[willow]

i was just wondering if anyone had ever got an upgrade when the airline check-in desk knew you were immigrating to nz? several of our friends who are pilots/stewards have told us to ask........but don't want to make complete fools of ourselves at check-in!! I feel really cheeky even thinking about asking, let alone actually standing at the desk asking the question (hopeless or what!)

even a bit more luggage would be nice:clap

[adacakes]

you can only ask!

The worst thing they could say is no.

Give it a go, if they agree you'll be laughing:laugh

Ada

[JandM]

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/how-to-get-a-free-upgrade#how

If you decide to be brave and ask, DON'T start off on a negative question like, 'I don't suppose there's the slightest hope you could upgrade us...?' The word 'don't' leads to a 'no'!

If you ask and they say 'no', there's nothing to be embarrassed about - all you do is say, 'Oh, okay,' and carry on as if nothing had happened. You've got just the same right to ask as anybody else.:)

[dusk]

yeah - feel free to ask if there's any upgrades avaialble
when we checked in the couple in front of us in the queue were offered the upgrades without asking *tsk* ;) - the premium economy seats are not up to much on the single level planes mind so we didn't feel so cheated once we boarded the plane :)

[James 1077]

If travelling by yourself or as a couple you should always ask for an upgrade; the worst that will happen is that you get told "no".

My upgrade percentage sits at about 5% as a couple and around 40% flying by myself so I do it quite a lot when flying alone!

Main tricks are to ask (nicely), be dressed smartly (ie shirt and chinos rather than t-shirt and jeans) and to turn up as late as possible (the main reason for the low percentage with the OH is that she likes getting to the airport 3 hours before any flight)!

I've been upgraded to NZ from the Middle-East before - but only when I was younger and some of it may have been to do with the fact that, at the time, I had airline industry discounted tickets!

[YouMeAndThree]

I was a lone parent travelling with 3 young children - didn't think my chances would have been very high at all :laugh

[KerryS]

You'll have a much better chance of getting an upgrade if you're a member of the airlines frequent flyer scheme.
How you dress has nothing to do with it whatsoever - I've got upgrades to Australia quite often, and always fly in my tracky bottoms and an old tshirt - comfort over style!

[Georgebulldog]

My brother just paid £300 for an upgrade out here, but when talking to him he was telling me that they are almost non existant these days free of charge, think he was told that by Air NZ but you can only ask, not going to hurt & think of the comfort if you do get one
Good luck

[Kanga]

Last year we flew to the UK for a wedding and I went first with our kids and my husband followed a few weeks later. We flew back home (to NZ) together and I was SOOO tempted to ask for a free upgrade- for just me!

[bobo]

So what if they think its cheeky, you will probably never see this person again.

[grady bunch]

We flew out in January to emigrate with our 4 kids and the day before we flew rang the airline in panic as we couldn't fit all our stuff into our 6 suitcases. Korean Air were fantastic and said we could have an extra 50% each, so went out and bought 2 more suitcases and jammed them, we could also have taken our pram for free although it says kids have to be under 2 to take them on their web site (gave away our nearly new pram to a friend!), the check in staff were really nice and didn't worry about the baggage weight at all.

Good Luck!!

The Gradys

[victoria24]

we told them we were emigrating and it really was our wedding anniversary.. i must of mentioned it a paltry 20 times but to no avail. we did get some champers though to celebrate which was a nice gesture :)

[Duncan74]

Slightly different, but when we came back from our holiday / recce flying air NZ then the lady at check in tried charging us excess baggage. She didn't know the rules (we were flying via the states specifically to get the allowance) which I was a bit disapointed by. The only thing about air NZ that was a slight let down, although in fairness to her once she'd read the right bit of her manual then she was helpful and wheeled all the baggage through to oversize and marked it all up as fragile too. So OK, made a mistake but then did her best to put it right.

And we didn't have that much.... :exit

http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan74_photos/2280964905/in/set-72157603956198171/

Spot on the 156kg limit :nice1

[YouMeAndThree]

we told them we were emigrating and it really was our wedding anniversary.. i must of mentioned it a paltry 20 times but to no avail. we did get some champers though to celebrate which was a nice gesture :)

I mentioned I was emigrating just the once - next thing I knew some hostess in a different uniform to the rest came up and started asking me about my move. Had a though that she might be doing some sort of immigrations checks early, but no she was just interested and then plied me with champagne for the rest of the journey. Sadly I was travelling on my own with the 3 LO's, so couldn't have as many top ups as I'd have liked :laugh (with some views on this forum about children on flights I'd have hated to add drunken mother to the cause too :D)

[Tia Maria]

Main tricks are to ask (nicely), be dressed smartly (ie shirt and chinos rather than t-shirt and jeans) and to turn up as late as possible (the main reason for the low percentage with the OH is that she likes getting to the airport 3 hours before any flight)!



Wise woman! :D

Cheers

Tia

[Tia Maria]

Sadly I was travelling on my own with the 3 LO's, so couldn't have as many top ups as I'd have liked :laugh (with some views on this forum about children on flights I'd have hated to add drunken mother to the cause too :D)

Lol I can just see it now 'and the awful mother sipped champagne while her children ran riot all over the plane'. :D

Cheers

Tia

[YouMeAndThree]

Lol I can just see it now 'and the awful mother sipped champagne while her children ran riot all over the plane'. :D

Cheers

Tia

Actually, that sounds like bliss now I come to think of it - would I give a damn what the kids were doing or what others were thinking?:rolleyes: :laugh

[collinssteve]

My only *ever* upgrade was on Air NZ back to the UK.

Our luggage was hugely overweight so we checked-in trying to make our hand luggage bags, which must have weighed 25Kg each, look light!

We got our normal boarding cards and wandered away breathing a sigh of relief that we hadn't been caught.

Then, an AirNZ person came dashing accross to us and asked me to go back to check-in. I must have looked so guilty ... I was convinced I was going to get trouble for having heavy bags.

She took our boarding cards, tore them up in front of me (eeek!) and started typing away at her computer without saying a word. Eventually new boarding cards were printed. She took these and hurried me off across the terminal again in a very cloak-and-dagger way before finally handing me new Business Class boarding cards.

It was all very surreal and scary, but we had the best flight ever!

I asked why we'd been chosen. She said it was because we were smartly dressed (not wearing jeans) and polite. If only she'd know we'd been living in those "smart" clothes for the past 72 hours!!

I am hoping for an upgrade in October :-)

[Duncan74]

When we flew then a couple of firemen heading over to train some kiwi firefighters dressed in full dress uniform got upgraded for the LHR-LAX leg. Sound guys. Sadly got replaced by a really annoying and rude aussie for the LAX-AKL leg. Not sure if renting a uniform would work.....:D

[ricky1981]

We got upgraded when flying over to NZ with Air New Zealand, just got chatting to the woman on check-in, told her we were emigrating and planning to get married out here (this is true in 2 years time ;)). She bumped us to the best i.e. bulk head seats in premium economy, made the flights to LA and Auckland much much nicer.