WP Unsolicited J Upgrades

[andrew285]

Hi There,



Was wondering if any WP has received an Unsolicited upgrade to J.

Say the J cabin is empty and no bids. Does VA ever upgrade WPs flying in Y last minute ?

Hasn't happened to me just curious if it's a thing that's all

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to posting on AFF @andrew285 - would you care to expand?

 

[andrew285]

Thanks Rooflyer. My first post and I stuffed it up... hit send before I wrote the message. I've edited my first message to explain what I was actually talking about.

 

[RooFlyer]

They just said “ Cabin is empty, congrats you are now in business”?

That sort of thing ( Op up) used to happen on QF before it got enhanced (except for some P1s, perhaps?)

 

[Quickstatus]

I think you are referring to the "op-up" as in "operational upgrade". Very rare these days because airlines have given passengers multiple opportunities to upgrade with various currencies such as points, cash, or a combo of both - thereby putting a price for an upgrade

If people realise that the airline will fill spare J cabin seats for free, less people will pay for an upgrade. I've seen flights with empty J seats. It is not in the airline's interest to make the price of an upgrade zero.

 

[SYD]

I received an Op Up once on VA many years ago flying MEL-PER. I was both VA and QF WP at the time and I was bemoaning to my PER based colleague the number of QF flights leaving between the time we arrived (earlier than originally booked) and our scheduled VA departure time and lo and behold, we both got pinged at the gate.

 

[Milefest]

I've only ever observed one op up due to an overbooked Y cabin. The lucky WP pax got the tap on the shoulder and was asked to move into the J cabin.

I'm sure there's a variety of other scenarios that would trigger an op up though and the higher status you are, the more likely you are to receive it.

 

[oz_mark]

I've had them on VA, but they are few and far between. More likely due to full economy rather than empty business.

However, these days I think there are enough folk around willing to use points/cash or whatever, that they will remain fairly rare.

 

[SYD]

I've had them on VA, but they are few and far between. More likely due to full economy rather than empty business.

However, these days I think there are enough folk around willing to use points/cash or whatever, that they will remain fairly rare.

The heady days was the PE era. That was a dismal failure with most planes taking off with the first three rows otherwise empty…

 

[Harrison_133]

In my experience, like others have already said, free upgrades on VA only really happen if Y is overbooked. I was upgraded to J on a MEL-OOL flight a couple of months ago. Flight departed 100% full in both cabins. They never actually informed me that I’d been upgraded or why, I just noticed the seat change to 2C on the app. So I’d assume it was an overbooking in Y?

Off topic slightly, but another passenger in J must have been a last minute points upgrade in the lounge because they got the ‘catering not assured’ spiel. Despite also being upgraded last minute, I got a full meal and was the first to be served in 2C. I was pretty content considering I’d booked the Choice fare that was matched to Rex’s $99. Happy days.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

Since the days of domestic business on VA, I can only recall one op-up - and it was after I'd already boarded a BNE-SYD flight. There'd been an aircraft swap from the B737 to the Embraer, which must have meant an oversell. I was in row 3 (front of economy), and the gate agent came on board with a new boarding pass for me - 2A. Soon after, somebody else boarded and took my economy seat. Didn't complain!

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

On my trip VAd ADL - MEL in J, ((burnt points as they call it on here, or used points to get flight)), there was a slightly "disabled lady", there was one J empty seat, and they suddenly brought up the lady's daughter from Y to fill the seat.
I was in 2D, the girl occupied 1C, her mum occupied 1B, and her dad 1A.
I guess it does still happen, on very rare circumstances, as alluded on here, and as to what I have seen on this one occasion.
The J MEL to SYD was 8 full, not sure if they had any op ups, or did they sell the full 8, 2A to D/H, was occupied by a family.
1A was me, and the other 3 were others.
Edit: prior to covid, when I used to fly a lot, there were times when VAd flights J cabin had empty slots, but on the fewer flights I have taken of late, there were never any empty J slots.
Ps, my large(ish) family do buy a lot of food items from Coles and stuff from Bunnings, so that is how my points build up.
Occasionally, I do pay for VAd J.

 

[PPOW]

I actually had this happen to me a few weeks ago on a BNE-MEL for the first time.
I was on a reward Y fare and had myself in row 5. During boarding I was paged and upgraded to row 2. Wasn't given the catering spiel but was served last.

