Should I Pay To Upgrade My Flight?
One of the ToP questions we see in the Facebook group: When should I pay to upgrade my flight? Sure, you were fine with economy when you first booked. But now you want business class. There are questions that come up that simply can’t be done by others or should not be crowdsourced due to a number of factors. While we can't specifically make the decision for you, we can give you some thoughts and tips to hopefully help you weigh your options.
Why You Should Start With The Class Of Service You Want
We always recommend booking the class of service you want from the beginning. You are much better off searching and securing business class seats, rather than hoping for a chance to upgrade later, if those are the seats you really want. Upgrades are often like playing the lottery, and you may need a lot of luck. We regularly see people panic-book an economy seat out of fear that they won't find a business class saver award before their trip. This is a larger issue we can explore in another article on another day. But what if you do get the chance to upgrade? Let's dive into some things to consider.
Considerations Before Upgrading
We also understand that things change. Maybe you now have more points, or maybe you don't have enough points but have the budget to pay cash. These types of questions will come into play in your decision. Here are some factors that will help in your decision:
- The price for the upgrade (per hour breakdown): Many award travelers seem to prefer a $50 per hour breakdown when calculating their preferred upgrade price. For international business class, that may be higher. On a recent deep dive, I found a domestic carrier offering international business class for about $57 per hour, which meant the 14 hour flight was about $800.
- Usually no refunds: In the example above, $800 is a lot of money for something that will rarely get refunded if you can't take the trip. I wouldn't want to pay that much to go from economy to premium economy. It's always worth looking at the seat layouts and cabin and watching video reviews to see if the price is worth it to you.
- Original cost of your flight: This can impact your overall cost once you include the upgrade, regardless of whether you paid cash or points. If you overpaid for a flight and now have to add $500-$1,000 to your cost, you would have been better off just booking a business class flight from the outset.
- Your budget: Many may not have the $500-$1,000 (or more) to pay for an upgrade. But if you do, what is that spend worth to you? Nobody can calculate that worth for you.
- Time until your trip: Time factors in two ways. How much time do I have to keep searching or hoping for an upgrade? Secondly, when, and if, will they offer you an upgrade? That leads us to the lottery, as I call it, and the rules. More on this below.
Upgrade Rules
This is the biggest one. No matter your budget or how much time you have until the trip, the fact is you might not be able to upgrade your flight at all. Every single airline has different rules. There are so many that I couldn't possibly list them all or keep up with them all. Examples of various policies:
- You booked on points, but they don't allow cash upgrades.
- You paid cash and have points, but they don't allow points upgrades.
- How many points do you have, and can you use partner points to upgrade?
- You will be offered an upgrade at booking or right after, but then maybe not at all.
- You know you can upgrade, but maybe not until closer to check-in or at the airport. But guess what? There still has to be availability.
ToP Tips
- Study the rules for what airline you are flying.
- Study data points for any tendencies you see or what people have done before. I can't emphasize this one enough! It is really what I love and is also key to award bookings. Reading threads and trip reports in Facebook groups can be so valuable for this. There are also online forums that specialize in good data points (like FlyerTalk).
- Don't get frustrated or so caught up in an upgrade that you let it impact your trip.
Should I Pay To Upgrade My Flight? ToP Thoughts
In theory, booking and paying to upgrade seems like it should be easy. However as we have shown, there are so many factors and considerations that go into something like this. Only you can make the decision if it is worth it. Hopefully these considerations and tips will help you make that decision easier. Have you paid to upgrade before? Come over to the Facebook group and share your thoughts.
