Dear Joel,

I'm in a desperate situation so I'm resorting to this desperate mean. First of all, I would like to mention that your website is one of the most resourceful ones that I have encountered and I truly appreciate all that you have advised to others.

I hope that you can reply to this desperate email within one week as I am without a reservation to fly back to Korea. Some things I do have:

1. An open ticket for economy class. This should be counted as a full price ticket, right? I always purchase open tickets every year from Singapore to Korea to Boston.
2. I have been using Korean Air before the flyer mile program even came out!

Some things that are a problem:

1. Korean Air is fully booked on economy class for the next two WEEKS!
2. So is business class! Except for the flight on Thursday.

Could you take me step by step [through] how I should approach this?

Shall I call the airline company and be put on the waiting list for economy? And then at the front gate request an upgrade using your technique of asking for mileage usage and price? Or shall I request the upgrade over the phone? Is it too much to request a first class upgrade at first? Whose name and supervisor name and address should I ask for in order to cajole them into giving me an upgrade?

You are the only hope I have as no one else can provide any answers to my questions.

Thank you for taking a look at this email.

Sincerely, Jae

Hi Jae,

This is an excellent question and the kind of challenge that I thrive on. First, I assume that Thursday is a bad day for you to fly, and that you need a flight on a different day.

Your first step is to realize that you have pretty good leverage in this situation. Your strengths include ostensibly having a full-fare ticket, a history of loyalty, and some flexibility.

So here is what to do: reserve the flight for Thursday, then ask to be put on the waitlist for your preferred day. The next step is to secure an upgrade. To do this simply ask to be put on the waitlist or even ask to be confirmed in first class. Some helpful tips are to get the name of ALL helpful representatives and explain that you would like to write them a letter for being so nice to you. Be sure to let them know that you really need to get back and anything they could do would be very helpful. If you strike out with the regular representatives, then ask for a supervisor. You might want to begin with a supervisor just to make things go more quickly. In all of your communications with the airline, be sure to stress that you are a loyal consumer and that you plan on being a loyal consumer. Stress your intent to repurchase if they can help you.

This is a situation in which persistence will pay off. So continue to call the airline frequently to check on your status, and confirm your flight and upgrade. If youe running into road blocks, then call the airline corporate office, and explain your situation in detail, continuing to stress your past and future loyalty.

I think you will find that with these steps your situation is not all that desperate, and youl likely be enjoying a nice first class flight back to Korea.

Please let me know how this works out for you!

All the best,
Joel