Date: January 24, 2000
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,
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.
From: Kevin Lyman
To: Penny Pincher
Subject: Airline Upgrade Difficulty
Kevin Lyman
Joel
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