KLM - Chances of Getting Bumped up to Business/ First Class
 

A friend and I are booked to fly Vancouver B.C. to Amsterdam on March 20th. As this will be a 9 hour flight, it would be great if we could be bumped up to business/first class if possible. Our travel agent says the flight is not full so do you Fodorites have any tips as to how we can get bumped up? Any tips are appreciated. Thanks

About all you can do is ask and I wouldn't think that your chances are very good, unless you happen to be a high level elite member of the FF program and coach is overbooked. (This is called an "operational upgrade" and I've had it happen on international flights, but certainly not often.)

If the aircraft isn't flying full in coach, then the standard procedure would be to fly with empty business/first class seats that are unsold unless they are filled by someone who qualifies for them in some way. Airlines need to protect the integrity of their upper class product and that is not going to be accomplished by allowing people to upgrade on a gratis basis. More of these complimentary upgrades used to go on in the past, from what I understand. More recently, many airlines have adopted far more stringent "no waivers-no favors" policies that may include displinary action (up to discharge) for employees who upgrade passengers improperly.

Certain (more pricey) fare classes can be upgraded with miles, if there is space available.

I agree with Flyboy. I would think coach if I were you. At least that way you won't be disappointed.

Have a great trip!

Hi Amygirl,

I travel very frequently on business throughout the US, Europe and Asia. The airlines are very strict nowadays about upgrades. Most upgrades on most airlines are for their best cutomers who travel the following number of miles per year in this order of priority:

100,000 miles
50,000 miles
25,000 miles
everyone else

Usually the upgrade is from to the next class. For example, Coach to Business, Business to First. It is very rare to go directly from Coach to First unless you travel 100,000 miles per year.

Your travel agent also gets compensated by the airlines. Wonder why they recommend one airline over another? You can ask them if they have any upgrade certificates.

If you work for a large company, I would talk to their Travel department.

Good Luck and enjoy the flight.

Australiabound

Continental and Delta (and perhaps others) will bump you automatically to first/business in you have elite status ON US DOMESTIC FLIGHTS only. They will not bump you on international, as others have suggested already.

I've flown internation first class( using FF miles) and there are usually empty seats.

I agree with the others. The airlines would rather fly with the upgraded seats empty rather than "cheapen" the image with free upgrades. L et's face it, it's not easy to "buy" tickets with FF miles..and that would be better for the airlines than just giving them away.

Your chances for an upgrade might improve if you were on a full fare coach ticket.

Here's a more detailed analysis about fares, upgrades, and the difference between international and domestic policies:

1. There's a huge difference between the service and seats in domestic first class and international business class. Domestically, on most flights it's just a slightly wider seat, with perhaps a snack (vs nothing). And very few people pay to fly 1st class domestically, except for a few routes like NY-LA. Most airlines give you 1st class seats anyways if you buy a full-fare "Y"-class ticket. And they will bump their Elite FF members to 1st class domestically whenver there's room.

2. In contrast, on international flights even business class seats can almost lay flat, and is 1.5 times as wide. Do your maths, and you'll know that you're taking up 3-4 times the room. And the airlines have to charge accrodingly. Take a route I'm more familiar. Houston to Hong Kong via Newark on Continental. You can get a consolidator price of about $750 for economy. A BusinessFirst seat is at least $3,000+, often more. They just cannot give away those seats, even if you have status with the airline. If everybody's getting them, no one will pay for those $3K+ tickets.

3. If you want to fly C class internationally, and won't pay that price, you can use miles to upgrade, but those aren't cheap either. To Europe, most airlines want 20,000 miles each way unless you're paying full-fare "Y" class. PLUS depending on the fare class of your ticket, a fee of up to $400 each way. So, you're talking about 40K miles + $800, on top of your already-paid fare. So, you're talking about a total cost of almost $2,000 to Europe, and you only collect future miles based on the fare you pay, with no bonus. That could still be a better deal than buying a C-class ticket outright, especially if you have lots of mileage to spend.

Or you can spend about 100K miles for a direct claim for a C-class R/T to Europe. That may seem the "cheapest", but you give up on the miles you will get on that trip (and any elite qualifying miles for elite eligibility for next year).

4. If you have status with an airline, but won't want to pay anything for an upgrade, there are still options. For example you may want to give up a Vancouver-AMS non-stop, for a connection in the E. Coast. While your trans-Atlantic seat won't be upgraded, you MAY get bumped for the coast-to-coast flight within N. America. But again, there are many factors involved - longer travel time, chance of missed connection and lost luggage - all for something that MAY NOT happen. Also depends on the plane the airline's using for that domestic flight.

Take IAH-EWR-HKG again, for example. My parents have CO's gold elite status, but IAH-EWR in the morning is on MD-80, so the difference is minor. However, retuning EWR-IAH, it's a 777. They always get bumped for that last 3-hour trip, and have always enjoyed the BusinessFirst seat, even if the domestic first-class food is just so so.

A friend of my travels quite a bit on business, unfortuantely because its here there and everywhere its difficult for him to obtain airline loyalty.

His company has an economy only travel policy, but because its business travel they pay the full fare for his ticket to allow for flexibility.

He is far more successful at getting upgrades, than I am on my cheapo economy tickets, even then it's only about 1/10. Whereas I average at about 1/100 for a free upgrade.

You may want to try asking at check-in how much they will charge you for an upgrade, British Airways do this from time to time and its not a back hander - its all very official (credit card etc). I paid £125 to upgrade for a flight from Hong Kong to Heathrow.