Have you ever gotten a flight upgrade?

[InMemoryOfSleep]

It has literally never happened to me, I don’t fly lots but I’ve got friends who seem to manage to get them all the time! We’re flying longhaul for a wedding next year, does anyone have any tips for how we might get an upgrade? I realise they’re like hen’s teeth, but thought we could at least maximise our chances

My 15 year old DD was bumped up to business on the way back from HK a few years ago. As an unaccompanied minor they may not have had a suitable seat in economy. We will never know but DD was very happy about it.

We were upgraded as a family because we were bumped off our original flight. Well 2 of us were, but we decided to stay together! Lots of money for compensation too.

Never and I travel a lot

I was an expat in the US in my early 20s and used to fly to/from the UK in business class (paid for by my company).
On one occasion I was upgraded at check in to First Class.
When I boarded the plane I was seated next to an older guy whose opening remark was, "so what does YOUR daddy do then to pay for you to travel First Class?"
I just replied, "my Dad's a postman (true) but I work for [well-known global organisation]" and then I ignored him for the rest of the flight!

I fly club now but when it wasn't regular, I'd be in premium economy and get bumped up to club quite a lot (with BA). I'm an executive club member, I think that helps.

Once to Zurich. That's a let down!

Once, from Dublin to Toronto. My mum, DD who was about 8 at the time, and I.

It was a great start to the holiday- DD in particular took full advantage of everything on offer (apart from the champagne!).

Once from Lisbon to Munich - assume because flight was full and dh has senator card with Lufthansa. He has also been upgraded from business to first on long haul.

Yes, on the flight out to New York, it appeared on our online check in 24 hours before the flight. No reason given and we certainly didn’t question it! We both had never flown with the airline and are not frequent flyers either so no idea why they picked us. We didn’t get upgraded on the way home though unfortunately. My MIL flies 5/6 times a year on fancy holidays, and is in all the miles clubs and she’s never once got a freebie never mind an upgrade it’s become a joke betweven us that we got upgraded.

Twice. Once upgraded from cattle class to premium when I flew from London to New York. The second time was just after the Icelandic volcano shenanigans. I had been stuck in Singapore for a week (thanks for the free holiday Qantas) and was the very last person to check in when airspace opened. I was extra nice to the check in staff, as they had been abused a lot that day, and was upgraded to business from Singapore back to London.

Twice

Both times travelling alone with two young children.

1. My seat wouldn’t recline on economy so moved to premium

1. Not really a classic upgrade but sort of. I’d booked two first class tickets. One for me and my under 2 and one for my 4 year old. There was a spare first class seat and they gave it to my daughter for free.

Only once, flying from Auckland to Denerau (Fiji). We didn't realise until we got on the plane and found our seats. We thought it must be a mistake so had to check with the attendant that they were really our seats.

I used to travel a lot for work.

Once, about 20 years ago, we were travelling to LAX economy to catch a ship where we were meeting colleagues from around the world for an important meeting. BA were overbooked and many people, including us, were bumped off the flight. BA told us they’d try to rebook us with another airline but the only alternative they came up with landed at LAX after the ship departed.

We found another flight via JFK and presented it to BA asking them to change our flights. After much debating and apologies, we were ushered to a quiet area where we were told we had to keep very quiet. They’d booked us seats on Concorde to JFK with a connection from Newark to LAX.

It was incredible!

Another time, not an upgrade but an experience. Again, about 20 years ago before airline security was tightened. I was sitting in my economy seat on a BA flight to Amsterdam - around 6.30am, needing to be there for 10am meeting, when someone rocked up at my seat - it’d been double booked. As mine was a discounted ticket, they asked me to leave. I gathered my bags, mortified, the whole plane watching, and made my way to the door.

They ushered me past the door ahead to the front of the plane, the very front. I spent the entire flight sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit.

Awesome, unforgettable!

Serveral times. Used to work as airline staff. Though my request to sit a bit closer to the front on a BA fight from Rome was miss interpreted and ended up on the jump seat all the way. Did get business class food and was pre 2001.

My brother gets upgraded every flight now if available but is in the top 10 frequent flyer points on his airline of choice.

