Bumped to bus/first class when flying

[spookie149]

Anybody been bumped to bus/first class recently while flying? I have never been so fortunate. Anybody who work in the aviation industry care to share why some people get bumped and others don't?

THANKS!

[Pete_Coach]

Anybody been bumped to bus/first class recently while flying? I have never been so fortunate. Anybody who work in the aviation industry care to share why some people get bumped and others don't?

THANKS!

There are only so many business/first class seats. I have been bumped up many times. The folks who get bumped are more often than not frequent flyers and then if they have paid a certain fare class. Flying on the cheap will get you only the cheap seats. At Air Canada, Prestige, sometimes, Elite more often and Super Elite often can get bumped up. Getting upgraded is a reward for flying a lot. This is the case with most airlines I deal with. I have been a Super Elite for many years and was often bumped up. It sucks real bad when you take a yer off work and don't fly...instant demotion and no more perks:lol:

[notanexpert]

My wife works in the industry and here is how it goes at her airline:
For overseas flights, nobody gets bumped up if they did not pay for it (or used an upgrade coupon). Unless economy is oversold, and then they bump up Platinum Elite, Gold, Silver, etc., in that order. IF there are two people with the same status, the one who paid the higher price for their ticket gets bumped.

On domestic flights, Platinum Elite and Gold get automatically bumped if there is space in Business. If economy is still oversold, then they start bumping silvers, and then non-freq flyers starting with the one who paid the most.

If last minute someone shows up (say there is a connection that the passenger was not going to make so their seat was given to someone else, and then they show up last minute before they close the aircraft door), then the staff have to make a super quick upgrade at the gate if economy is full, usually the person that seems kind and nice and is standing close-by gets the upgrade :)

[HighFlyer]

For the most part, having FF status and using certs is the key. Sometimes there's just no rhyme or reason.... I've gotten upgraded flying on an el-cheapo deeply discounted ticket with an airline that I don't have status on. Other times it's because I put myself on the VDB list on an oversold flight, but ended up not needing volunteers.

[nalababe]

Anybody been bumped to bus/first class recently while flying? I have never been so fortunate. Anybody who work in the aviation industry care to share why some people get bumped and others don't?

THANKS!

I did this week. The reason is simple, the flight was oversold in Economy. Business class had empty seats. Since I was elite (and probably the highest ranking) I was upgraded to Business Class.

Yes, normally I use certificates...but this last flight was to short to bother.

[spookie149]

Curses. No perks for the economy flyer it would seem! :(

[Pete_Coach]

Curses. No perks for the economy flyer it would seem! :(
Lots of perks for the economy flyer, it is just that you have to be a frequent economy flyer. I never buy anything other than economy, but I buy it a lot.
No "perks" for the occasional flyer though.

[commie]

Besides the reasons mentioned previously for getting upgraded(certs, and op-ups when econo is oversold) had couple of weird ones recently.
I was on a short flight sitting in the back on a Embaerer 175, economy was pretty empty as was business, while the plane was taxiing towards the runway for takeoff, the flight attendant came over and told me that I need to move up to the business class, because they needed to distribute the weight towards that side. Never knew my weight would make that much of a difference. :)

I didn't really care too much with the upgrade, as it was a early morning flight and just about 1 hour. All i wanted was to sleep anyways.