For the first time in many years, I scored an operational upgrade from economy class to business class, this time on Ethiopian Airlines on a flight from London to Addis Ababa. I’m not sure I have a repeatable strategy that can be followed, but I thought it would be helpful to outline my experience.
Business Class Upgrade On Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines is a carrier that does a poor job of monetizing its premium cabins on tickets issued by partners (here, my ticket was issued by United Airlines). I was booked in economy class on the 7-hour flight and hoped to secure an upgrade at check-in…and I was willing to pay for it.
We had to hit the ground running in Addis and a good night’s rest would be greatly appreciated.
I inquired at the counter and was told that Cloud 9 (what Ethiopian calls its business class was full). I shook my head and showed them the seat map…the cabin was only about 1/2 full and we were now minutes from boarding (not like people still had not assigned seats). Furthermore, Ethiopian was still selling at least 9 business class seats. The agent shook her head and said, “Full.”
What can you say to that?
Before boarding, I asked another agent who asked her supervisor. I explained we were looking to buy upgrades. He again said, “Full.”
Maybe something was lost in translation, but I just wasn’t going to argue with someone lying to my face.
Oh well, I’d survive. I boarded and found my seat in economy class. My friend, also a United 1K, was seated on the other side of the cabin.
As boarding neared completion, the supervisor came onboard and signaled for me to follow him. He was holding a business class boarding pass with my name on it. He also had a boarding pass for my friend.
“Economy class full,” he explained. “We need your seats and moved you to business class because you are Star Gold.”
Thank you very much, indeed.
CONCLUSION
It appears my Star Alliance Gold status (or maybe my persistence?) led to an operational upgrade on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from London to Addis.
It’s a tad ironic that I would have been willing to pay several hundred dollars for the seat, but ended up instead with a free upgrade, but I’m certainly not complaining.
My advice: ask about upgrades. I’m really not sure if that had anything to do with our op-ups, but I expect that it did.
You can read about my prior op-up on Emirates here.
> Read More: An Upgrade To Business Class On Emirates…Just For Asking
Next: an Ethiopian Airlines A350-900 business class flight review.
Your experience with the agents has become default for almost everything related to travel. I had both airlines and hotels playing the same stupid game where their app/website says one thing and the agents say another. What can you do? Well, basically nothing to avoid being placed on a blacklist. The other day I called Delta and I inquired about paying for an upgrade. The agent came with a ridiculous amount of money while I was on Delta’s website and it was offering the same upgrade for way less. I asked her and she insisted I was wrong. Agent: “What you see online is not always accurate. We have a much better system internally than what you see.” Oh, ok. I hung up, went online, and upgraded at the price I was seeing on the website. Hotels play the same game. While checking in you see them selling rooms and when you request an upgrade they say “Sorry, we are full.” Yes, full of sh..! The worst is not offering an upgrade but losing business or customers. I stayed at a hotel last week with my son and when checking in I realized I had booked a room with 1 king size bed. It was 10:30PM and we were tired and I asked the lady checking us in if we could get a room with two beds. She typed on her system and said the room was available but there was an extra $230 charge. What?? For 1 night? At 10:30PM? Who was she expecting to buy that room at the time of the night? People are plain stupid.
+1
They may not have catered business class for any additional pax over what was booked and the crew don’t like being stuck short of meals.
But this is an African airline so it’s really anyone’s guess as to what the actual situation was.
I can appreciate your comment as ignorant racism, but ET is generally considered to be the class of aviation in Africa.
I can appreciate your comment Jerry as ignorant wankerism, wokeism, but ET is generally not considered to be the class of aviation in Africa. Why is everything racist with you people? He made a comment about ET and the continent of Africa. Grow up Gerald
I mean, that it pretty much racist…
No, robbo, Aaron (and Jerry) are correct. You can’t ‘woke’ this away. It’s not even thinly-veiled.
Tell me that you’ve never spent any time flying around between African nations without actually telling me, Jerry. Objective truth is not racist.
PeteAU, you just exposed that you’ve not flown around Africa much, because there are fantastic airlines, like Airlink, that are superior to most in the USA, Oz, Europe, etc.
You should be more upset at dysfunctional African culture than at me for pointing it out.
Andrew H., that’s just blatantly bigoted.
And you’re an enabler which is much worse.
I’m with you on calling out ignorance and racism; and, I would add that (South Africa’s) Airlink is one of the best regional airlines I’ve ever been on.
I got an operational upgrade on Turkish in Istanbul about 10 years ago from economy to business (IST-ATL) . I got it as they were scanning my boarding pass on the walk to the bus. I was also 1K at the time and they told me I got it as Star Gold.
Look at all you self-important, entitled American wankers. If you want Business, pay for it. Us who do pay, do occasionally enjoy the benefit of a half full cabinet without all the upgraded Economy people. Especially on ET where it is 2-2-2 in Business. Stay in your lane. You’re not special.
They finished up giving the seat away when Matthew would gladly have paid a reasonable fee to sit in it. The agents at check-in let a live sales opportunity go begging. They’re idiots.
And for the record, even a 2+2+2 business class configuration is far superior to economy class.
@robbo: it’s lovely that you use other people’s money to book business class, but the aim of this blog is to secure premium cabin seats for less and on your own. What a wanker you are, indeed.
Well said, Matt! Ignore these haters.
I had a very similar experience on ET many years ago. I asked for a free upgrade after one flight during which an engine caught fire soon after takeoff and another with a 6 hour delay in Lubumbashi with zero information (I was stuck on the aircraft). The counter person said ‘no’ but I’d also checked availability just before approaching the desk and called her out.
I got my free upgrade!
If ET has an overall oversale, they don’t permit paid or mileage upgrades as they have already flagged potential SFU pax in the system – that ensures the processing of the op ups is done systematically and not through ad-hoc means. This is common enough.
Did they start boarding your flight 80 minutes before departure like they normally do
Just an hour before.
Jesus. How ginormous is your ego?
The flight was overbooked.
You were moved to Business class due to your *G elite status.
Simple.
And don’t be a dick to the ground staff.
You’re really insufferable…
Did they move your friend (1K), your highness?