Secrets of airline upgrades (are there any)
 

I never seem to be able to get upgrades using my worldperk miles from Northwest. If I find a good deal on the airfare, then it is not upgrade-able. Is there any secrets? How do I get them to upgrade me even through the fare class is not upgrade-able? I have plenty of miles.

Beg, lie, yell, cry???????????????????

<<How do I get them to upgrade me even through the fare class is not upgrade-able? I have plenty of miles.>>

Your choice is to either purchase a more expensive ticket and use miles to upgrade or, if you have enough miles, use your miles exclusively for a busines class ticket. You are NOT going to be able to use miles to upgrade a ticket which is not upgradeable. There are too many people who want to upgrade. And if you want to use your miles for the ticket -- be sure to start as soon as the FF seats are released, usually 331 days in advance (for other airlines, not sure about NW).

Sorry, that's not what you want to hear but that's the way it is these days. EVERYONE wants an upgrade so the airlines aren't real inclined to give one just out of the goodness of their hearts these days. There are more people with miles and upgradeable tickets than there are available seats. So we have to make a choice on whether we want the cheapest seat or an upgradeable seat and unfortunately the two are probably mutually exclusive.

I don't think it's going to get any easier either and experiences reported by other travellers indicate it just gets more difficult all the time.

ummm... pay for the upgrade-able fare class?

I didn't have much trouble upgrading two seats, Louisville-LAX/SAC (open jaw) this May - - I realize that it's not the same as trans-atlantic - - but the key was the upgradeable seats cost $494; two other seats (myself and one of our daughters) were more like $224.

The two upgrades, by the way, are for my wife and her mother. Do I get husband halo points for that?

Best wishes,

Rex

You should get triple halo points for that, rex.

I believe trans-Atlantic Northwest flights are only upgradeable with miles for tickets purchased in fare classes Y and B. These tend to be rather pricey. You are not likely to get anyone to waive the rule for you because there is a strict policy against doing that. It is sometimes POSSIBLE to get an "operational upgrade" when coach class is oversold, but there is room up front. Having elite status will give you a far better shot at this. Also, you will receive complimentary upgrades from any fare class on a space available basis for flights within the U.S. and Canada if you are an elite member. There is little comparable between trans-Atlantic World Business Class and domestic first/business class seating because the international offering is so much better. I have never been willing to buy the more costly fares to upgrade with miles, but I have occasionally lucked out on the operational upgrade side.

I'm still in awe of the poster here who says she whined a little (and who knows what else) at the gate and got an upgrade because she was traveling with her "DH" who was oh so frazzled, blah, blah, blah...and I still say it is no wonder the airlines are in financial trouble!

No advice on having better luck upgrading in advance, but we get upgraded every few trips when we ask before departure.

We arrive VERY early, are super polite and dressed relatively nicely, and start by asking if we can use our miles to upgrade on the spot. Then we talk about seat assignments. We repeat this process in the lounge and at the gate, and it works every few times!

(It also may help to be pregnant . . . hubby and I got upgraded to FIRST class on our last flight - all we did was the above, heavy on the politeness during a stressful holiday peak travel period, and mention I was pregnant!) :)

If you have "plenty" of miles, then the best way to assure a seat in business class is to use them to buy a seat in business class -- and that usually requires planning/booking almost a year in advance.

It is worth noting that upgrades using miles/upgradeable fares are capacity controlled, and the airlines will limit these to a few seats in hopes that they can sell as many of the seats as possible. Therefore, paying for an upgradeable ticket may not guarantee a seat in business class. The one time we splurged for upgradeable fares to Europe, the upgrades for our return trip did not clear until 10 days before the flight.

As others have said, if the airlines have complimentary upgrades to give, they usually will look first at passengers with elite status -- and on most flights, there are plenty to choose from. I've never asked for an upgrade without expecting to pay for it, but I have been fortunate to get a few complimentary/operational upgrades from United -- and this has only happened when I've been at least Premier Exec level (50k miles flown the previous year).

Upgradeability on trans-atlantic hauls depends on the airline.

I always fly star alliance, and United and Lufthansa are great in that they allow you to upgrade ANY type of coach ticket to business, provided you're willing to burn the miles. On Lufthansa, it will cost you 35K miles, which is often difficult to part with. For UAL, last year I upgrarded a full-fare coach ticket (IAD-MUC) for only 20K for the one-way.

Also, most importantly, the rules change once you reach an elite tier of an airline's FF program. Complimentary upgrades WILL be given to elite tiers if coach is over-sold. I had been so lucky last Christmas. But for the non-business traveler, it's often difficult to fly 50-100k miles per year to get into the best tiers.

