Thai Air upgrades

[richardm 1]

I have a confirmed flight in early December from London to Bangkok in economy with Thai Airways. The flight has a booking code which will allow me to upgrade using points in my ROP frequent flyer membership.

 

I have asked Thai Airways but they say there is none available. Have other members come across this?

 

I think maybe they are keeping the business class seats separate in case they can sell them, if they can't then they will become available as ROP upgrades. Based on this I am wondering if it will be better to ask for an upgrade 1 month?, 2 months? before the departure date.

 

Again has anyone come across this? I don't want to leave my request too late as maybe all the seats will have really gone.

[Regyai 415]

Yes

 

 

I have a free upgrade Ive been trying to use before it expires

 

 

Full up, Full up, Full up...........

 

 

Im beginning to think BS too

 

 

 

 

.

[stevemcm 1]

The flyer talk bulletin board has lots of posts complaining about airlines not giving FF upgrades and free tickets, it is very common. All I can say is that I had no problem getting a free ticket in Business Class with EVA I have also had 3 return upgrades to Evergreen from economy 2 at the time of booking with the seat guaranteed and 1 on spec when I checked in.

 

stevoh.

[Gerryb 0]

Last year I rang ROP for an upgrade and they said there was only a few seats available on each flight and they were taken. However, once in Phuket I rang again and we managed to get them and no problem... the cabin was half empty. Have to say I was not impressed with the level of service and food and very glad we didn't pay for it.

Cheers Gerry.

[richardm 1]

I think that the next time I am in Pattaya I will visit the local Thai booking office near Beach Road to see if they give me a different story to what the UK office is giving me.

 

Never know, maybe the personal approach might get me the upgrade for Christmas.

[CheshireTom 1,377]

I think that the next time I am in Pattaya I will visit the local Thai booking office near Beach Road to see if they give me a different story to what the UK office is giving me.

 

Never know, maybe the personal approach might get me the upgrade for Christmas.

 

I (and several members of my family) were silver/gold card holders with TG for many years. Never once managed to get an upgrade and ended up converting the miles to hotel vouchers to avoid losing them.

[Floyd 0]

im not surprised as december is high season. you did say early dec but what number exactly. think thai goes high around 14-16 dec but could be 1st.

you gotta rember lots of thai students study around the worl and rich mommys/papas fly them in biz class.

 

out of nz never had a problem getting upgrade except once which was nz school holidays.remember thai has blackout dates.

[midlifecrisis 4,048]

Is this typical with most airlines?

 

I would rather not build up miles with carriers with this attitude.

[BillWilson 10]

never had a problem upgrading using miles on TG

have done over phone

in person in pattaya and bkk

[stevemcm 1]

Midlife crisis - yes it seems to be typical the only airlines I know that have given upgrades or award tickets to myself or friends are Emirates, EVA & KLM. With EVA due to the small number of business class seats your chance of an upgrade at check in are low, better to try for it when buying your ticket.

 

stevoh.

[MC_Ldop 40]

Is this typical with most airlines?

 

I would rather not build up miles with carriers with this attitude.

 

It depends on your status really. The upgrade order usually goes fare paid then status then time on wait list (if applicable). I've been flying United heavily for the last five years. Going to BKK, I haven't been denied an upgrade yet. A few times I've been wait listed, but it always went through at the end.

[torrenova 644]

Over the years I've been top level on a number of airlines and I've spoken to them giving mega wide dates and asking which flights had availability and then booking vacations around those dates. Even then they would become defensive so I asked their people to run an SQL against their booking system if they didn't bloody well know.

 

You have the same problem with Marriott but strangely enough, not with Hyatt.

[marleyboy 140]

I have twice up-graded from economy to business with Thai.im prettty sure that you can only do the deal 30 days before the flight leaves. ie if you fly out December 31, you can only up-grade on December 1st up to the 31st December.

Also! you can only upgrade on certain "classes" of economy? I cant remember but it will be on their website!

Hope this helps!