Read This If You Are Flying This Year!

Norwegian Cruise Line Program Allows Passengers to Bid on Cabin Upgrades, ‘Seatfrog’ already allows rail passengers to bid for last minute seat upgrades and now you can bid online or from your phone for flight upgrades with major airlines as the groundbreaking ‘Bid Up’ app is set to launch in the air.

Airlines like Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Etihad all use the system to auction off their empty posh seats

You can do this online with the airlines direct, there are also many online guides  on ‘how to Bid for Flight Upgrades’ and Apps that you can download to find upgrade possibilities on your flight then submit bids for an auction that starts six hours before the departure time usually finding out if you have been successful at least 30 minutes before departure.

NO one actually WANTS to sit in Economy…. We just don’t want to pay the exorbitant prices that would secure a seat in Business or First Class.

This is a fantastic opportunity to upgrade your ticket for less – by bidding on empty seats in the posh end of the aircraft or even for a ‘neighbour free seat’ with Etihad

The process starts after you purchase an economy ticket. Participating airlines will email you touting the opportunity to bid on the chance to score these seats.  Just like eBay, the airlines generally start the bidding at a specific threshold such as £150—although the minimum bid varies airline by airline

A website called Plusgrade lets airlines auction off their higher priced Business and First Class seats to passengers who already have an Economy ticket on the same flight.

More than 40 companies including Virgin Atlantic, Qantas and Etihad all use the system, which opens up the bidding process to customers until 72 hours before a flight

Each airline has its own restrictions on what customers can bid for, for example, Virgin Atlantic only lets you bid for seats in the cabin one up from the one you’re currently in.

So if you are booked in Economy class your option in the auction would be Premium Economy, or if you were in Premium already then you can bid on seats in Business Class.

But the general process for how to bid is the pretty much the same for each airline, according to travel bargains website The Points Guy.

Once a ticket has been bought by a passenger they will either receive an email asking if they want to upgrade or they can go on the company’s website to see if they are eligible for the auction.

If you want to take part, you can then bid what you would like to pay to upgrade your seat, within the guideline amount laid out by the airline.

Most of the upgrades in the auction come with all of the perks of the new class you are booked in, like extra baggage allowance and lounge access at airports however there are some exceptions, for instance, Etihad customers who have been upgraded via the auction will not be given chauffeur service that usually comes with the ticket.

Virgin Atlantic offers minimum bids of £180 on their upgrades from Economy to Premium Economy, when the real value increase is sometimes more than seven times that.

Other airlines like Qantas even allow customers to bid using their airline loyalty points.

So what is there to lose? Get online and start your bid today!!

 

 

 


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Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Guten Morgen, 你好 ! I grew up in the 70s, I was educated in the 80s and had great fun working in a Cafe Bar and nightclub in the 90s. After my Halcyon years my bank manager and I decided it was time to get a 'proper…

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