Bidding for an upgrade is something that some airlines allow you to do. It generates more revenue for the airline and winning the bid means the passenger gets to travel in a higher class for less than it would usually cost. Here’s my friend’s first experience of the system with Air New Zealand.
Guest post by Rinaz Ali.
A few months ago, I decided to go home to Sydney from the swamp where I live, Washington D.C. I dreaded the thought of yet another long haul flight. My usual direct route was Qantas’ seventeen hour Airbus A380 flight from Dallas to Sydney, one of the longest flights in the world.
Taking this flight always felt like the movie “Mad Max : Fury Road”, like a non-stop, gruelling battle for survival across the desert punctuated by long hours where you would never see a single flight attendant. I also do not recommend watching “Mad Max : Fury Road” during this flight.
Kia Ora, Air New Zealand
So instead of Qantas, I decided to say “Kia ora” to one of my other favourite airlines, Air New Zealand. Specifically, their brand new Boeing 787-9 operated out of Houston, Texas to Auckland, New Zealand. From there I would hop over the “ditch” as we affectionately refer to the body of water separating Australia from New Zealand. The term is also probably a middle finger to the famed Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, after whom the Tasman Sea is named.
Though not a large airline, Air New Zealand continues to punch above it’s weight. In 2017, it won Airline of the Year from Airlineratings.com, and Top Airline in the World from Conde Nast’s “Readers Choice” Awards. Also, they have hilarious safety videos featuring the likes of Betty White (below), Bear Grylls, Richard Simmons, Rhys Darby and Anna Faris.
I am not someone rolling in Frequent Flyer points, Avios, Mileage Banks or Sky Miles; nor am I Gold/Diamond/Platinum/Titanium/Adamantium ranked like my friend, The Flight Detective, so I booked cattle class. Despite being in economy, I was excited to fly the equally much lauded and much maligned “Dreamliner”, which has higher cabin pressure and humidity.
This is supposed to help offset dehydration and jet lag on the fifteen hour flight to the Land of the Long White Cloud. The 787 also boasts larger windows that don’t have shades but rather darken electronically with the push of a button. Like the Black Eyed Peas, Boeing thinks window shades are so 2008.
A Few Issues
I have to admit that I finally booked this flight after quite a few glasses of wine without too much research, like a lot of things in my life. I would later learn that the Air New Zealand 787 economy class has some of the narrowest seating available – seat pitch that would make my sciatica scream with agony and leg room that would make my knees feel as though they were surgically implanted into the seat in front.
Bid For An Upgrade
Thankfully, the wonderful staff of Air New Zealand seemed to sense my panic and had sent two separate e-mails. The first was addressing the Trent engine issue, which the Flight Detective covered here. My flight to Auckland would be unaffected, but my hop across the ditch would now be operated by a charter airline from Portugal called Hi Fly. I will cover the travesty that was that flight in my next post.
The second e-mail was something new – the offer to place a “bid” to upgrade my cattle class to Premium Economy within a few weeks of my impending flight date. This program is called OneUp. The bidding started at $250 and could go up to $1000. An indicator on the web site showed the chances for success based on how much I was willing to bid. If I didn’t get my bid, I don’t have to pay any extra money.
Upgrade Success!
I liked this approach, even though the web site seemed to hint that my only chance was if I bet $500 or more. Being the cheapskate I am, I proudly picked $280, $30 more than the minimum, not liking my chances. But you know what gamblers always say, “You gotta be in it to win it!” (usually while missing teeth and reeking of alcohol!)
Have you ever bid on an upgrade and won? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Seat images by Air New Zealand via Australian Business Traveller.
Me my husband and our 5 year old daughter are going next Wednesday Dec 19/2018 to Spain from Los Angeles on Norwegian and they sent me last week a “bid” email. My question… is this bid valid for one way only? or if we bid and get the upgrade it also works for the return portion? Never done a bid before, but we want to see if we can. Thanks for any information.
Hi Claudia, usually a bid for upgrade is for one flight sector only. If the upgrade is for LAX to Madrid for example, it will just be for that one flight. You’d get a separate offer (or not) for the return flight. Good luck with it and if you have any other questions, let me know.
A few years ago I was flying frequently between London and the West Coast of the States on account of family issues. Every time I put in the lowest possible bid to upgrade my Economy Virgin Atlantic flight. Several times I was upgraded to Premium Economy.
I think that’s probably the best way to go about it – bid the lowest and just hope for the best. That way you’re getting the best value. Good advice! Thanks for the comment!
Have bid for upgrades many times on Garuda, even with “good” price bids and never received one, even when there were only 2 passengers in business. That sucks! However my first time last month my lowest possible bid got me an upgrade on Ethiopian! Great customer friendly service and PR. Only problem with Ethiopian is you have to bid on each sector separately.
That’s pretty weird, you’d think they would actively try to move people up the front with any bid amount if business class was that empty. Congratulations on getting the bid with Ethiopian – I keep hearing good reports about their service and what not. Thanks for the comment!
I’ve never “bid” on an upgrade, but the last few times I flew Air France economy, I upgraded at checkin (a couple times to premium economy for ~$300-$400? and a couple times to business for ~$800). The times I upgraded to premium economy was because the flights were on A380s with that stupid angled business, so didn’t make sense to me.
That is one of the unsung heroes of upgrading – upgrading at check-in. It’s certainly worth asking as sometimes the cost is nominal compared to what it could be. Nice work! Thanks for the comment!
Tried four times on Austrian Airlines transatlantic, got an upgrade to business class twice. I bid what I thought it was worth. South African Airways also had this system but their minimum bid was around $1500 so I passed.
$1,500 is a pretty huge bid, I can see why you passed on that. I would have done the same. Nice that you got an upgrade twice on Austrian – it’s so worth it. Thanks for the comment!
Yeah Philippine Airlines does the same thing. I bid for business class on my flight from Manila to Narita and I got it. I forgot how much i bid but it wasn’t that much considering it was only a 4 hour flight but it was still cool.
That’s definitely cool! It makes the travel experience more fun and getting a bit of a bargain is pretty fun as well!
Did Air New Zealand charge you an extra $20?
You claim to have bid $260 but your email confirms a change of $280.
That’s well spotted! Someone’s memory was obviously playing tricks on him when writing this post. Thanks for the comment!
Bid on upgrades (economy to business) with Malaysian, Sri Lankan, New Zealand – got them every time. I usually bid right in the middle of the suggested range 🙂
Good to hear your strategy of using the middle of the range! I have never bid on flights myself so it looks like I’m going to have to start doing that! Thanks for the comment!