Dear Joel,

I read your book last month and thought I'd put your advice regarding airline upgrades to the test on a recent trip to Thailand. I am a pretty frequent traveler (at least two international trips a year) and a frequent flyer with both Air France and British Airways. On the trip in question, my wife and I flew BA from New York to Paris and Air France from Paris to Bangkok. On each leg of the trip I asked to be upgraded to business class (or at least put on the waitlist). In each case, however, I was told that so long as economy class was not oversold, there would be no upgrades to business class. I spoke to several representatives with each airline (at the ticket counter and the gate) but was met with the same response each time. The BA reps told me that it was partly because they did not have any extra business class meals. When I said I'd be happy to take an economy class meal, she informed me that they were "required by law" to serve all business class passengers business class meals.

In the end, we were only upgraded on one segment of our trip and only because they had oversold economy and were forced to upgrade many economy class passengers.

In short, I felt like the requests I was making were falling on stone deaf ears, despite mentioning my frequent flyer status and the appreciation I would show were they to upgrade us.

What am I doing wrong?

Finally, I didn't follow one point in your book. You say that the airlines keep track of your flying record and in what class you fly. If you are upgraded at the airport, however, will your record show that you flew business class? What about if you use miles to upgrade your ticket? If not, it makes it harder to argue that you "always fly business class."

Thanks very much,
Kevin Lyman

Dear Kevin,

First I would like to thank you for reading my book and putting the advice to the test, as well as asking such a great question. Your trip to Thailand presented a real challenge for getting upgraded. You had a few factors going against you: first, being on an international flight; and second, being on an international carrier (British Air). International flights on international carriers are, in my experience, the toughest route to securing an upgrade. However, I can offer a few suggestions. It is very common for the airlines to say that they only have enough business class meals for the business class passengers on board, and that each business class passenger must be served a business class meal. Often if the plane has not left the gate the airline can arrange to load an additional business class meal, so this is really a mute point. With respect to the airline representatives turning a deaf ear to your request, I have often been in the same situation. To elicit their interest, I simply ask what it will take for me to be upgraded, i.e. what is the additional fee? Or how many miles would it take? On most occasions if you pose this question to the gate agent, they will see that you sincerely desire an upgrade. Most of the time, it becomes too confusing for the gate agent to figure out how many miles would be required, or it is especially difficult to determine what the additional cost would be, so they might just upgrade you for no additional miles or cost. Alternatively, you might have an experience similar to one I had, in which it cost me a mere $7.00 to upgrade to first class. In any event, try to wait until the end of the boarding process and then verify that there are still seats left in business/first class. Moreover, at the end of the boarding process the gate agents will not have a swarm of people vying for their attention, and will want to get the plane out of the gate, so maybe youl just get lucky.

To answer your second question, even if you use miles or another means to upgrade, the actual flight record shows the class of service in which you flew. So keep trying for those in your recent case, at least one flight was upgraded.

Good flying.
Joel