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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.