Aegean Airlines operate a bid upgrade system called the Aegean Upgrade challenge. The whole premise is to make a bid for a business class seat to help fill the space.
Lots of airlines use a system like this, but also quite a lot don’t. I think it’s a good thing to allow bids rather than giving upgrades for free. You get to possibly get a business class seat for cheaper than usual and the airline wins too.
Bid upgrade success!
My bid is for a flight from Athens to London Heathrow and I made it a few weeks before travel. When I was managing my booking, I could see the upgrade challenge on offer, so I clicked through.
You could bid anything from a low of €130 all the way up to €325. I have taken upgrade offers from British Airways on many occasions in the past, usually paying between €69 and €99 for a flight from Dublin to London Heathrow.
Well, today I got home from work and noticed an e-mail from Aegean in my inbox. “Ahh, the bid upgrade was accepted!” I thought to myself. The e-mail was Greek to me, but I saw €130 in it, so I knew I’d be sitting up front. From there it was off to select seat 1F and I was sorted.
Overall Thoughts
The whole experience was painless. All I needed to do was slide a slider and enter my card details and sit back and wait. Those with a more anxious disposition can go in and alter the bid any time before it’s accepted, and I think you can remove it too.
I’m quite happy I got it for the lowest possible bid. I’d be very curious to see what others pay, but short of asking around in the cabin on the day, that will just have to remain a mystery.
Have you bid for flight upgrades before? How did it go? What do you think of the concept? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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