Advice on upgrade bid on Swiss Air

I just put in my bids for my upcoming SAS flights. I have to say I’m not a fan of the bidding process, but I regret purchasing economy seats.

I originally placed bids for premium economy, but then canceled, because I do not want a window or a middle seat. So, I placed bids for business class.

I used Chat GPT to come up with my bid amounts.

I suggest coming up with a price you can live with and place your bids. No harm if you are not successful.

Good luck!!

P.S. I assume you read the info. here:

https://www.swiss.com/sg/en/book-and-manage/swiss-choice/upgrade-options/swiss-bid-upgrade.html

Did you buy them direct from Swiss Air? One thing to keep in mind is that if they have sold out the Business class cabin, there are no empty seats to fill. Go on line and look at the current seat map for your flight.
I received the offer via email a couple weeks before the scheduled departure. I made my bid and gave my credit card number. The day before departure, I received an email stating my bid was accepted and given a new boarding pass. simultaneously, my credited card was debited my bid amount.

PS, That was January 2024, so not prime season.

There seems to be a rough rule of thumb, paying roughly $100 USD per hour of flight time. It also depends if most of your flight is "daytime" or "nighttime," if night there will be less activity and offerings and most of the plane will be dark for most of the time.

https://thepointsguy.com/airline/guide-bidding-flight-upgrades/

it's been a while (2/2024) since I did this, but i put in the lowest bid, which was 500euro if i recall, and got a business seat on my home flight from ZRH to SFO on SWISS LX39.

Good luck! it's so worth it.

Thank you all so much for your responses, they are very helpful. I found out there are a lot of business class seats available on this flight so I will bid based on your suggestions and see what happens! Thanks!

I made the next to the lowest possible bid, 510 CHF, so I would be above any of those putting in the minimum bid. Swiss actually put in a little speedometer-like dial, to show minimum bid(500 CHF)=low probability, mid range bid (~900 CHF)=medium probability, high bid (~1300 CHF)=high probability. Since I did not want to pay that much and would be happy in Economy, I ignored all that and put in a low bid and it was accepted. Like Kevin B, it was winter, so not high season.

Depending on the load factor they may also be pitching deals over the PA at check-in. Lufthansa did this on my MUC-LAX flight and it was a pretty good offer, I was tempted. It only worked for people in premium econ or above, however, much to the chagrin of all the people who rushed the podium.