My stepdaughters husband got flights back from Jamaica 1st class for £35 extra (from cattle) for both of them all because of a misprint on BA’s website.

Been upgraded twice, once on ba from premium economy to business (woo hoo!), and once on american from business to first (meh). Was a frequent flyer and on an expensive flexible ticket both times. I’ve paid for an upgrade a couple of times on short haul flights. If you have a flexible ticket (i.e. your company paid) then its sometimes only 20 quid or so.

once on american from business to first (meh).

I turned down an upgrade from Business to First on American as the business seat in their 777-3s is way better than the First one! I also turned down an upgrade to First on BA. I had 62K for a long flight over the top, and was offered 5E. Not as good for a day flight, as I like the views! They did look after me very well, though….

I was platinum with Continental a few years back. They offered upgrades based on status and ticket on US domestic flights so for me that meant every flight I got on. I did avoid flights that I had no chance such as the first morning flight out of New York. The 11 o’clock would be fine.

The first time it happened the flight actually got delayed by about 3 hours so straight back into the lounge for beers followed by a bottle of wine on the flight. I was with 2 colleagues and we had a connection that happened to be on an E145 which is pretty small. We thought we’d miss it but wandered along to the gate to check and they’d held it about 20 minutes for us. The glares from the other passengers as we bumped into just about everyone as we took the best seats whilst reeking of booze were pretty intense.

Trans Atlantic I got upgraded once when an air traffic problem caused me to miss the connection having run through the airport and nearly puked at the gate. I went back and found another passenger I’d been chatting to and got him into the lounge for a free beer session before going to a hotel.

A colleague used to know an airport worker and was upgraded every single trans Atlantic flight for 200 duty free cigs delivered on the way back through.

General experience is that airline staff are so fed up with the requests that they just blank you. Best hope is a full flight and luck.

20 years of frequent flying and my preference is staying at home

Not quite 20 years, but this.

I’ve been gold with Qantas for the past few years, always with my Dr title thanks to work travel agents. Usually get a nice seat in economy, occasionally a front row, but that’s the lot. Emirates codeshares always singled me out for a special “hello” and feigned interest in my wellbeing, but apart from lounge upgrades from the business lounge to 1st occasionally in Asian hubs, never had an upgrade on the plane. The only time I’ve actually seen it at all was when Emirates had clearly stuffed up a colleague’s booking and they didn’t have a seat for her. That pleased her a lot more than the likely stranding in Dubai which was looking like her only option for a couple of hours…

My father is frequent flier with Emirates, but in 20 years of heading to India, Australia and New Zealand with them, he was upgraded once.
My grandfather managed it more often, pre-2000’s. He always turned up in cream linen suit, Grandma wearing a nice new frock, and basically charmed his way in. But then my grandparents had traveled that much that they probably knew the crew members mother or something, from Hong Kong in 1967 or something…

Sorry, thought this was about sex on aircraft.

BA silver card at the moment, have been gold for a year.
Two upradeson BA from business to first transatlantic
One upgrade on AA from business to first transatlantic
One massive upgrade from Osaka to Dubai business to first (that was great!)
Five or so economy to business in Europe (a complete waste!)
Four of us economy to premium economy to Kenya.

Golden rule: join the frequent flyer scheme, travel lots and be a single traveller and dont have any special requests (gluten free etc) as they will NEVER upgrade you as they will not have the meal for you!
When we were upgraded to Kenya my wife and girls had only just been registered but we were all members of the exec club so that qualified or as cited before get on great terms with member of the crew..prefereably the ones driving!

Deadslow, I can guest you in to the fLounge if you like…! 🙂

Valid point re Frequent Flyer schemes. However, they also look at spend and cabin patterns, not just status. So, someone who earns their gold card exclusively on full fare business or first will “rank” higher than someone who’s got it through lots of bargain economy or PE.

Also, BA specific, they have a Customer Value Score. I believe other airlines use similar. This factors in other things beyond spend, miles travelled, cabin etc, including things as simple as, “Is this passenger a decent person or a bit of a dick?” Someone in the former scores higher than the latter, and is treated better accordingly.

So, when travelling, as with all elements of life, remember Rule One – Don’t be a dick.