# Air France upgrade



## Saudi (5 Feb 2008)

Hi

Does anyone know if it's possible to pay for an upgrade to Business Class from Economy on the day of departure with Air France??

I know you can do this with Aer Lingus and it's only a couple of hundred euro extra for transatlantic flights if you pay at check in.

Flying from Dublin to Johannesburg (via Paris) with Air France and would be great to upgrade.

Cheers

S


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## EvilDoctorK (5 Feb 2008)

Yes possibly but it will cost you quite a bit I would imagine - as far as I know Air France don't have a pay to upgrade at checkin option like some airlines do.

However the cheapest business class round trip fare published by Air France is €2243 round trip (+tax) from Dublin - Jo'Burg  ("ZIERT" fare code). There's no advance purchase requirement on this fare (so theoretically could be done on day of departure which is good), but it books into a restrictive fare class which may not be available that close to departure.

Assuming it is available and your ticket is upgradeable then you might be able to pay the difference (not sure if you could pay 1/2 the difference to upgrade one way but it's worth asking)

I'd give Air France a call to ask rather  - worst they can say is no - I would do this rather than (or as well as) asking at checkin in Dublin.


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## Saudi (5 Feb 2008)

Evil Doc, that's great, thanks for the help.  

Our return flights were only €750 including tax so that's a fair whack to pay for the upgrade!  I might call them closer to the date, we're going on our honeymoon so might play that card as well and see if there is anything they can do.


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## shesells (5 Feb 2008)

AFAIK you can't pay to upgrade on the day with Air France, you need to do it at least 24 hours before departure and you will have to pay the full fare difference. 

AF will leave empty seats in Business rather than fill them with people who haven't paid business fares or upgraded with miles.

Recently flew Business with them to Asia and there were loads of empty seats on the way out. To be honest, I wouldn't be too happy paying a Business fare and having somone who paid a third of what I did land up beside me.


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## Saudi (5 Feb 2008)

How would you know what they paid Sheshells and why would you care?  

I look very presentable!


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## Sunny (5 Feb 2008)

shesells said:


> To be honest, I wouldn't be too happy paying a Business fare and having somone who paid a third of what I did land up beside me.


 
Why? I would applaud them for getting the good deal. I travel business alot but I never pay for it and most people I know are the same. So most people are in no position to turn their nose up at people just becasue they got a good deal.


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## Jock04 (5 Feb 2008)

shesells said:


> To be honest, I wouldn't be too happy paying a Business fare and having somone who paid a third of what I did land up beside me.


 

Why? Do you also have something against someone buying, say, the same coat as you for a better price? They are maybe taking a chance in waiting for a sale -and maybe missing out - or they are maybe just good hagglers. What difference does it make to you?

Ref Air France, in my experience you have little to no chance of a "honeymoon flight" upgrade. Speaking fluent French & having a bunch of frequent flyer points to cash in might help.
On a more positive note, their modern 747's are pretty good & their service was very good indeed.


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## shesells (5 Feb 2008)

Jock04 said:


> Why? Do you also have something against someone buying, say, the same coat as you for a better price? They are maybe taking a chance in waiting for a sale -and maybe missing out - or they are maybe just good hagglers. What difference does it make to you?


 
No, but as a frequent traveller and poster on various airline fora - it is staggering the number of people who think they can pay the cheapest economy fare and then upgrade for free/a fraction of the full ticket price.

If you want to travel business class, buy a business class ticket. Yes there are upgrades to be had unless economy is oversold and all passengers check in, they are rarely given to people without frequent flyer status or at least flying on one of their more expensive economy tickets. As I said, AF leave empty seats in business rather than fill when not necessary.

As for the honeymoon thing, the OP is on a routing likely to have plenty of "honeymooning couples" so it is unlikely/though not impossible that AF may make some sort of gesture.


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## Sunny (5 Feb 2008)

shesells said:


> No, but as a frequent traveller and poster on various airline fora - it is staggering the number of people who think they can pay the cheapest economy fare and then upgrade for free/a fraction of the full ticket price.
> 
> If you want to travel business class, buy a business class ticket. Yes there are upgrades to be had unless economy is oversold and all passengers check in, they are rarely given to people without frequent flyer status or at least flying on one of their more expensive economy tickets. As I said, AF leave empty seats in business rather than fill when not necessary.
> 
> As for the honeymoon thing, the OP is on a routing likely to have plenty of "honeymooning couples" so it is unlikely/though not impossible that AF may make some sort of gesture.


 
But the question remains what has it got to do with you what anyone paid for their ticket? Do you ask someone sitting beside you how much they paid to make sure they are worthy?


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## orka (5 Feb 2008)

Sunny said:


> But the question remains what has it got to do with you what anyone paid for their ticket? Do you ask someone sitting beside you how much they paid to make sure they are worthy?


For me, it's not so much that someone sitting next to me may have paid less but that they are sitting there at all - if I've paid full-fare business and there are spare seats (which there usually are), I would prefer they were left empty to give more room to spread my stuff.  On some routes I've got so used to having no-one next to me that it's annoying when someone DOES sit next to me - and, irrational or not, I would find it doubly annoying if they'd invaded my space on a cheap upgrade - because if the airline hadn't allowed the cheap upgrade there would be no-one there!


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## Sunny (5 Feb 2008)

orka said:


> For me, it's not so much that someone sitting next to me may have paid less but that they are sitting there at all - if I've paid full-fare business and there are spare seats (which there usually are), I would prefer they were left empty to give more room to spread my stuff. On some routes I've got so used to having no-one next to me that it's annoying when someone DOES sit next to me - and, irrational or not, I would find it doubly annoying if they'd invaded my space on a cheap upgrade - because if the airline hadn't allowed the cheap upgrade there would be no-one there!


 
But you could argue the same in economy with regards to people who pay €1 for a seat and others who paid €200 for a seat. Buy two seats if you don't want anyone sitting beside you. Does sound a bit irrational!!


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## Saudi (5 Feb 2008)

I'm surprised more airlines don't offer the opportunity to pay towards an upgrade at last minute, I would think it makes a lot of sense financially.

If I do manage to get the upgrade I won't tell anyone about in business class in case I upset people.....


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## jhegarty (6 Feb 2008)

You may also want to asking a frequent flyer board like http://www.flyertalk.com/ 

(no connection to the site)


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