# Flight Upgrade Free



## James Casey (24 Jan 2007)

Three of us are off to Japan in March on Aer Lingus/Lufthansa. Anyone know of how to obtain an upgrade from Economy to higher? Its must be legitmate - none of us has a birthday or similar occurring. Thanks!


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## Barley (24 Jan 2007)

We got upgraded to Premium Economy on Virgin Atlantic. Tbh, there's not much difference between it and a good, well-chosen seat in Economy. Check out seat guru for how to pick a good economy class seat, just in case!


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## EvilDoctorK (24 Jan 2007)

James Casey said:


> Three of us are off to Japan in March on Aer Lingus/Lufthansa. Anyone know of how to obtain an upgrade from Economy to higher? Its must be legitmate - none of us has a birthday or similar occurring. Thanks!



Pay for it ! Seriously unless you get lucky (and as stated it does happen occasionally - though it's much more likely to happen if you've got frequent flyer status or are on an expensive ticket) the only way to guarantee an upgrade is to pay for it.  Either by upgrading your ticket to a higher class, or some airlines sometimes have upgrade fees that you can pay on the day / on board (not sure if Lufthansa do this - don't think so).

Good luck in Lufthansa Economy class - it's pretty grim - bring a good book.


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## colin79ie (24 Jan 2007)

I would pay for an upgrade. I did a flight to Chile with Lufthansa, 17 hrs, and it was the longest ever. All the food was german, the movies were in german with spanish subtitles etc. I got upgraded after a stopover in Buenos Airies for fuel, but I had to go to a store and buy camera film for the stewardess' first.


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## zag (24 Jan 2007)

I've heard that Lufthansa economy class long haul is something to be endured rather than enjoyed, but in fairness you can't blame a german airline flying from Germany for serving german food and showing german films.

z


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## redchariot (24 Jan 2007)

I got bumped up myself on a BA flight from Heathrow to LA (ironically I was late at the connections desk due to long queues in the flight connections centre). This was due to economy being full. Apparently this is the only circumstance where you could be bumped up where your current class level is full; if economy has empty seats, forget it.


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## bond-007 (24 Jan 2007)

Any idea how much such an upgrade would cost?


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## ciara_gmail (25 Jan 2007)

Was upgraded for free to business class on Qantas flying from Frankfurt - Singapore. Just started chatting to the guy at the check in desk who mentioned there were some spaces if we'd like them. Wasn't first class but way better than economy...nice experience! 

Only time I got bumped up to 1st class was on Aer Lingus from NY to Dublin. We had offered to go on a later flight as some people needed to get home in an emergency for a sick relative. Would take business class on Qantas any day


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## EvilDoctorK (25 Jan 2007)

bond-007 said:


> Any idea how much such an upgrade would cost?



Not cheap at all on British Airways anyway .. I think you're looking at about £700 one way to go from World Traveller Plus (Economy Plus) to Club World (Business) class if you buy the upgrade on board  (I think it costs about £200 to move from World Traveller to World Traveller Plus - which isn't really worth it for the marginal extra comfort in my opinion)... 

I think sometimes you can buy upgrades a bit cheaper at check in in the USA for BA flights ... but still no bargain

Buying a discounted / advance purchase business class ticket would generally work out cheaper than trying to upgrade via this method.


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