How to bag a cheap upgrade

How to bag a cheap upgrade on your flight, is there such a thing?  We all, including myself always hear stories of people who say yes we got a free upgrade to business class. And we all feel a little jealous as to how these people do it, what do they do.

Well I am  afraid I really dont have the answer to that, but I do have another little tip that may enable you to bag a cheap upgrade.

Some of you may well be aware of this already, but once you have booked your flight, provided it is paid for in full and ticketed. You can login on your airlines website and make a bid for an upgrade. Now this is not a massively new thing but certainly something I have come to realise not many people are aware of.

Once you have booked your flight you will be given an airline reference, this can be booked direct or via a travel agent, you can still obtain this reference. The only time you cant is if you are booked as part of a group such as through a tour operator.

The majority of flights we book all have their own individual reference which is normally used for seat pre booking, advance passenger information, online check in that sort of thing.

This reference can also be used to place your bid for an uppgrade. Whether its premium economy, world traveler plus or business, or even first, take your bid. Some airlines have minimum bid amount, and not all types of tickets such as discounted ones on the first instance allow this feature, but its a feature to look out for. If its there and you fancy trying your chances then go for it. All you have to do is check your airlines website.

Of course the alternate is always to sweet talk the check in agent at the airport, has never worked for me mind!! 🙁