Good points, Riffic - we're also on Star Alliance and fly mostly with United and Lufthansa. I'm Premier Executive and my husband has a gold card (forget the name) - there are so many posts here asking how to get free upgrades I'd forgotten it's their policy.

And all this time, I've been thinking it was my good looks and charm!

In trying to get FF tix (coach <i>or</i> business class on NW I've found they release very, very few nonrev seats on Transtlantic service. I think that's because their thresholds for free seats are 10-20K miles less than Star or OneWorld carriers, going from their website. If you're trying to upgrade a paid ticket using miles, my hunch is that because of those low thresholds, all the nonrev seats are snapped up eons in advance, and you're just arriving late.

My last &quot;free&quot; upgrade occured on a Delta flight back from France. They double booked my seat. I was nice and the man already in it was an XXX. He kept going on about how much he flew DL and therefore he should get the exit row seat etc... If any of this was true he probably should have gotten the upgrade, but I did. Being nice when surrouned by people who think the way to go is to berate the agents has worked for me more then once.

Of course the trick is to make sure you get in line just behind the person who thinks that they are entitlted and yells about it.

CarolA is so right on, if you are to have a shot at first class for free.

In fact, the movie &quot;Catch me if you can&quot; might make a good primer on how to schmooze your way into all kinds of privileges!

Airlines will very very rarely offer an upgrade at check-in unless they have overbooked you, or made some other errors. However, on a quiet flight, the cabin crew may offer you an upgrade.

The reluctance of airlines to offer upgrades at check-in for no reason other than pleasing the customer stems from the fact that the premium class passengers have paid a relatively large sum to be flying premium class. This passenger would naturally resent people simply being offered a seat in the same cabin which they have had to pay as much as 10 times the standard fare for. Thus, it is logical that airlines do not offer upgrades.

I have only flown Cathay Pacific four times long haul - once return Zurich-Tokyo and once return London-Hong Kong. But I have been upgraded (only to business class - but Cathay business class is pretty nice) on every journey - outward and return.

They key:

1) Luck - I must have been extraordinarily lucky and have checked in at the right time
2) Dress - I was not in a suit but was dressed smartly
3) Travelling independently - they are not going to separate a group of travellers
4) Luggage - on these two trips I left my backpack at home and travelled with suitcases
5) Too much luggage - on the way back from Tokyo I had over 40 kilos of luggage. I paid the excess from Tokyo to Hong Kong and was getting worried about how much they would charge for the long haul leg to Zurich. But because I had more than double the agreed limit they upgraded me to business class where the limit is 35 kilos and told me it would be too expensive for me to pay for the excess in economy.

The onloy other airlines that have given me upgrades are BA and Swiss. I am a frequent flyer on BA and so sometimes get upgraded. Swiss, like Cathay, must have over booked but again I was smart and travelling independently.

I have never been upgraded by the cabin crew - always when checking in. I have found that asking generally does not work! They tend to offer it pretty much as soon as you have handed your ticket over at check in if they are going to offer it at all.

Andrea,
Were you REALLY pregnant? Either way it makes me think it would be a good idea to look pregnant! Although my DW, as good as she looks, is a tad past childbearing years.
JoeG

Yes, I really was (and am) pregnant, but I didn't really look it at the time - that's why we actually TOLD them! Wouldn't have the nerve to try it otherwise!

I would say, though, that it's not unheard of for agents at the gate to give upgrades for no reason - it happened to us a number of times (see my strategies above) before we made elite status. But this post makes me very glad we're on Star Alliance with United &amp; Lufthansa, where they'll upgrade you when they have the seats!

Since I always have carryon luggage and have never checked my luggage in, if I were to go to the line where you check in luggage can those agents be helpful in getting you a better seat or just the ones that are at the gate?

I found the following blurb in one of the many newsletters I subscribe to. If this catches on, it will probably end up doing away with upgrades altogether. (The following clip was taken from http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...y/sky.htm#cell)

&quot;First class for the masses: America West is staying ahead of the curve in the rapidly changing state of the airline industry. Today, the airline is expected to announce that it's adding a selection of first-class tickets priced 50%-70% below normal. The gamble: cutting first-class ares will lure high-end leisure travelers who now go discounted economy, and business travelers unable to justify the cost of a normal first-class ticket. One catch, says The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), is that the new fares won't be refundable ? unlike normal first-class tickets. One-way fares between New York and Los Angeles will drop to $499 for one-week advance purchase. That compares to the normal first-class price tag of more than $1,000. In short-haul markets, such as Phoenix to L.A., one-way advance-purchase fares will fall to $149 from $310. The move illustrates the industry' problem of getting passengers to pay for more expensive seats. America West says only about 6% of those in its first-class cabin are paying full fare; many are taken by travelers using frequent-flier miles.&quot;