What is your experience using bid to upgrade to business class?

Online sites like eBay are clear indicators that people have an appetite for auctions. Airlines have also jumped into this, allowing people to bid to upgrade to business class.

The technology behind it seems to come from a company called Plusgrade. I note this because every airline that appears to have the option to place bids seems to use this platform.

How does it work?

Airlines ideally need to fill all seats on an aircraft to maximise revenue. Once a flight departs, an unsold seat can never be sold again and is thus referred to in the industry as “spoilage”.

The upgrade bidding system allows passengers to make an offer to move up to the next cabin. There is usually a floor and ceiling price and the customer picks how much they are comfortable with.

Everything then sits around until a few days before travel. At that stage, the Revenue Management team go through all the upcoming flights, and see where there are seats still unsold.

They then start confirming the highest bids, charging the bidder and re-ticketing the lucky ones into business class. It is a win for the airlines, as someone has paid to upgrade and filled an unsold premium class seat. For the bidder, they could get business class seats for far less than standard rates.

Do you bid to upgrade?

I have an upcoming booking in economy class (I know!) with Aegean Airlines. When I go into Manage Booking, down towards the bottom is the option to join what they call the Upgrade Challenge.

When you select it, you are taken to the Plusgrade site and are presented with the options. There is a slider that allows you to choose the amount you want to bid. The floor price here seems to be €130 and the ceiling price €325. On the right is a bid assessment, which changes as you slide. I’ve not yet put in a bid, but if I did it would probably be the minimum, as I am quite happy to fly in the class I have booked.

Which airlines offer upgrade bidding?

In addition to Aegean, you also have Aer Lingus, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air Europa, Air India, Air Mauritius, Air New Zealand, ANA, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Copa Airlines, Edelweiss, Ethiopian Airlines, and Etihad.

Don’t think that’s all though, because you can also do this with Fiji Airways, Hawaiian Airlines (the only US carrier, interestingly), Icelandair, Japan Airlines, Kenya Airways, LATAM, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, SAS, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia.

Overall Thoughts

Judging from the airline list, it seems that countries that may have a population with either a propensity to gamble or those who like to get things for cheap are all over this. I personally have never used the systems before, primarily as I was flying British Airways frequently, an airline that doesn’t offer it. Now that I am a free agent, I can see myself using this.

I’m curious about people’s experience using an airlines bid to upgrade system. Have you tried it before? Were you successful? Which airlines have you done it with, how much did you bid, and what was the outcome? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image and “How does it work?” image via One Mile At A Time.