EY Upgrade Auction

[IrishPete]

I have paid maybe maybe 12 J flights in the last year and never been offered a paid upgrade . just booked for the weekend so lets see if they offer this time.
would not pay $1200 though, Id rather use 58k for AUH SYD.
I cant quite figure if I do buy the upgrade do i get all the F pts ( inc the present 4 times the pts instead of 3 X in J as that may be worth the extra)

Am pretty sure you get a much lesser number of points for the upgrade, just as you don't get the chauffeur drive car etc.

Am flying in 11 days and am waiting with baited breath for my upgrade auction offer... Have already upgraded one leg with points, but would like to fly Business Class for the long leg too!

 

[IrishPete]

Just got my upgrade offer email for journey commencing on 6th August. Minimum bid for Sydney to Abu Dhabi, to upgrade from Economy to Business, is $1220. Will probably go for it.

Already upgraded Abu Dhabi to Dublin with points, and hoping to be able to do the same on the way back from Abu Dhabi to Perth. Will leave the Dublin to Abu Dhabi leg alone for now it's quite short and tolerable in Economy for a daytime flight when sleep is unnatural - for the record the minimum bid is $745, and for Abu Dhabi to Perth is $1115. Note these are from a really cheap Economy fare, which might make a difference (though no-one has ever mentioned that before).

Upgrade from Perth to Sydney (on Virgin) is not available, not surprisingly.

 

[RAM]

Just got my upgrade offer email for journey commencing on 6th August. Minimum bid for Sydney to Abu Dhabi, to upgrade from Economy to Business, is $1220. Will probably go for it.

Already upgraded Abu Dhabi to Dublin with points, and hoping to be able to do the same on the way back from Abu Dhabi to Perth. Will leave the Dublin to Abu Dhabi leg alone for now it's quite short and tolerable in Economy for a daytime flight when sleep is unnatural - for the record the minimum bid is $745, and for Abu Dhabi to Perth is $1115. Note these are from a really cheap Economy fare, which might make a difference (though no-one has ever mentioned that before).

Upgrade from Perth to Sydney (on Virgin) is not available, not surprisingly.

You should check:

- the current upgrade at airport cost - should be USD 750 (from any economy fare to business) - that's what we paid 2 Decembers back.
- how many business class seats are still available for your flight &,
- if it is not too far in the future (& not something like school holidays etc) how many seats remain available on the same flight but 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks in advance and monitor how many remain unsold on the actual day of travel. So you can see how many disappear to see if you need to pay-up or just wait for airport purchase upgrade.

For a Dec school holiday flight I got 5 seats from discount economy to business for USD750.

BUT - the exchange rate they used to convert the USD to AUD was worse than Travelex. Still it would leave around $400 below the min bid you've mentioned.

 

[IrishPete]

Ta. I just tried FlightStats and it showed NO availability in Business, but did show 4 seats available in Business under the Air Berlin codeshare! (Sunday 6th July at 1450 if you want to check!)

 

[RAM]

Ta. I just tried FlightStats and it showed NO availability in Business, but did show 4 seats available in Business under the Air Berlin codeshare! (Sunday 6th July at 1450 if you want to check!)

Try a dummy booking on for 4 business seats NOT using your normal browser. Ideally you have both IE and another one. Always search using browser A and book using browser B to help reduce the cookie effect.

Be interesting to see if the seats magically appear in browser 2's search.

 

[IrishPete]

Actually, trying with the same browser showed as many as 5 seats available = 2 at Business Value and 3 at Business Freedom fares. So Flightstats appears to be wrong.

 

[IrishPete]

My offer for an upgrade to Business Class on the Sydney to Abu Dhabi leg tomorrow at 1450 was turned down! But there is still Business Class availability showing for the flight, so I will try again at check-in. Anyone know if I should ask at the check-in desk or the enquiries desk?

 

[RAM]

My offer for an upgrade to Business Class on the Sydney to Abu Dhabi leg tomorrow at 1450 was turned down! But there is still Business Class availability showing for the flight, so I will try again at check-in. Anyone know if I should ask at the check-in desk or the enquiries desk?

Ask them to 'Please' tell you how much to upgrade to business from economy.

Nothing special, it is a normal item they offer (as do pretty much all airlines) at the airport rather than fly the higher revenue seat empty. It has been USD 750 for some time now. The exchange rate they use to convert is worse than travelex though (6% spread) so be ready for the shock.

Tyr getting them to charge your cc in USD not Australian Dollars.

 

[IrishPete]

Ask them to 'Please' tell you how much to upgrade to business from economy.

