Upgrades

My colleague and I were both on QF2 and requested upgrades using our business account. He’s Qantas Gold while I’m Platinum, but he ended up getting upgraded to Premium at the gate and my upgrade didn’t go through. We were originally on the same booking, but I split the...

I booked a roundtrip from Denver to Japan on Hawaiian Airlines and was offered an Extra Comfort upgrade for $300 each way. I’m 24 and generally handle long flights pretty well, but I’ve never flown Hawaiian or done this route before. For those who’ve flown Hawaiian’s 787-9, is...

Quick question for the SAS pros. Let’s say I book economy between North America and Europe and it earns 1400 level points. If I then win a money upgrade bid to economy premium and get the extra 1500 “upgrade incentive” level points, would that mean I end up with 2900 total? And...

Diamond member here, mostly Europe flying with a couple US trips per year. Last week I flew to Newark and bid the minimum for an upgrade to Premium. It cleared. When I boarded, I noticed quite a few empty seats in Premium. So now I’m wondering: Would SAS ever automatically...

Was on a LAS to MSP flight sitting in first class and noticed the seat next to me stayed empty the entire flight. There didn’t seem to be any equipment issues, and the flight was roughly 90% full overall. Even the flight attendant mentioned it’s pretty rare to see an empty first...

We’re sailing Virgin for the first time in a couple months. Booked a balcony and I called to upgrade to a Seriously Suite for our TA. Rep quoted me a price. I agreed. We were literally in the middle of processing it when she said she was having computer issues and put me on...

Got automatically upgraded to first class at the gate today on my flight to the mainland. I used to be Pualani Platinum / now Atmos Gold, and under the old system you had to request upgrades online, deal with expiring certs, call customer service, or use miles. This time it just...

I have a flight coming up from SFO to SJD and we’re a group of 4 currently near the top of the upgrade list. If there aren’t 4 upgrade seats available, will United still upgrade 1–3 of us, or do they usually treat it as all or nothing for groups? Just trying to understand how it...

Looking at a direct LAX to CDG flight and noticed the price jump from Premium Economy to Business was huge when booking. Business was more than double and over $12k total. Because of that I booked Premium Economy instead. I’m wondering if Air France sometimes offers paid...

Work at a full service Marriott with about 200 rooms and only 4 suites, and it’s interesting how often guests assume front desk staff are intentionally blocking upgrades. The reality is most of the time upgrades are easy to give and cost the front desk nothing. The problem is...

I’m 1K and keep trying to use PlusPoints, but I almost never clear. Meanwhile there are Polaris seats sitting there if I want to just pay cash. Starting to feel like 1K only gets me pre boarding and not much else. And even that is barely different from Group 1. Is there actually...

Flying Saturday BOS to SAN. First class only has 2 seats taken right now. I’m MVP Silver so I’m not expecting a complimentary upgrade. Offer in the app is $490, which feels high considering how empty it looks. Do these buy up prices usually drop closer to departure? Or does...

I’m Executive Platinum, wife is Gold. Day before the flight I clear the upgrade, but they split her onto a separate record locator when they did it. That dropped her to 7th on the waitlist the morning of departure. One seat opened and #1 got it. In the end I gave her my upgrade,...

Heading home mid October and only seeing economy awards unless I want to burn 200k+ for biz. So looking at either Icelandair via KEF (A321/neo) or Alaska via SEA (787). Both in economy. For those who’ve done them, is there a noticeable difference in seat comfort or overall...

Frontier Airlines has announced plans to upgrade several parts of its customer experience over the next couple of years. According to remarks from Frontier Group Holdings’ Q4 2025 earnings call, the airline plans to roll out first class seating across the fleet, introduce...

Had a pretty wild upgrade surprise on a recent SFO to HNL flight. Checked the upgrade list about 24 hours before departure and I was somewhere around #25, so I figured there was basically zero chance. There were only a handful of first class seats left. About 6 hours before the...

Had one of those weird AA moments today. I was first on the upgrade list at boarding but the app showed zero seats left in first, so I just went to my seat and figured it didn’t clear. Then the last passenger boards, looks confused, talks to the flight attendant, and she just...

Flying to the US next week and already booked in SAS Plus. Just noticed the upgrade bidding option and it starts at 3,100 DKK. Trying to figure out if that’s actually worth it for this route. Has anyone here done the upgrade from Plus to Business on CPH–LAX? Also curious how...

A few key points with Emirates upgrades: Fare type matters a lot. Flex (or Flex Plus) fares generally require fewer Skywards miles to upgrade and are more upgrade eligible. Saver fares can be restricted or require more miles. So yes, booking Economy Flex instead of the cheapest...