Firstclass seats upgrade#
Firstclass seats free#

Any that happened to be empty would then be filled by non-revenue travelers (employee deadhead, jumpseats, etc) but only after economy was filled first.

Firstclass seats upgrade#

They would go to lengths to upgrade anyone they could into those seats at the gate prior to departure. For domestic service the first class seats almost never went empty. The case I'm most familiar with is Continental Airlines (no longer an entity, merged with United). Within an airline, this policy can also vary for the type of service. These can be automatic upgrades for certain classes of frequent fliers down to paid upgrades from economy class. The airlines that want to fill first class will have upgrade programs in place.

This details are specific to each airline and generally fall into two categories - fill all the first class seats or let them fly empty.

Firstclass seats free#

My experience is that op-upping a frequent flier to free up a seat for someone who would otherwise be turned away (overbooked flight) does happen throughout the world, but that with the exception of US-based airlines, business class is quite often not full. Other airlines, especially those based in the Middle East, believe if they do that, their frequent fliers would never buy business class, so they'll fly out with empty seats up front rather than 'devalue' the product by giving it away free unless they have an operational reason for doing so. Some US airlines are well known for never sending out an empty business-class seat, moving up as many people as they can to fill business class. On a recent flight home from Seattle to Toronto I was op-upped for weight and balance reasons (small plane, needed more people at the front) which was a pleasant surprise. This is called an Operational Upgrade or Op Up. Third, some airlines allow anyone to buy a 'last minute upgrade' - for about $100 for each hour of flight time, in my experience - when checking in online or at the gate.įinally, some airlines will upgrade some passengers (chosen in theory according to status as a frequent flier, early check in, and fare class of original ticket, but at some airlines lazily chosen from among less deserving non status late checkins because it's the easiest way to handle them) for no charge. These upgrades may happen weeks or days in advance, or at the gate when the flight is about to leave. Second, some airlines allow their frequent fliers to upgrade into business class, using some sort of certificates or points schemes. (It's pretty normal for economy to be oversold, too.) There are tools that can show you how many tickets have been sold in each fare class, and I have seen many times that all the business-class tickets are sold, yet only 20 or 30% of the seats are marked occupied on seat maps. Just because a seat hasn't been selected doesn't mean a ticket hasn't been bought.