Another €199 on ALC-AMS with 7/8 open..

 

Planning to fly FLR-MRS (connecting in CDG ...of course): 2 pax; same PNR; maybe cash; maybe miles; FB Gold for me; no status for Pax #2.

If I am able to do a cash upgrade to biz at OLCI, does the baggage weight allowance go from 23 to 32 kg? (Would only be checking 2 bags total.)

 

No.

 

BIO-AMS €79

Actually took this one and was looking forward to a coffee and some light breakfast in the Sala VIP, but found this when I got through security…

Regretting it now but no doubt KLM will consider this squarely “tough luck.” Could be worse, at least it’s not the whole airport.

 

Over the last week:
BOD-AMS: 199€
MRS-AMS: 199€
AMS-MRS: 199€

Biz cabin empty at OLCI, full at departure, only missing the Covid perk of blocked seat for Plat in Eco!

 

​​​​​​​

It is an upgrade, not an upfare.

I can confirm that i did this several times, each time successfully - call the PSL some 40 hrs before departure, asked for an upgrade, got confirmation on availability and price, confirmed CC details over the phone with the agent (although the past 2 times they DID ask if i want to use the CC on file - the one used for the initial booking). They then told me that i'll receive final confirmation via e-mail, and only after they "call the backoffice to process the upgrade".

Confirmation usually followed in 10-ish minutes after the call.

I am not aware of why this works because it is, of course, outside the 30 hrs OLCI window. What i can confirm is that it only works for flights out of CDG or AMS, NOT for flights from outstations - the PSL instructed me that they cannot operate such upgrades, via the phone, for flights originating at outstations and that i should check for availability at OLCI. They did, however, confirmed the price for each upgrade from outstations.

My thinking is that OLCI actually opens (in the sense of having access to upgrade operations) before the 30hrs window prior to the time of departure mainly because of pax on connecting flights - i.e - if passenger A has an XYZ - CDG - JFK flight with the XYZ - CDG segment scheduled some 6 hours before the departure of CDG-JFK, the window for upgrades actually extends 30 + 6 hours for all pax? Of course, this is just my uninformed assumption so if anyone has actual information on how this works, i'm happy to learn

 

I have an interesting one.
24 hours ago I had booked a one way BOM-AMS for tonight. The 24+ hours before that, it was sold out so as soon as this came available I took it. Checked in and received an offer for 1199 euros from Y to J.

The outbound flight is delayed resulting in a 2:20 hour delay on the inbound flight. I had noticed that some seats came available again so I check what the current rate was for a new ticket and that was half the price I paid yesterday for Y. Cancelled the full fair Flex Y ticket book the new cheap ticket and now when checking in I receive an upgrade offer of 799 Euros. Which is almost the amount that I saved by cancelling and rebooking.

 

Because now you have a cheapo Y ticket not an expensive flexible one, so KLM no longer considers you have money to throw around.

 

Well done ;-). Apart from the reason Fabo gave, it may be that also in J some extra seats came available leading to this lower offer.

 

This morning, BRU-AMS 59, AMS-CDG 99.

BRU-AMS is going out empty in J (2 rows ) and completely full in Y

 

So we learn two things from this:
1) irrops and (auto) rebooking can lead to lower fare class availabilty opening up.

2) the offered upgrade price is personalised and depends also on fare bucket you are booked in. In this case your new lower fare of your ticket resulted in a lower upgrade offer.
OR
3) the offered upgrade price depends on availability in the class you want to upgrade to. In this case the irrops and auto rebooking caused business class seats to become available and hence the lower upgrade offer ?

I think 1) is true. I am not sure which one of 2) and 3) is true. Any data points that can help us figuring this out ?

 

AMS-BKK W to C 529 euro or 87K miles

 

IAD-AMS, Y->C, 699 Eur. Only one seat available, otherwise full cabin. I took it.

Having a neighbor next door was not ideal, and I can easily see how it can go south (my neighbor was amazing), but the A330 seat was actually pretty good, the crew shockingly cheerful, and as apparently the only Plat in the cabin, I got the first choice of both the meal and the huisje.

 

didn’t take it (thankfully), op-up at the gate (could see it in the app right before boarding started

 

Y => J for the following segments :

FRA - AMS : 59 €. That's an awfully expensive Wanders box, lol !
AMS - IAD : 899 € ; I am in upgrade purgatoire after accepting an offre last week on AF.

Edit : surprise ! Change of appareil 18h before départ. Now swapped to a 789 (guess they couldn't fill the original A333), option for W for 229 €. Actually not a terrible offre. But still, no thanks (I'm broke).

Edit 2 : looks like the system upgraded me to W automatiquement anyway.