A few weeks back, I wrote about my trip at the end of last year. I’d planned a trip to Vietnam with family. In this post, I wrote about how difficult it was to find inventory in business class while flying to Vietnam. I also wrote about how I was literally pulling my hair out in frustration while booking the return leg of the flight and how the Amex Platinum Card came to my rescue.
On the way back from Vietnam, I’d booked a flight out of Da Nang, which is a city in central Vietnam. As per the original ticket, we were supposed to fly from Da Nang, Vietnam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After a short 1 hr 10 minute halt, we were supposed to take yet another flight to Mumbai, India. As per the original itinerary, all the tickets on both these legs were booked in economy. However, a business class upgrade popped up just before my flight and here’s how it panned out.
Business Class Upgrade
Our first flight out of Da Nang, Vietnam to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was a short flight. It was on a Boeing 737, lasting 2 hours and 10 minutes. Since we needed 7 seats, any option to upgrade was out of question as business class was fully booked. However, on the second leg, there was an option.
The second leg from Kuala Lumpur to Mumbai was on an A330-300, lasting 5 hours and 15 minutes. About two weeks before the actual flying date, Malaysia Airlines invited me to bid for an upgrade. Since this was a much longer flight than the first one, I didn’t mind having a look at the pricing.
Bidding Process
Malaysia Airlines has a pretty simple bidding process. I got an email asking me to bid for the seat. Since I wanted to bid for 7 seats, any bidding amount would be multiplied by seven.
Here’s how it works. Once I place my bid, I’d have to enter my credit card details for the bid amount. If the bid is accepted, then we would all be upgraded and the credit card would be charged for that amount.
The lowest bid amount was $91 per person, while the highest bid amount was $141. I decided to give it a try and place a tiny bid for the amount of $92 per person. My total came to $644 if the upgrade were to go through.
In 24 hours, I got an email from Malaysia Airlines telling me that all seven seats had been successfully upgraded from Economy to Business class!
The Pundit’s Mantra
I was a bit surprised how quickly the upgrade cleared, given that we were flying during peak holiday time, in the last week of December!
I had really placed a lowball offer while bidding and this just goes to show that sometimes, it just doesn’t hurt to try. In the end, I ‘paid’ for the upgrade by simply converting 59,000 Amex Membership Rewards points into cash at a 1.1 cent per point rate, thanks to my Charles Schwab Amex Platinum Card.
I’ll be posting a more detailed review soon, but here are a few snippets from the flight.
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