To sort of hope for upgrade on plane???

[startingtolooklikemother]

Hi MN
Very good friends of ours DH works for a big airline as cabin general manager/director. I've booked our flights to our holiday (7 hour flight ) and am hoping he might be able to help us get better seats, ok, an upgrade. He definitely won't be on the flight as he is currently ground based but am I wrong to secretly get my hopes up? I've asked his advice on what flights to get and told him the flight numbers etc but I'm not brazen enough to come out and ask him to "sort it out"!! I could of flown with another airline a bit cheaper but I am hoping he will be able to do something for us, how do these things work and AIBU for sort of expecting an upgrade?

Completely automated. Frequent flyers with the most air miles/points will be first in line for any upgrades. Plus there are plenty who will purchase an upgrade too for a long haul flight. If there is any room for discretion, I can't imagine that it's exercised very often. DH travels long haul every month - mostly with United. It's transparent with United - he can see online exactly how many seats are available in each class and how many frequent flyers there are before him for a potential upgrade for a forthcoming flight.

DD's been upgraded from economy to business on her last 2 flights to NY, once with Aer Lingus & once with BA. Both times economy was rammed. She hadn't paid over the odds for either ticket.

She was travelling alone both times, & makes a point of dressing very well at the airport just in case . I imagine single travellers are the most likely to get bumped up.

Everyone gets marked SFU or Not at check in. (Suitable For Upgrade)

We often travel first if we are travelling long distance and suspect we are marked as SFD 😂

I've only ever seen this happen where someone knows the pilot or cabin director and they arranged an "upgrade" informally on the flight.

Strictly speaking my understanding is that this shouldn't happen and that the staff members involved could be in trouble for doing so. As clerquin said, the upgrade process is supposed to be formalised with priority given to frequent fliers, etc.

If your friend had a way to organise an upgrade and wanted to then he would presumably have offered already.

& in fact she'd had a bit of a dingdong at checkin for the BA flight because her bag was significantly overweight & she refused to pay the extra because her scheduled connection had been delayed (it was that fierce weather in late December) so she'd had to get a much earlier one & hang around at Heathrow for hours.

She didn't explain why she thought getting an earlier flight justified her excess baggage but she got away with it and got the upgrade later (but then the dingdong was at Manchester & the upgrade at Heathrow)

Agree with JohnHunter. That's how we got upgraded - friend of DP who worked for the company pulled a few strings. If I am honest, I was a bit embarrassed as we were given champagne and shown to different seats. Everyone was looking at us and speculating why we were upgraded last minute. (Well, in my mind they were anyway).
DP also in the industry and will sometimes get texts from friends asking if he can pull any strings. Usually depends on who is on duty that day.

Thanks guys for these, we are flying out in premium economy and back in economy reading all your posts it doesn't look really hopeful does it? Ok so tbh it's DS first flight and as long as he gets a window seat both ways then really that's all I'm too worried about.

If you have a child with you it is even more unlikely that you'd be upgraded.

A child would only be upgraded, for free, if both parents were very frequent flyers, gold card etc and even then unlikely. Or the child of the captain

Very very unlikely. If you are in Premium Economy pre book your seats asthe windows go first and if its a wide bodied plane you could be in the centre section.

You would need to look and dress as though on business, V V smart etc

Honestly, OP, it's that kind of indirect hinting without asking straight out (telling some poor friend your flight numbers under the guise of 'asking advice' and then leaving an audible dot dot dot of expectation) that makes our more direct European neighbours baffled and at times contemptuous as to why we can't ask for things directly!

My husband used to work for a premier league football club and you wouldn't believe the approaches that I got (completely unrelated profession) from people I barely knew, who would stand about sighing and rubbing their hands, and talking around the subject. Like they would start going on about their children's birthdays and looking meaningfully at me...

Enjoy your holiday, but don't hold your breath.

I doubt you'll get upgraded with a child, tbh.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility. My best mate is cabin manager. Basically she can request an upgrade if there is room. But it would be one class up & not before any body else eligible gets one (e.g. Gold card members). I've had an upgrade to club while travelling on the flight she was working on

This depends on the airline. I have gold status on BA and I would be offered the upgrade before anyone with a lower or no status at all - I fly a lot, but it's never actually happened to me. I pay for upgrades with my airmiles instead.

That particular airline only upgrades if economy is overbooked and completely full and then if there's space in the other cabins. I understand that this is fairly standard though. So Id say its highly unlikely unless you.re flying with an airline which disregards status in these things and the flight is full in economy only.

You wouldn't get an upgrade unless he was working the flight. Staff are too scared to do this for fear of being reported by full paying passengers! I'm ex airline staff and got put into BA First when my foot was broken. I only got it because I knew a friend if the operating cabin manager. None of the check in staff would get involved. It was a case of me emailing her and her emailing him. I was bloody thankful as well. Other than that upgrades arw given to staff based on length of service, then frequent flyers on a points based system and only when operationally neccessary (ie if economy or premium is full).

We got upgraded when I was wearing my wedding dress on the plane.

Possibly a step too far for you to do this though

If you are flying Virgin, DEFINITELY go on early to prebook your seats. Twice now I have failed to do this and been stuck in the sucky middle section. It's really annoying because some of their planes have a lovely upstairs bit, which is really small and quiet, and they're phasing them out in favour of the cheaper ones where there is a sucky middle bit.

All of the virgin wide bodied jets (long haul) have the sucky middle bit. The 747 with the wee upstairs bit isn't getting phased out just yet either.

I believe one of their Configurations may be being phased out. The upstairs "bubble" on the 747 is so lovely and quiet. It's odd how it's upper class and economy mixed together on their Heathrow configs though.

Virgin 747 don't fly from Heathrow anymore. A340 and 747 will be phased out but we are talking years not months

Ahh thanks for that it's been a long time! I forgot they'd upgraded to the 787s haven't they.

Save up and pay for it if you want to fly business or first.

Upgrades are rare these days due to full fare paying passengers, like me, complaining. Why on earth is it ok that I pay £4,500 for my ticket only to be sat next to someone who paid £900?? Tell me what is fair in that?

Ask your friend directly for what you what and see if he can sort it (doubt it) rather than pussy footing around.

Good luck!

787, A330 & A340 out of Heathrow