Please sign in to post.

Lufthansa/Swiss Bidup

Posted by (SF Bay Area, CA, USA) on

I am flying from SFO to Malaga via Frankfurt on LH 455 and returning on Swiss from ZRH.

I put in a Bid of 888 Euros per passenger with 16 business seats remaining and 380 Euros Premium economy on the 747-800. I did the same for Swiss

To Málaga for 145 Euros each primarily for the lounge access and blocked middle seats due to our mobility needs. We requested a wheelchair.

My Father purchased our tickets and I am covering the upgrade costs after getting bonus from a settlement. I usually fly in Economy ala Rick Steves and am not sweating if we are not upgraded.

We are continuing onwards from Europe and our r/t tickets are $1,600 all in with luggage included.

I have flown Condor premium economy with my folks a few years back and it was worth it from FRA ro SFO

What are your thoughts about my offer? Right now they want $3,000 for Business and $2000 for Premium which is a lot more than I want to pay.

Thanks in advance

Posted by
4617 posts

I have a few thoughts on this:

  1. I personally would not bid on premium economy because having an aisle seat is important to me. With a bid, you could end up with a window or middle seat. That might not be an issue for you, but it’s something to consider.

  2. I just flew premium economy this past weekend on Swiss—Zurich to Chicago—on a Boeing 777-300ER and was not impressed. I flew premium economy to Europe on Austrian a couple of weeks earlier and found the seat much better. So, a lot depends on the airline and aircraft. When I booked KLM for next June, they wanted over $4,000 for premium economy. No thanks!

  3. This past May, I had originally booked economy on SAS and bid $1,500 each way for business class. Both bids were accepted, and that was worth it to me.

  4. You never know whether a bid will be accepted. Since you’re comfortable flying economy if you don’t get upgraded, I would leave your bids as they are. If one is accepted, it will be a pleasant surprise at a price you’re comfortable paying.

Posted by
1515 posts

The booked seat numbers don't mean a whole lot by themselves. If the flight was tomorrow,
it's a whole lot different than if the flight is in the dead of winter, or 11.99 months out, and you
didn't mention the date of travel.

Also, there may be passengers booked in business who don't have seat assignments yet,
which will make the numbers less attractive than they seem.

Who knows what the algorithm for accepting bids is. It may even be different between LH
and Swiss, even though the airlines are jointly owned.

To echo Carrie, if you are OK flying in economy, and your bid is what you're comfortable
with, just leave it as is. If flying business is a requirement, buy business to start with.

Posted by
239 posts

Flight is this Thursday! Thanks to you both. I am not so picky.

Add Reply

Please do not reply to violations of our Community Guidelines.