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APRIL
3 , 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 13
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Illustration
for TIME by Jason Ford
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How
You Can Get Those Airline Upgrades
By DAFFYD RODERICK
You've
seen them, the chosen ones. One moment they're standing cheek-to-jowl
beside you in the line for economy-class boarding and the next they're
skipping down that gloriously uncrowded passageway toward a world filled
with signature cuisine, seats that recline into beds and cabin crew that
say, "Please, call me Daphne." It's just not fair. You did everything
right: wore your snappiest suit, bantered wittily with the boarding agent
and inquired politely and knowingly about load levels. And yet some other
guy's going to business class while you're wedged into 54E. Just how do
they pick who gets an upgrade?
It turns out that getting bumped up isn't a byzantine process. Nor is
it a popularity contest. Despite what you may have heard about folks schmoozing
their way into the big seats, upgrades are governed largely by a structured
set of unpublicized rules. It's rarely up to the gate agent to decide
if he or she likes the cut of your suit or the scent of your perfume.
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TRAVEL WATCH
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How
You Can Get Those Airline Upgrades
It turns out that getting bumped up isn't a byzantine process. Nor
is it a popularity contest
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Susanna
Pik used to fly more than 200,000 miles a year as a J.P. Morgan investment
banker based in Hong Kong. She qualified as a Diamond member of Cathay
Pacific's Marco Polo club, which gave her an upgrade edge. "I usually
flew business class for work," she says. "But for personal trips I'd book
an economy seat and would almost always get moved up. It's not really
a matter of asking. If the flight is close to full in economy, they look
for people to bump up." J.P. Morgan spent a fortune flying Pik around
the region on Cathay (more than $1,300 for a return business-class seat
from Hong Kong to Tokyo, for example). Thus Cathay considered her a particularly
valuable customer, and was happy to reward her loyalty with an upgrade
when the opportunity materialized.
But such perks aren't just about keeping high flyers happy. To ensure
a full load amid last-minute cancellations, airlines often overbook their
flights. When their economy section begins to overflow, they look for
upgrade fodder. Besides frequent flyers like Pik, the favored few often
include people who shelled out the full fare for an economy ticket.
Beyond that, many airlines don't like to detail the precise criteria they
use in selecting freebie upgrades. JAL spokesman Geoffrey Tudor says his
airline has no public policy on upgrades because it doesn't want to disappoint
passengers by making promises it can't keep. Indeed, many airlines try
to dampen expectations: if passengers get used to being moved up, they
might hold a grudge when they're stuck in economy.
Of course, you can always buy your way to a better class. On JAL, for
example, you can use your accrued Mileage Bank points: a shift from economy
to business class costs roughly 20,000 points for a short-haul trip and
40,000 for a longer journey. The catch is that airlines allocate a limited
number of seats for point upgrades, and some carriers won't let you use
them in combination with ultra-cheap tickets.
There's also the nagging reality that you have to spend your frequent-flyer
points for the upgrade, instead of getting it just for being you.
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