My original seat remained empty and J was full with me.

Couldn't figure it out but was certainly a nice surprise.

 

[AIRwin]

I was in 2D, the girl occupied 1C, her mum occupied 1B, and her dad 1A.

But Business class has no B seats?

 

[samas]

I have been op-up'd only once about 3 years ago.

Monday early morning peak there was a ~0545 and a ~0700 service PER-KGI
Both were economy only Fokker 100s.
I was booked on the first one which the service was cancelled.
They ended up changing the ~0700 service to a B737 and Y was completely full with pax from both the 0545 and 0700 services combined.

I got a page in the lounge to see reception and they had a new boarding pass in J for me.
Was myself in 1A and another chap in 1C (corrected from 1B). Other 6 J seats emtpy.

To my amazement my fare class on my new boarding pass was actually J - so got the full business status credits. We both had full catering great breakfast which also amazed me - I was anticipating it was just going to be a J seat with Y service with the service recovery.
Cabin manager offered we could spread out and move anywhere within the business cabin if we liked but such a short flight neither of us was worried.
Chatted to the pax in 1B and they had actually picked up themselves of the flight being changed to 737 and did himself a platinum upgrade from the flex fare. I had originally assumed they were op-up like me.




Another time about 5 years ago I can distinctly remember was flying ADL-PER on the saturday morning on commencement of school holidays. I was flex fare that had used a Platinum upgrade to J a few weeks earlier. Economy was 100% occupied with a lot of children. I was the ONLY one in J. Was quite a thrill being the only one in business with Y full. The magnetic rope was up and the crew enforced the J toilet. Was interesting when I walked out of MY toilet (shared with the crew only) and see down the back of the plane a queue of Y pax for the rear toilets.
Was very grateful they didn't bump up others to J unnecessarily!



Another time flying MEL-PER on the A332 I had a Platinum upgrade of my flex fare, but was at the gate just before boarding and could see the gate staff cast eyes over the pax waiting. They approached an elderly lady and asked to see her boarding pass and asked about anyone she was travelling with to which she advised her Grandson and they took both the boarding passes.
Gate staff came back to them a few minutes later and gave them both new J boarding passes and explained economy was over full or similar (can't remember exact words).
The grandma and grandson appeared such lovely people and were seated within view (I was row 5) - and I enjoyed watching them be delighted with the J service.

 

[AIRwin]

Was myself in 1A and another chap in 1B.

1C not 1B?

 

[MattA]

Only ever experienced an op up on VA once: this must have been about 8/9 years ago flying the A330 from PER - MEL. Travelling with my wife, who was WP at the time (I didn't have any status then). We were sitting in the bulkhead row at the front of Y. Just settling into our seats when one of the staff approached us: "excuse me, we've got a gentleman at the back of the plane who can't fit into his seat. Would you mind awfully if.... we moved him here and moved you two into Business?" We were of course long gone before the passenger in question moved forward so never got to thank him for whatever he'd done to kick off this chain of events, but we were very happy settling into those lie flat seats.

Sadly those widebodies are no more and I suspect your chances of ever getting bumped up on a 737 with only 8 J seats are pretty much slim to none.

The only other time I've ever experienced an op up in my flying career was about 20 years ago flying BOS - LGW with VS. I would have been on the cheapest discounted Y fare there was. At the gate and just about ready to board when I was called up to the desk. Boarding pass taken off me, torn up and one handed back to me with "UPPER CLASS" written on it. No idea why or how, although on the way over I had been randomly selected to do an inflight survey. I was doing a moderate amount of transatlantic travel at that time (all in Y), but I may have slightly overstated how much of it was with BA in my responses. Might just have been a total coincidence with them needing to bump a single traveller out of an overbooked Y cabin, but always wondered if something ended up being flagged on my ticket as a result.

 

[Bagpuss]

I've had two experiences both a long time ago.

Perth to Darwin. The had no-one in business class and "upgraded" 6 people to the business class section. The flight was oversold so they catered for everyone. They offered only the economy service and allowed anyone to use the front toilet. Upgrade occurred when checking in at the lounge.

Perth to Sydney. Was paged in the lounge as was upgraded to business with usual business class service.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

But Business class has no B seats?

C and F then.