Reader mail: How much do paid upgrades cost?
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Reader Raul S. asks:
You’ve mentioned paid upgrades at check in, but how much does that actually cost?
The price depends on a variety of factors, such as the route, how full the plane is, and possibly other, secret factors. It’s impossible to accurately predict an offer of a paid upgrade, but it can never hurt to ask. Not all airlines offer upgrades for sale at check-in, either; in fact, I’d say the number that DO sell them is in the minority.
U.S. carriers are far and away the most likely to try to squeeze out some extra revenue if business or first class seats remain available.
Alaska Airlines is the most explicit in describing their paid-upgrade policy, and they’re also the cheapest. As outlined in their chart, upgrades only cost $50 for every 1250 miles flown. US Airways charges a little more. United has lately been selling domestic upgrades at check-in at a rate of $65 for every 500 miles (or portion thereof) flown. I’ve seen higher, too, but $65/500 is the normal rate.
Internationally, it seems to vary more. On United, I recall being offered an upgrade from coach to business for $550 on the Washington-Amsterdam route — on award tickets — and $450 on paid tickets from Chicago to Frankfurt. $550 is a seemingly magic number that comes up a lot for trans-Pacific routes. American’s upgrades are similarly priced — and considering they charge a fee to use miles for upgrades, the all-cash upgrades are a decent deal. British Airways also occasionally offers upgrades for sale — even on board. I’ve heard of upgrades from regular economy to premium economy for about $250, but that was several years ago.
All these upgrades are one-way, of course. If it’s available on the return flight, you can expect to pay up again. And it may not be the same price. Crapshoot!
Note also that you don’t earn any class-of-service bonus miles for sitting in the bigger seats, even if you’re paying money for it. It’s still an upgrade from a lower booking class, not a purchase of a premium-class ticket.
Is it worth it? Depends on you. But at least you’ll be sitting up front.
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February 8th, 2007 at 6:54 pm |
UA also upsells seats in the Economy Plus section, which — if available — can be a fairly affordable way for people to get a more comfortable seat. I am not sure that I would pay $550 to move from E+ to Business on a trip to Asia or Europe, but $50 for a switch from E- to E+ would probably be worth it.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:40 pm |
I booked economy from Los Angeles to London back in February for myself, husband and 2 children on BA. Since then we had a change of heart and decided to bite the bullet and pay for an upgrade to their premium economy cabin for an extra price difference of $2100. We were then charged a further $800 ($200 x 4 tickets) for the privilege of of increasing BA’s profit by a couple of thousand dollars. While I appreciate the need for airlines collect fees for certain changes, I feel that this charge was excessive… In fact, they are cutting off their nose to spite their face, because I am quite sure that most people would be unwilling to cough up another $800 over and above the fare increase… Readers take note - make absolutely sure before you book in the first place, that you are not going to change your mind about which cabin you prefer unless you are willing to take your chances on the day of departure at check-in. It may turn out to be a very expensive mistake!