TWice on long haul flights that were overbooked. We got upgraded but on the next available flight instead. I assume we got picked because our surname was first in the alphabet on the passenger list. We weren’t smartly dressed and we didn’t ask for it - airline staff approached us both times.

Got upgraded once to First Class on American Airlines flying back from the States after helping the check-in lady with some French passengers. She was struggling to communicate with them and I speak French

Airlines have tightened up on this and would rather fly with an empty business class cabin than give the product away for free, thus devaluing it. They now know rhe value of their product and a load of people in the cabin for economy pricing isn't something they wish as it pisses off those who paid for it.

Now it's nearly always for operational reasons. They have over sold the main cabin, or a plane change results in an over booked main cabin. They then upgrade people. The computer tells them who is eligible.

It goes highest frequent flyer on board, down through the ranks of the frequent flyer program, then onto who paid the most for their ticket.

Desk staff don't have rhe authority to upgrade, and cabin crew don't either without approval and good reason from the cabin director.

I've had it happen as I'm ba gold and once saw a family on board arguing they should be upgraded, apparantly they had lots of connecting flights, were travelling for a long time, and argued they needed rhe space as they were exhausted and there were free seats in business.

The member of staff was very polite, but god, it was awful, they were in the row in front of us, they argued and got angry, wouldn't accept no as an answer and the wife even cried. It was spectacular watching it really was.

My DH gets upgraded frequently. He takes loads of transatlantic flights and goes PE for the day flight and comes back in club. As PE is a tiny area it’s often overbooked and he gets bumped up to club. He is a points millionaire with gold status though so comes out top of their algorithms I assume. I book special meals which I understand excludes you from being upgraded as they won’t have the meal for the next cabin, but being upgraded seems too much of a long shot to deprive yourself of a meal! However if you don’t need a special meal probably wise not to order one if hoping for an upgrade.

Wow, Bluntness - did they get the upgrade? I know sometimes people like this get what they want, as they're dealing with people who're just doing their job, and want the problem to go away.

No they didn't get the upgrade and rhe whole thing raged on for a good hour. Various members of staff coming to talk to them as it was escalated. They were in the row in front of us. We just sat silently watching and listening.

There rationale was there were free seats in business class, they had been or would be travelling best part of a day or something, they were exhausted becayse they had connecting flights and had to get up early, and as such they needed to be upgraded because of that exhaustion.

When the wife got to the crying bit, it was very quietly dramatic, that she just couldn't cope, she was so tired, she needed the business clsss seat all four of them did.

The wife for info looked totally fine, as did the husband and the kids.

They then proceeded to be incredibly rude to staff for the rest of the flight, for example when they were offered drinks they didn't even acknowledge rhe member of staff and turned their heads away.

I used to fly at least twice a week and seen much cheeky fuckery but that one still stands out. 🤣

Sometimes -

I got an upgrade on my last birthday from economy to business on Hk-Sing which was nice

We got 2 seats upgraded (of 4) from PE to business from Perth to HK- DH kindly let DS and I have them and sat in PE with DD.

Upgraded from business to first on Qantas Hk to London a few times because they oversold BC.

A couple of times we've been given an extra seat in BC when we've had a baby/toddler with no seat and it hasn't been full. i.e. they haven't used it for an upgrade.

Dh and I both travel a lot for work - sadly as I work in the NGO sector I'm still on silver status while he's on diamond.

My DH and I got upgraded from a very cheap economy ticket to business class both ways to west coast usa courtesy of my lovely friend who works at BA.
Trouble is it spoils you forever for economy.

Not an official upgrade but i paid for an extra legroom window seat. They moved the person sat in the aisle seat. So i had the whole row to myself. I changed into my pyjamas and settled down to watch Romancing The Stone on the IFE.

I get upgraded nearly every time I fly but only an hours flight not long haul. I fly every two weeks with the same airline on the same route and whenever the plane is full I get upgraded to business class. I am a gold class frequent flyer with klm and get free lounge access, free luggage and priority boarding.

This thread inspired me to check with Qatar for upgrade availability on one of my three booked trips. One actually had availability so now in B class for one leg into Heathrow which is very unusual. Have used credits so still have tons of miles to use and will keep checking.

Lasy year London - Dubai with BA. My friend's uncle is a pilot and he had asked. It was amazing and has ruined us for all future journeys!!!!