Upgrades with cash - how exactly do they work?

[Natt]

OK to cut a long story short

Husband and I have an around the world trip planned for 2010 (I know still ages away)

One of the options we are looking at rather than a RTW fare is buying cheap tickets for different legs and then taking our chances to upgrade.

But I do not have any idea how this works. I have heard its possible but its a mystery

So for example if we booked Jetstar to Honolulu from Oz, exactly how would we try and score an upgrade to starclass by paying cash at checkin

And do virgin,qantas, AA etc do the same thing?

We plan to set aside money for upgrades and if we get them great, if we don't that OK too.

But is it even possible :shock:

 

[Natt]

Darn

I think in my newness I have put this in the wrong spot.

If a moderator sees this can they move it to the right home

pretty please :mrgreen:

 

[docjames]

You sure could do it that way. A few things to consider:

- You'd want to be certain the overall price didnt end up more than the RTW fare!

- On departure upgrades (paid or points) are fine to request on single segments, but be aware some of the carriers have different rules / points costs. On JQi, you ask at checkin. By reports, being early / first in queue, helps. It may not be available on the flight(s) you book so as always, be prepared to travel in the class you paid for!

- Remeber to leave plenty of connection time, even more so when changing carriers at any connection point. If you're on a non-connected or individual ticket, the carrier carrying you onwards may not want to know/care if your arriving flight was late (depending on thier checkin rules / how tight they are on that sort of thing) - again, actual experience varies, but i'd make sure you knew the "rules" of the carriers and fares you use. before you finalise bookings (not after!).


I'm sure others can chime in here with useful info.