Nothing special, it is a normal item they offer (as do pretty much all airlines) at the airport rather than fly the higher revenue seat empty. It has been USD 750 for some time now. The exchange rate they use to convert is worse than travelex though (6% spread) so be ready for the shock.

Tyr getting them to charge your cc in USD not Australian Dollars.

AU$1275 and some cents, only $50 more than the lowest bid in the auction, so I paid up. It was not offered in US$.

 

[markis10]

Actually, trying with the same browser showed as many as 5 seats available = 2 at Business Value and 3 at Business Freedom fares. So Flightstats appears to be wrong.

Like all the sites the availability will vary by point of sale, I am guessing flightstats looks at buckets available for sale ex US.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

AU$1275 and some cents, only $50 more than the lowest bid in the auction, so I paid up. It was not offered in US$.

Prices have gone up quite a lot!

 

[RAM]

AU$1275 and some cents, only $50 more than the lowest bid in the auction, so I paid up. It was not offered in US$.

Using their bad spread for conversion that looks like the price was USD 1,100.

 

[mikenz]

Last November the same upgrade at the lowest bid was US$1000. Looks like it's gone up a bit.

Incidentally - I booked a one way flight from Syd - LHR today with the first sector on VA. I was offered the chance to bid for an upgrade on the VA leg immediately after booking. The flight is in September and the bid is from PE to Bus. The lowest bid is $600.

 

[justcallmeryan]

Just placed a bid for Y to J for an upcoming SYD - LHR - MUC - SYD trip next week. Minimum bids have gone up a bit since last time I did this in 2012! This time around $1200 or so minimum for the SYD - AUH and back legs, around $1000 for the AUH - LHR and $800 for MUC - AUH.

I decided to not bid for the shorter trips as otherwise the total ticket cost would have been in the $5K range!!!

Still worth it for the long legs though.. I'll report back if successful.

Cheers.

 

[747sardine]

HI there

Bid $1000 MEL-AUH and $800 AUH-LHR this weekend. Both cleared J to F (and in AUD). Looking forward to a drink-a-thon

Cheers
Sardine

 

[IrishPete]

Couldn't you have had a drinkathon in Business Class?

Looks like the Business to First upgrades might be cheaper than Economy to Business.

 

[RAM]

Couldn't you have had a drinkathon in Business Class?

Looks like the Business to First upgrades might be cheaper than Economy to Business.

Check out the empty seat numbers as a better guide. Now still in Ramadan - so cuts their numbers - useful to consider if travel times are flexible!
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[747sardine]

Couldn't you have had a drinkathon in Business Class?

Looks like the Business to First upgrades might be cheaper than Economy to Business.

Well I could have but the Rose Champagne in First was pretty special You can assured I drank for team.

 

[justcallmeryan]

Just placed a bid for Y to J for an upcoming SYD - LHR - MUC - SYD trip next week. Minimum bids have gone up a bit since last time I did this in 2012! This time around $1200 or so minimum for the SYD - AUH and back legs, around $1000 for the AUH - LHR and $800 for MUC - AUH.

I decided to not bid for the shorter trips as otherwise the total ticket cost would have been in the $5K range!!!

Still worth it for the long legs though.. I'll report back if successful.

Cheers.

Just back from the above trip. I was successful in my bid for Y to J on SYD - AUH on EY455 (9.50pm departure). I bid $1250 for this leg which was just above the minimum. J was completely full (European summer and all that).

For the return leg I bid $1650 for a Y to J upgrade on AUH - SYD on EY450 (10am departure). I was also successful on this bid - although the confirmation came very late. When I arrived to check in for the first leg in MUC they advised me that I would have to collect my boarding pass for the second leg at the gate as they had to speak to Abu Dhabi about some operational issue. After a couple of beers in the amazing beer garden at MUC airport, I went through security and to the gate, to be told that due to the flight being oversold, I had been upgraded to FIRST! So essentially, totally by fluke, my $1650 upgrade bid got me from Y to FIRST. I'm sure this is an anomaly but I'm not complaining!

Overall, it was a great flight home and worth every penny.

 

[IrishPete]

My bid for Economy to Business upgrade on my return flight from Dublin to Abu Dhabi was successful, having bid $750 which was just about the minimum possible. I upgraded the Abu Dhabi to Perth leg with points, and will just have to slum it with Virgin from Perth to Sydney (although from memory, the code-share International passengers get treated slightly better than anyone else).

I am not 100% sure 750 bucks is worth it for the 7 hours duration, but I think I'm addicted to Business Class now, or allergic to Economy, one or the other or both.

All in, the Business Class return from Sydney to Dublin has cost me under $4000 by using a mixture of points upgrades, auction upgrades, and paid upgrade at check-in. And a very cheap economy fare (less than $1900),