V-Flyer

I have a flight to HKG coming up, booked in economy (O). MMB is offering me an upgrade to PE for a certain price.

How much would you pay for this? Any thoughts? I will reveal the number later. ):

Impossible to say.
Personally I've paid for PE for my upcoming trip to the states at the same price I paid last year for an upgradeable economy.
I think the difference is about £300.
So for me the answer is £300 for a 9.5 hour flight.

Here's another way of looking at it.
If you were asked to sit in a seat as a job testing seats.
How much extra by the hour would you charge to sit in economy rather than PE. Multiply that by the hours flown and that's what it's worth to you.
Dick D

Dickydotcom makes a good point
I would normally look to pay about £1k per person for PE to NRT but I think the usual price is more like £1,400
£300 extra one way seems a lot to me but depends how much the economy fare was

Just to be clear -- the economy ticket is a sunk cost. I am asking what v-flyers would think is an acceptable extra cost to upgrade to PE on this route. I'm not asking what I or anyone else can afford or should pay.

It's an experiment to try to gauge what people think is the appropriate premium for PE -- and how it measures up against VS's offer. ):

I think PE to HKG is usually about double the cost of a Y ticket. Normally a Y return is £600 so PE is normally £1,200.

I'd say anything around/below £300 is good for one way. If only upgrading one way I would opt for HKG-LHR as that is a longer flight. LHR-HKG normally feels quite quick but the return is a drag.

Agreed, I'd say £300 for that long a flight.

However if it's already busy in PE or VS think it will be, they'll probably want quite a bit more.

Conversely if economy's oversold but PE's got lots of space they'll try and tempt you with a good upgrade deal - after all any revenue's better for them than having to op up.

gumshoe wrote:Conversely if economy's oversold but PE's got lots of space they'll try and tempt you with a good upgrade deal - after all any revenue's better for them than having to op up.

The logic of that is of course correct, but I don't think that the VS MMB upgrade system is that sophisticated. It simply offers some people the opportunity to pay up to the cheapest available bucket in the higher cabin. At least, that's how it seems to me to work.

at240 wrote:Just to be clear -- the economy ticket is a sunk cost. I am asking what v-flyers would think is an acceptable extra cost to upgrade to PE on this route. I'm not asking what I or anyone else can afford or should pay.

It's an experiment to try to gauge what people think is the appropriate premium for PE -- and how it measures up against VS's offer. ):

Oh I see
Hmmm in that case I don't think it's too bad
But at that price I would probably only be tempted to upgrade one way
If it was £200 each way then I would be tempted

I could have upgraded my O fare to NYC yesterday for £208 which i was going to do ,don't think I would have paid much more but appreciate HKG is a bit further , luckily I didn't have to bother as a G suddenly appeared and that was me sorted after changing to M and a few miles , happy days

I have previously got from economy to PE for £85 each one way (vs3 jan 2012) but would pay arround £300 for one of the longer flights.

Blacky1 wrote:I could have upgraded my O fare to NYC yesterday for £208 which i was going to do ,don't think I would have paid much more but appreciate HKG is a bit further , luckily I didn't have to bother as a G suddenly appeared and that was me sorted after changing to M and a few miles , happy days

Well done!

That figure for NYC is interesting given the context of this thread.... ):

Today I managed to upgrade an economy leg from NYC to LHR for £45 (to PE). That seemed like a very good deal.

at240 wrote:

Blacky1 wrote:I could have upgraded my O fare to NYC yesterday for £208 which i was going to do ,don't think I would have paid much more but appreciate HKG is a bit further , luckily I didn't have to bother as a G suddenly appeared and that was me sorted after changing to M and a few miles , happy days

Well done!

That figure for NYC is interesting given the context of this thread.... ):

Today I managed to upgrade an economy leg from NYC to LHR for £45 (to PE). That seemed like a very good deal.

Wow £45 ,a bargain ,were you an O to a K ? ,To me there doesn't seem to be any consistency regarding what prices people pay for the same thing sometimes

Well the price offered for an upgrade to PE on the LHR-HKG route (outbound only) was £251.50. I thought that was a good deal. The return was quite a bit more. Upgrading the whole trip is £695. UC is silly money.

I haven't actually bitten at any of these prices, although I am tempted by the outbound price.

Hmm. Well the outbound u/g to PE has dropped to £211.50 now. I don't think it will get better than that. I still haven't bitten though - it's like a game of chicken. But definitely tempting now...

£45 was a bargain.....£211 still good...go for it...you snooze you lose and will spend 9 hours in EC ruing the delay

To me, £211.50 is a fair deal for a PE u/g into HKG..... The increase in miles and TP earning, as well as the PE seat itself would convince me... then again I don't take much convincing when it comes to upgrades.

It is a cabin closer to the front too in case that last minute urge at the airport takes you into UC

I'd say chicken and go for it....

At that price the offer will not hang around. You will kick yourself if you don't grab it as fast as you can. It is way better than Y.