So, I caved and took the more expensive instant upgrade offer to business class!

We live in a world of instant gratification and companies certainly know it. The name of the game is to part you with your hard earned cash. I am certainly not immune to it, particularly when it comes to instant upgrade offers to business class.

As you know, I recently wrote about upgrade bidding, and then a little while later had success with my first accepted bid with Aegean Airlines. Like a gambler in a Las Vegas casino, I was salivating for more.

The Bid and the Instant Upgrade Offer

I’m due to fly from Cairo to Dublin soon on a work trip booked in economy. As soon as I noticed that Egyptair has bid upgrades, I had a look to see if I could put in an offer. I found the minimum bid for the outbound flight too expensive, but the return seemed reasonable, so I put in the minimum bid of US$175. For a six hour flight, that is quite decent in my book.

As I’d flown out in economy class, I really wanted the bid to be accepted, as I had not yet tried business class on Egyptair. A few days later, this arrived in my Inbox. Create a sense of urgency? Check. Thanks Marketing! Since it was only US$50 more, I decided to just go for it and remove the uncertainty… once I’d checked that the seat I wanted was still free, of course! Pressing the big Accept Offer button had me upgraded straight away. As soon as it was confirmed, it was straight over to Manage Trip to select my seat and I was done.

Overall Thoughts

Taking the instant upgrade gave me peace of mind for my upcoming trip. It means I don’t need to wait on the edge of my seat to see if my bid will be approved.

Putting it into context, I would routinely upgrade to Club Europe on British Airways on a Dublin to London sector for €70 to €90, which is a flight timed at an hour and a half, usually with only 50 or 60 minutes in the air. This is six hours, so it should be five hours in the air and the price is just twice that. I’ll take Justify My Purchase for 200, please!

What do you think? Would you have taken the instant upgrade or waited on the outcome of the bid? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image via One Mile At A Time.