Recently I made a big mistake trying to use the ‘bid for an upgrade‘ feature from Lufthansa. Continue to read to prevent you make the same mistake!
Traveling from Amsterdam to San Francisco can be very straight forward; just take the direct KLM flight or the direct United Airlines flight (direct flight during the summer season). No stopovers, no stress.
Now before I continue, I need to clarify something. For my business travels I’m only allowed to book premium economy whereas in the past I was lucky enough to travel business class. This is a problem; once you’ve experienced business class travel, it’s very hard to turn to the right when boarding the plane, and take a seat in economy class again. Even if it’s premium economy. Hence, I’m always on the look-out for the best options to upgrade and to increase my chances for an upgrade. For this specific trip I had a very cunning plan!
My cunning plan for an upgrade
Even though Lufthansa’s current business class product is one of the worst ones out there (their hard product is well below par), it still offers a lie-flat seat and on top of that, Lufthansa still flies with the iconic 747-8. This is one of the last chances to fly with this amazing aircraft and taking the stairs up to the upperdeck of the 747 is just something special.
Lufthansa allows you to bid for an upgrade after you’ve booked your ticket, up to 60 hours before departure. This is a great feature and it allows you to grab an upgrade for a reasonable price. I already used in the past and I was planning to do exactly that.
I finally booked a ticket Amsterdam – Zurich, Zurich – San Francisco with Swiss and San Francisco – Frankfurt, Frankfurt – Amsterdam with Lufthansa. Important to note is that Swiss also offers the opportunity to bid for an upgrade. On my return flight, Lufthansa was flying the 747-8 so that would be the leg I was aiming for to get an upgrade. I was already envisioning the 747-8 upperdeck and getting a good rest in a comfortable lie-flat business class seat.
How it fell apart
Eagerly I went to the Lufthansa side after I got my booking confirmation, but I didn’t see the option to bid for an upgrade. Even worse, the option never appeared. Even after a few days waiting – I naively thought that giving it a few days would help… Finally, I figured out the root cause. I booked my tickets using a United flight number instead of a Lufthansa flight number. I basically booked a United flight operated by Lufthansa. And this meant I couldn’t use the ‘bid for an upgrade’ option. In fact, I also couldn’t try to upgrade using United miles because the flight wasn’t operated by United. So, my cunning plan completely fell apart.
This is a good lesson for anyone trying to do the same; be careful what flight number/code you’re booking! I booked the flights using a 3rd party and wasn’t careful about the flight numbers. When directly booking through Lufthansa (or Swiss) you limit making mistakes like this. If the flight is operated by a different operator, it’s clearly highlighted.
Silver Lining
There is a silver lining to this story though. When I arrived in Zurich to take the Swiss flight to San Francisco I got a very pleasant surprise at the gate; I was assigned a new seat. Seat 11D in Business Class! A totally unexpected free upgrade! Somehow, I was rewarded for all my failed efforts, and I was able to enjoy Swiss Airlines business class on their Boeing 777. Swiss Business Class was a truly pleasant experience – especially since it came without extra costs!
Lufthansa recently announced their long overdue new Business Class implementation plan. When that will come to the 747-8 and A380, I’ll be careful not making the same mistake!
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