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#798874 by Tinkerbelle
04 Jan 2012, 18:13
The "I've just had an operation/taking this medication" excuse is quite popular. I have even seen people being offloaded instead of being upgraded after this excuse as the operation/illness/medication made them unfit to fly! :0

The lengths people go to sometimes is amazing. I remember being told the story of a lady sat in economy with her husband who thought it was below herself to sit there trying to blackmail the crew to move her to Upper. Disgusting behaviour.
#798876 by slinky09
04 Jan 2012, 18:19
Tinkerbelle wrote:The lengths people go to sometimes is amazing. I remember being told the story of a lady sat in economy with her husband who thought it was below herself to sit there trying to blackmail the crew to move her to Upper. Disgusting behaviour.


Wasn't there an allegation of some crew taking the bribes :w :w :w :w :w
#798877 by Tinkerbelle
04 Jan 2012, 18:26
slinky09 wrote:
Tinkerbelle wrote:The lengths people go to sometimes is amazing. I remember being told the story of a lady sat in economy with her husband who thought it was below herself to sit there trying to blackmail the crew to move her to Upper. Disgusting behaviour.


Wasn't there an allegation of some crew taking the bribes :w :w :w :w :w


Nothing to do with money - apparently she said she was going to name and shame them all on the internet unless she got moved to Upper. :0
#798881 by pjh
04 Jan 2012, 18:39
slinky09 wrote:
Tinkerbelle wrote:The lengths people go to sometimes is amazing. I remember being told the story of a lady sat in economy with her husband who thought it was below herself to sit there trying to blackmail the crew to move her to Upper. Disgusting behaviour.


Wasn't there an allegation of some crew taking the bribes :w :w :w :w :w


Wasn't there a thread on here a few years back stating that the most reliable way to get an upgrade was a £20 note in the passport at check in?

When we were voluntarily bumped to another flight a while ago, flying in Y, receiving Select Vouchers for our troubles another couple who volunteered and received the same recompense then set about pestering every VS employee to get upgraded as well. In the end, they managed it...
#798882 by slinky09
04 Jan 2012, 18:50
Tinkerbelle wrote:Nothing to do with money - apparently she said she was going to name and shame them all on the internet unless she got moved to Upper. :0


Was referring to this, and careful to use "allegation"!
#798888 by Spill
04 Jan 2012, 19:17
On the other hand, I have been upgraded three, all on BA. On none of these occasions was I trying to blag an upgrade.
Firstly, I'd was paged in SFO, and upgraded. No idea why as I wasn't a regular traveller.
Secondly, we were travelling to SFO on our wedding anniversary an on checking in (very early for the flight) they couldn't allocate us two seats together. We didn't makes big del f it, but did say it was our anniversary. They asked us to take a seat and they woud see what they could do. A few minutes later we were presented with two business class boarding passes. On the flight, the FA presented us with a bottle of champagne.
Thirdly we were travelling back from LAX. We were given the upgrade to business at check in. Better than that, the business lounge was closed and we were given access to the first class lounge. And we were escorted from the lounge to our seats on the plane.
#798892 by Guest
04 Jan 2012, 19:45
Tinkerbelle wrote:
Tinkerbelle wrote:
Nothing to do with money - apparently she said she was going to name and shame them all on the internet unless she got moved to Upper. :0


Really? What are these people on?!

Loving the stores on here! I've obviously had a very boring travel history and have no interesting stories!
#798893 by PilotWolf
04 Jan 2012, 20:28
15isto2 wrote:Only done one in flight medical emergency but I was already in UC and had to venture back to the Econ toilet to find the patient :$ Obviously no upgrade possible but did get huge thanks from the FSM and the CC and got some FC points which I thought was nice.. I only wish they would put a decent stethoscope in the medical kit!


I also got a 'few' points and much gratitude from the FSM/crew y)

Also the 2nd time was fairly recent and I got to play with the new all in one machine :) Disappointingly short battery life though...

W.
#798902 by pjh
04 Jan 2012, 21:50
Spill wrote:On the other hand, I have been upgraded three, all on BA. On none of these occasions was I trying to blag an upgrade.


Excellent stories - c'mon, what's your secret :) ?

slinky09 wrote:Was referring to this, and careful to use "allegation"!


Slightly o/t, I clicked through that one onto the story about the toddler made ill; I think if I were VS legal team I'd be consulting m'learned friends about a story regarding Virgin Australia being headed up with pictures of Virgin Atlantic aircraft.
#798976 by norcalflyer
05 Jan 2012, 20:47
I don't know if this counts as I offered to pay in the first place, but...

Flying home to west coast of USA from LHR. My family of three had PE tix, but feeling a bit lucky I asked about the price to upgrade to UC. The gentleman at check in showed me a paper showing it was 1500GBP each to do so (I had offered $500 for all of us).

I simply asked if there was anything we could do about the price, and he left to speak with someone. Upon returning, I was told my son could fly for free and my wife and I for 2500GBP total. I swallowed hard and agreed. make no mistake, my wife and I don't make a pile of money, but my point was we didn't know when we could return,so we were going for the best experience possible.

The gentleman handed me a voucher and told me to pay in the line next to him. Whe I arrived, the next agent said "wow - you must have gotten some special rate!" The previous agent had made it $2500, not 2500GBP. That's like a 35% discount.

The UC expeience was sublime. The CH was worth the price of admission by itself - walking past 1000 people waiting to pass the security checkpoint was priceless.

One drawback on this flight, though. I'm guessing most of the rear UC cabin was empty of bookings. From what I could tell there were only three other passengers other than my family. the rest of the seats were filled with VS employees. They were all waking about, helping themselves to food and drinks. It was kinda like being in the middle of a party I was not invited to. At first our CC was extremenly attentive, but as the hours went by and the "private party" continued, I found myself asking more and more for what I needed rather than the CC noticing I was trying to flag him down.

My family has UC booked roundtrip SFO-LHR this June, and we upgraded my inlaws to PE. They will be celebrating their 50th the day after we land, and I was considering asking for an upgrade as this is most likely their last trip overseas (my MIL is British, so we're seeing family in Manchester while there before a 15 day tour of Scotland). I take it I'll get shot down..?
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