Bid to upgrade flights?

[fh2000]

We booked a tour that includes Switzerland, and Austria for this coming June. The tour included the flights as a whole pacakge. Though we always chose at least Premium Economy, at the time of booking only Economy was available. The flights are booked thru United, but operated by Lufthansa.

I just checked on Lufthansa site. You can bid to upgrade to Premium Economy. The scale is from $0 Euro to $750 Euro. Default is at $275 Euro.

Google says to bid just above the default price since many will just bid the default price. What is your experience on bidding?

 

[Texas Proud]

Heck, I never heard of this.... interesting way for the airline to make money and not piss people off as only the people willing to pay will bid....

I am too cheap to pay that much extra for a slightly better seat...

 

[donheff]

I will be interested in your results. On bike tours in Europe that include flights, I usually do BC overnight outbound and Premium Plus or whatever they call it back. I would bid for a plus if it wasn't available in the package. But I have no info on strategies.

 

[walkinwood]

How much extra were you willing to pay for premium seats? I would use that as a guide. We've found that the economy premium seats on United/Lufthansa make for a much more comfortable overnight flight.
For us, the extra leg room gives the best value. We're not tall, but being able to stretch our legs out allows us to sleep better on the plane. So, we always get at least the extra-legroom seats.

 

[fh2000]

How much extra were you willing to pay for premium seats? I would use that as a guide. We've found that the economy premium seats on United/Lufthansa make for a much more comfortable overnight flight.
For us, the extra leg room gives the best value. We're not tall, but being able to stretch our legs out allows us to sleep better on the plane. So, we always get at least the extra-legroom seats.

I just put a bid for 290 Euro, slightly higher than the default 275 Euro. I can still modify the bid or wait for the results 3 days before the flight. For two people, round trip, the total will be 1160 Euro. If I get them, great.

I can also upgrade the return flight (not available for out-going flight, strange), for $440 US dollars. So, I guess if I really want those seats, I can gradually modify my bid closer to $440 dollars, or simply click 'upgrade'.

 

[sengsational]

I like they offer a zero minimum bid. The cruise cabin bidding started too high, so I couldn't "price is right" the thing by putting in a low bid in case there weren't enough serious bidders.

 

[cyber888]

I heard about biddings. I saw a Youtube video where the guy bidded for un upgrade to Business class. I think he paid $900 more, but that was worth it. Cheap. What I don't know is which airlines do the biddings.

We booked a tour that includes Switzerland, and Austria for this coming June. The tour included the flights as a whole pacakge. Though we always chose at least Premium Economy, at the time of booking only Economy was available. The flights are booked thru United, but operated by Lufthansa.

I just checked on Lufthansa site. You can bid to upgrade to Premium Economy. The scale is from $0 Euro to $750 Euro. Default is at $275 Euro.

Google says to bid just above the default price since many will just bid the default price. What is your experience on bidding?

 

[braumeister]

An article from a couple of years ago about bidding:
What you need to know about bidding on flight upgrades for premium seats

 

[U1964]

I just put a bid for 290 Euro, slightly higher than the default 275 Euro. I can still modify the bid or wait for the results 3 days before the flight. For two people, round trip, the total will be 1160 Euro. If I get them, great.

I can also upgrade the return flight (not available for out-going flight, strange), for $440 US dollars. So, I guess if I really want those seats, I can gradually modify my bid closer to $440 dollars, or simply click 'upgrade'.

I encountered the bidding for the first time last year on SAS from LAX to Copenhagen. I bid the minimum and won.

Just this last March I bid on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to LAX and won again with the minimum bid.

Both were for Premium to Business.

You mention roundtrip. In my case there were separate auctions for each leg with very different minimum bids.

 

[Koolau]

We once asked a gate agent if she could move us from economy to economy plus - so we could check it out. She asked for a few minutes to check. Sure enough, she put us in economy plus for free. W*rked out for us and for the airline. We pay for economy plus now. YMMV

 

[audreyh1]

This seems rather odd to me. But I used to get or see upgrade offers and sometimes they were a great deal and I would take it.

 

[Koogie]

I did this for DW and I on a roundtrip YYZ-CDG and LHR-YYZ. It was from eco to biz. WELL worth it in my opinion. On the airlines website they had a range (different for each segment as someone noted above) and I bid just a little over the midway point of the range. Won all 4 bids.
A little bit of game theory at play, I suppose.

 

[tulak]

I check often for upgrade offers, since you can find a great deal. I recently got a $500 upgrade from main cabin economy to business for a long-haul flight to Europe.

I had a short flight in Europe where the airline offered me to bid for business class. It was over a 100 euro min for a less than hour flight. Not worth it.

 

[meleana]

We have a trip planned to Sicily and southern Italy in the fall and Lufthansa wanted over $3000 each for Economy Plus and over $4000 each for First Class.

So stuck in coach, but was hoping we could do an affordable upgrade at the gate. Our travel agent booked the tickets so I don't know if we could bid if it was available?

I have a bad back and would really like to be more comfortable. Not to mention we have a 6 hour layover in Munich. The whole thought of these flights makes me nauseous.