Can you upgrade on check in paying cash.card?

[smckay]

I know you can go the points route, but are you able to pay for an upgrade at the gate? I'm talking the pleb classes like Economy varieties to Y+ or Y+ to J.

 

[drewbles]

I know you can go the points route, but are you able to pay for an upgrade at the gate? I'm talking the pleb classes like Economy varieties to Y+ or Y+ to J.

To change to Y+/J/F you'll need to cough up the difference in fare from the booked fare you have to the available Y+/J/F fare, plus any change fee, that is, if your booked fare allows it. That's on QF at least. JQ have been known to offer paid ODU's for substantially less than full fare, but I believe that's all but dried up too.

QF are very good at letting you upgrade for the full price

 

[smckay]

QF are very good at letting you upgrade for the full price

Yes, I'm sure it would make your eyes water! :mrgreen:

 

[crazydave98]

Re: Can you upgrade on check in paying cash/card?

I'm aware of a few US airlines that will let you pay for an upgrade at check-in for considerably less than the raw fare differential. IIRC US Airways will also prompt you for upgrades when checking in on at kiosks.

Another type of reduced-cost paid upgrade that I have come across (again outside of Australia) is www.optiontown.com The way it works is that you pay to Optiontown a price upfront (apparently about 25-75% of the actual fare differential), and if you are upgraded by the airline they keep the cash, and if you are not upgraded it is refunded automatically to the credit card that was used to pay. I haven't used it myself - have any members used it (or would they if offered in Australia)?

cheers

CrazyDave98

 

[Mal]

Re: Can you upgrade on check in paying cash/card?

The way it works is that you pay to Optiontown a price upfront (apparently about 25-75% of the actual fare differential), and if you are upgraded by the airline they keep the cash, and if you are not upgraded it is refunded automatically to the credit card that was used to pay.

Interesting concept, along with their other option to shift flights around if you're flexible. Looks similar to standby-upgrades at a reduced rate. They do seem legit as both Air Canada's site and the Kingfisher site links off to them.

One thing I noted about the write-up, is that it appears not all applications are accepted. So it's possible that only certain routes or flights are cherry picked for upgrades. Won't be flying Kingfisher / SAS or Air Canada in the near future so won't be able to try them out.

Not sure if I would use them in Australia or not. Domestic routes (except for to/from PER and a couple of other longer ones) don't tend to lead themselves to upgrades, and we all know how full premium cabins already are on the PER flights etc. And Internationally, I think airlines would be reluctant to use a similar service due to the Australian concept of not devaluing premium products (of course except for Jetstar, which has a questionable premium product to start with!)



Hawaiian Airlines and American are two other airlines which offers check-in machine upgrade options at times, and of course BA has been offering cheap upgrades through online check-in/Manage booking options for a long time.

 

[NM]

I know you can go the points route, but are you able to pay for an upgrade at the gate?

I am not aware of any airlines that allow paid upgrades at the gate (assume you mean boarding gate). Some do offer paid upgrades at the check-in counter (JQ and UA are two commonly mentioned in these forums).

 

[taswegian77]

I am not aware of any airlines that allow paid upgrades at the gate (assume you mean boarding gate). Some do offer paid upgrades at the check-in counter (JQ and UA are two commonly mentioned in these forums).

Delta used to allow paid upgrades at the gate to First. I have doen a few LAX-CVG and return and by memory it cost aroudn the $150 mark to get the upgrade, that was about 5 yrs ago, dunno if they still do it or not. It used to come up on a big screen at th egate,w as always fun to see if you got it or not, they then issued a new pass when boardign and a receipt.