cancelled due to bad weather. I had spent hours waiting in a queue to get new tickets. Got them around 3~4am… at which point we were then sent to a hotel miles away (all planes had been cancelled so you imagine the chaos!).
Back the next afternoon for my flight. I promptly fell asleep for the whole of the 8 hours flight!
i have vague memories of a fully reclined seat. And meal with wine at the bottle, choice of different red and white etc…. But that’s about it.