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Master List Of Airlines To Bid On Business Class Upgrades

Drew MacomberbyDrew Macomber
June 17, 2019
11

Many airlines offer last minute upgrades as an auction / bidding system, and some offer them on sale at check in, or on the app.

Below I made a list of 37 airlines (in alphabetical order) with their paid upgrade policies, and links to how to either check if you’re eligible, bid, or see an explanation of the rules.

Most of these airlines are using the same system for upgrade bidding, but all with slightly different terms.

First, I’ll explain a little bit about the differences of the upgrade bids that airlines generally have, and the other variations for paid upgrades.

Then, after the Master List Of Airline Bid Upgrades, I’ll share some rules and thoughts.

 

Differences in Paid Airline Upgrades: Bidding vs Sales

Bidding Upgrades

The problem with any auction/bidding system is that there’s no way of knowing what you’re bidding against. Are you bidding in an auction with other people? Is there a mystery minimum bid on the route before they’d sell it? That seems likely, but then what’s the minimum?

 

Also, there is one major backend program that runs most all of these upgrades – “PlusGrade”. While airlines that use the system seem to have different terms and timings for upgrades, most have the same format.

With most of the airlines that use PlusGrade as their backend for you to bid on upgrades, you have to be “eligible” to bid for the flight, yet there are usually zero indicators as to what that means. Many just send an email, likely if they have empty seats in business class (or economy is oversold).

The nice thing about the links I provide is that you can usually click through and check if you’re eligible, or just bid, instead of waiting for an email.

 

Paid Discount Upgrades

There’s what I call “Paid Standby” – Asiana is an example, where you pay for your upgrade and if you don’t get the upgrade they refund what you paid. Their prices are often reasonable (and cheaper than a lot of auction results), and therefore worth the risk of having a hold on your card for 5 days.

 

The other paid discount upgrade option is simply paying for the upgrade when they offer online or at check in. For example, British Airways’ system for offering upgrades via the app is interesting (talked about in this FT thread). Most of these, you get an offer to buy an upgrade at a fixed price.

 

Either way, YMMV.

Whether or not there’s an opportunity, or even what the price will be, is all dependent on whether or not there are business class seats available.

 

The Master List Of Paid Airline Upgrades

Airline How? When? Fares? Link Notes
AeroMexico Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Air Canada Bid Submit up to 72 hours before Any? here Uses PlusGrade system
Air Canada
May be offered a paid upgrade at checkin
here Uses PlusGrade system
Air China Bid
Uses PlusGrade system
Air India Sign up for a chance to get a discount (prepay)?
You get notified at boarding gate
here Uses OptionTown system
Air New Zealand Bid/offers here Uses PlusGrade system
Alitalia Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
All Nippon Bid (email to eligible customers is sent 7 days before) Up to 3 days before No awards here Uses PlusGrade system
Asiana Airlines Paid Standby Starts 96 hours before, until 24 hours before Y, B, M, H, E, Q, K here
Avianca
Bid (also says you can ask for paid upgrade at checkin counter)
here Uses PlusGrade system
British Airways
POUG upgrades offered mostly in app (sometimes site)
FlyerTalk Thread
Cathay Bid No awards. here Uses PlusGrade system
Copa Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Czech Airlines Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
EgyptAir Sign up for a chance to get a discount (prepay)?
You get notified at boarding gate
here Uses OptionTown system
EL AL Israel Airlines Bid
Up until 48 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Emirates
relaunching later this year
Ethiopian Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Etihad Bid Until 6 – 10 hours before the flight. No “Economy Deal” (YB / T, E), no awards here Uses PlusGrade system
Fiji Airways Bid
All within 7 to 24 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Garuda Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Hawaiian Bid
Up until 48 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
IcelandAir Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Kenya Airways Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
LATAM Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Lufthansa (and all Miles & More?) Bid
Submit up to 72 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Malaysia Airlines Bid
Submit up to 72 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Qantas Bidding
Starting 7 days before, up to 24 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Qatar
In app / online reservation offers
Royal Jordanian Bid
Max of 15 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Singapore Bid
Within 7 days, upto 50 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
South African
Up to 50 hours before
here Uses PlusGrade system
Sri Lankan Bid here Uses PlusGrade system
Thai Airways Paid Standby Price depends on fare class here
Vietnam Airlines Sign up for a chance to get a discount (prepay)?
You get notified at boarding gate
here Uses OptionTown system
Virgin Atlantic Bid All within 7 to 2 days before Have to book direct on VA here Uses PlusGrade system
Virgin Australia Bid or POUG here Uses PlusGrade system

 

Rules For Bidding / Paid Upgrades

First, note that I did not include premium economy upgrades, as a few airlines had info only on upgrades to premium economy. However, to properly cross compare, everything here is an opportunity to bid on business class, or in a few cases first class as well.

