Emirates J Upgrade Offers

[albatross710]

Last week my brother took up the offer from Emirates to upgrade his BNE-AKL flight from Y to J for about A$200. Upon arrival at the airport he was told that the upgrade offer didn't include lounge access.

Is that standard Emirates upgrade terms and conditions?

Alby

 

[evilbrian]

Yes, that is standard....but they make sure not to actively promote it within the upgrade offer. For me, it makes those type of upgrade offers a real rip-off

 

[albatross710]

Yes, that is standard....but they make sure not to actively promote it within the upgrade offer. For me, it makes those type of upgrade offers a real rip-off

Sounds like they are doing themselves a dis-service.

Given the flying time BNE-AKL, the lounge access by 'time' could make up a significant part of the total "transit time" from arriving at the airport to arriving at the destination. I think I recall reading a marketing case study which looked at the different expectation of a transaction. A customer sees it as a door-to-door journey, airline just wants to think about their aircraft door to aircraft door.

Cheers

Alby

 

[evilbrian]

Sounds like they are doing themselves a dis-service.

Given the flying time BNE-AKL, the lounge access by 'time' could make up a significant part of the total "transit time" from arriving at the airport to arriving at the destination. I think I recall reading a marketing case study which looked at the different expectation of a transaction. A customer sees it as a door-to-door journey, airline just wants to think about their aircraft door to aircraft door.

Cheers

Alby

I couldn't agree more Alby, but it's symptomatic of the way Emirates seems to look at it's customers these days - the main aim seems to be to maximise your revenue per customer (the aim of any good business) while continually reducing the service provided (rank stupidity IMHO).

They do apply this policy worldwide, so it may be that they're worried about some of their big lounges such as LHR being crammed with too many customers, but that wouldn't be the case in BNE for the short hop across the Tasman. If upgrades from Y are something that you or he are looking for, and you have a monthly credit card spend of around 8-10K, a far better option would be to rack up the points on a Citi Emirates MasterCard (admittedly nowhere near as generous as it once was) or a genuine (non-bank) AMEX where AMEX rewards can be converted to Skywards miles.

 

[shan1983]

Last week my brother took up the offer from Emirates to upgrade his BNE-AKL flight from Y to J for about A$200. Upon arrival at the airport he was told that the upgrade offer didn't include lounge access.

Is that standard Emirates upgrade terms and conditions?

Alby

How curious!

Just over a year ago I took up the same offer for my partner and I and we were allowed into the lounge without any question.
I would have been very annoyed if we weren't allowed!

 

[The Flying Brick]

If you have paid their price for J (whatever it may be at the time) then you should get all the benefits - gate upgrades excepted as no time to go to the excellent EK lounge