Hi Scott, I ve noticed how the award space has dried up on OS since this past summer and now it all

Austrian Airlines allows customers holding an economy class ticket to bid on an upgrade to its longhaul business class. Business class award space on those same flights has dried up in the seven months the scheme has been in place.
What is an Austrian Airlines Smart Upgrade? How is the award space in business class from the US to Europe on Austrian? Is selling discounted upgrades the future of business class cabins? And where does that leave folks with miles?
The key term that would trip most of us up is that the ticket has to be issued by Austrian, meaning the first three digits of the ticket number are 257. If you booked an economy award on Austrian Airlines with United miles, you would not be able to use a Smart Upgrade because the ticket would be issued by United, meaning its ticket number started with 016. According to a FlyerTalk thread , awards booked with Miles More miles are also ineligible for a Smart Upgrade.
I used to find that award space on Austrian s flights were a gold mine. That was great news because Austrian flies an almost fully flat business class product that is quite comfortable to New York, Chicago, and Washington DC. (I just flew it last week VIE-ORD. Trip report coming soon.)
Presumably Austrian makes more cash selling casablanca hotel new york an upgrade than its partners reimburse casablanca hotel new york it for one of the partners customers booking an award ticket in Austrian business. All those upgrades are cleared 72 hours before departure, so at that point, Austrian makes no more money form upgrades and might as well release seats as award seats.
But all I can offer is my observation that award space has fallen since the introduction of the Smart Upgrade program and my conjecture about which is more revenue for Austrian, casablanca hotel new york upgrades versus award seats. I can t say for sure whether Austrian is replacing award space with upgrade auctions.
Part of me wants to say yes. Airlines want to sell all their seats, but especially their premium cabin seats with their massive mark ups. If they can t sell them at full price, airlines want to at least get something for those seats. These auctions are a great source of revenue (as long as they aren t just used by people who would have purchased business class seats to save money on the same seats.)
Thank you for this very interesting posting! I will certainly keep tabs on this program with Austrian Airlines (OS) as it unfolds. I often travel to the Mideast for my job, and was able to upgrade with OS last February casablanca hotel new york from full-fare coach to business for $750 rt. In my experience, OS airplanes are all showing their age, and their service is not quite up to other airline s standards. We also had a younger and relatively untrained crew/waitstaff on our plane from IAD to VIE. I was told by my seat neighbor that OS is now owned/run casablanca hotel new york by LH. If true, things should improve. Will LH and other airlines go the route of bidding for business class seats? I was certainly pleased to get my seats at the price I did, as, in my experience, coach class on OS is certainly nothing to be excited about!
I am convinced that airlines who either have a new product (such as OS new Austrian business which is terrific) or who just joined an Alliance release lots of space in the beginning to let people try it on an award and then pull back to get them to pay retail in the future.
Hi Scott, I ve noticed how the award space has dried up on OS since this past summer and now it all makes sense with the introduction of their Smart Upgrade program. At first I thought they were following LH s approach on just releasing award space to partners within 15 days of departure. I m curious though whether Miles More members see more award availability since they d be the loyal customers!
casablanca hotel new york These auctions probably do not work on our favor. I wish they auctioned off regular business class seats versus award seats since it at least gives members casablanca hotel new york with miles some form of hope that it is still possible for them to redeem a business class longhaul OS flight through miles. That being said, this scheme may flop but only time will tell.
How has this worked casablanca hotel new york out for Air New Zealand, El Al, and Etihad? I rarely fly those airlines but I do fly Emirates the past few years and recall EK would send an email to economy passengers the week prior and to offer them an upgrade to business class for $1000 when it seems like economy was overbooked. At first I thought this was a great idea but as an EK Gold (the highest tier at the time), that meant I won t be getting an operational upgrade which I was used to getting whenever economy was full/overbooked.
Copa Airlines does this also. Was upgraded on the flights down on a Thursday (from Status), but bid (and lost the bid) on the flights returning on a Sunday (obviously more peak travel time). They gave an indication at time of bid, the likelihood the bid would succeed based on previous bids on that route. That s pretty vague, and the bids were high, so I low-balled it (set the slider to the minimum bid). The whole time I was bidding I felt dirty, like I was helping casablanca hotel new york to usher in what I think will be the future, and which is very bad for us. Still, casablanca hotel new york a marketplace for those seats certainly makes sense and I m surprised it hasn t been more effective in the past. Seems like this is the best way to achieve price discrimination and that it ll be more profitable than loyalty. Might be hard to measure though.
A commenter in the FT thread made a good point that the airlines have to be inconsistent in their acceptances. Otherwise savvy people who would have outright bought an expensive biz ticket will know to buy economy and what to bid for an upgrade.
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