Oversold flights & operational upgrades

[TonyHancock]

Op Up is used a lot on AFF and Flyertalk for that matter. I believe it is sometimes confused with a Comp Up. (Complimentary Upgrade.)

I recently received a comp up (First time this year with BA) on a SYD-SIN leg. (J was not oversold and had many seats empty but I was moved to F.) In my early days of Gold/GGL I would receive 3-4 comp ups a year. Last year I had one op up with BA. I sort of knew it was coming when I saw the loadings on Expertflyer.)

BA appears to upgrade silvers and golds ahead of GGL in order to encourage further bookings in the higher cabins. I have a former colleague in the UK at war with BA because they upgraded silvers ahead of him on a couple of occasions. (I explained that he had received more upgrades than me this year with BA but to no avail.)

 

[BAM1748]

A freebie upgrade is an upgrade that you didn't pay anything for. P1 get an upgrade every 10th flight if seat available. The executive team travelling Y when on vacation to allow another flyer an upgrade more than they paid for? OK if you think that.

We'll just have disagree.

Matt

 

[serfty]

OP UP is an abbreviation for "Operational Upgrade" - that made necessary for operational reasons (often an overbooked economy cabin with spare seats in a higher class).

Complimentary Upgrade are definitely a different beast.

Qantas used to actually do "Courtesy Upgrades" for their (then) top level Gold flyers.

In my Domestic travel days for work last century, much of my travel was in Y or B class.

As a Qantas Gold, I found that I would regularly be upgraded - even if the flight was not full.

It became so consistent that I did an analysis and found that almost exactly one in every three Y/B flights such an upgrade would occur.

Late 90's, Qantas sent letters out stating that "Courtesy Upgrades" (that's the exact term they used) would no longer be available (but rest assured we would be first on the list if an upgrade would be necessary).

 

[ozbeachbabe]

A freebie upgrade is an upgrade that you didn't pay anything for. P1 get an upgrade every 10th flight if seat available. The executive team travelling Y when on vacation to allow another flyer an upgrade more than they paid for? OK if you think that.

We'll just have disagree.

Matt

It's not up to the executive team to allow commercial passengers an operational upgrade to a higher cabin that the ticket they hold - that's just how the checkin system prioritizes things.

All I'm saying is any employee whether they are a baggage handler or a member of the executive team when on vacation travel will have a particular onload/upgrade category. Any upgrades they are entitled to would only be granted after all commercial pax with pending points upgrades have been processed as the latter have a higher upgrade category than any leisure staff on vacation.

If there are no more points upgrade pax to process and a flight is still oversold then the system will commercial pax to a higher cabin than what they've been ticketed (true definition of an op-up) to clear the oversale. This would happen before the flight is closed and staff are onloaded/upgraded. It has to be done in that order to allow pax who are confirmed on that to be able to checkin.

 

[BAM1748]

I still disagree, I am ranked about 40 on the QF list of 1 to 72 for staff travel. With 1 being board and Executive team and 72 the contract carpark sweeper (with no disrespect to them). It's not about the system or an algorithm that puts level 1 below a points upgrade, there is a person sitting there watching it and making choices when there might be conflict.

Your source of info?

Matt

 

[jb747]

I'm not surprised about the skepticism of your ill-health as they probably have many try it on

They should have had you assessed before departure. If that wasn't possible, then you probably should have been offloaded!

 

[Beano]

Sorry to contribute so late. I am Platinum and LTG and flight regularly WLG-SYD and on to other state capitals. In 5 years Platimmum and several years Gold before, I have only ever been upgraded once on SYD-DRW and once Syd-WEL. Having said that 18 months ago my wife and I were upgraded to business DBH-GLA flying Emirates on a QF ticket. ( We were at opposite ends of the cabin).These days I request upgrade awards on the longer flights.

 

[drron]

Op Up is used a lot on AFF and Flyertalk for that matter. I believe it is sometimes confused with a Comp Up. (Complimentary Upgrade.)

I recently received a comp up (First time this year with BA) on a SYD-SIN leg. (J was not oversold and had many seats empty but I was moved to F.) In my early days of Gold/GGL I would receive 3-4 comp ups a year. Last year I had one op up with BA. I sort of knew it was coming when I saw the loadings on Expertflyer.)

BA appears to upgrade silvers and golds ahead of GGL in order to encourage further bookings in the higher cabins. I have a former colleague in the UK at war with BA because they upgraded silvers ahead of him on a couple of occasions. (I explained that he had received more upgrades than me this year with BA but to no avail.)

This was good news because in a week'stime I will be silver.
But then I realised all my paid BA flights are in F.
I guess an upgrade to the coughpit is unlikely to happen.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

This was good news because in a week'stime I will be silver.
But then I realised all my paid BA flights are in F.
I guess an upgrade to the coughpit is unlikely to happen.

I do hear that it is not uncommon for a comp upgrade on your first long-haul after attaining EC Silver.
As a side note, on my last two LCY flights the coughpit jumpseat has been put to use on rammed flights but fairly sure they were staff but you have to be careful what you wish for.

 

[jb747]

You have no chance of riding in the coughpit.