 

Know that every terms and conditions I saw made sure to note that your fare class – determining your miles earned, cancelation policy, etc… – is based on what you paid for. So if you pay for discount economy and pay for a business class upgrade, you still earn miles based on the discount economy.

 

If not obvious, you can only upgrade flights offered and flown by the airline itself. If you used AA miles on a BA flight, you would be looking to upgrade the BA flight.

Some airlines have further rules, like Virgin Atlantic requiring you to book direct.

There may also be fare rules I missed in my research. So my leaving the fare column blank doesn’t mean there are no fare rules, just none I saw.

 

I checked as much as I could and all the ones I left blank had no fare rules.

Again, the majority use the same system which all has similar terms, and never on any of those did I see any rules preventing award tickets from being upgraded. It seems to me that an airline shouldn’t care what fare class you are and that this is just a way to increase revenue, but the terms are non-existent when it comes to fare classes.

 

Conclusion / A Call For Data-Points

I hope this is useful or interesting for someone.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is to wonder if there’s a way to guarantee a cheap upgrade? For example, if you had status and could cancel, and you booked within the window of upgrades… Could you pay, check for upgrades, and then cancel if not? Then try again?

That may be more hassle than it’s worth. But since most are auction / bid based upgrades, obviously that wouldn’t work.

 

Please comment giving your experience. If you have ever bid on an upgrade, please tell me your route, airline, price, and experience. Your small experience will help me get my head around these systems, and help others.

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Comments 11

  1. Dare says:
    3 years ago

    Lis-zrh Tap 117$

    Reply
  2. CTB says:
    3 years ago

    Only data point I have is a week before a Qantas BNE-LAX flight I placed the lowest bid (~$400) and it was accepted a few days later. Upgraded W to J on the 747.

    Reply
  3. Mike says:
    3 years ago

    Aerolinas Argentina as well. This airline seems to be so ignored in general.

    Reply
  4. keith says:
    3 years ago

    Plusgrade is adopted to each airline.

    The “bid price” is different for every passenger.

    The biggest factor is airlines adjusting bid prices to the fare class you paid. Low discount economy will require a much higher minimum bid.

    They also look as frequent flyer status — which “upweights” the bid offer or prioritizes it to be more successful.

    Some airlines allow upgrades on award tickets, some do not.

    Reply
  5. Nico Atienza says:
    3 years ago

    Incredibly useful. Thank you!!!

    Reply
  6. Thomas says:
    3 years ago

    Norwegian can bid to upgrade even on discount econ. pretty good deal.

    Reply
  7. Bear says:
    3 years ago

    I believe SAS has a bidding program

    Reply
  8. LondonFoodie says:
    3 years ago

    I’m pretty sure that on BA upgrade with cash on a cash ticket results in higher class milage and tier points awarded. This is NOT the case for award flights from personal experience.

    Reply
  9. nohohh says:
    3 years ago

    AC lets you bid for an upgrade on a award ticket. gives you an option to submit a bid for premium econ or business class.

    Reply
  10. Dawn Bayer says:
    3 years ago

    Comment:
    I have used bid for an upgrade with Alitalia many times. They allow you to bid on both premium economy and business class at the same time. If I haven’t received the upgrade for business, I have been awarded the premium economy. I have “won” the bid for business or premium economy 8 out of 10 times.

    Questions:
    1. Is the bid for an upgrade available for economy “light”–the economy price where you can only bring a carry-on? I thought you could only bid for an upgrade if you booked a basic economy seat.
    2. Do you have to be a member of the airline’s frequent flyer program to bid on an upgrade?
    3. Can we find out if we can bid on an upgrade before we use an award ticket? Because I want that upgrade on international flights. And this might sound crazy but because of my physical issues the business class seat is more important for me then an award ticket.

    Reply
    • Lizzette says:
      3 years ago

      How quickly were you notified that you won the. bid?
      Did you bid a lot higher than the minimum?
      Do they email you if you don’t get the upgrade and if so, when did you find out?

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