Here’s why I turned down that upgrade

The economy Skycouch on Air New Zealand is a cool thing. But you can get 80 percent o the benefits for free if you are 80 percent lucky, and 20 percent research the conditions to maximize your chances.

On Air New Zealand long haul, you can put in a bid for an upgrade using the OneUp process. You put in a cash offer for the upgrade you want, and it also gets an upweighting according you your airline status.

The higher your status, the better your chances.

A little dial gives you an indication about how likely your bid is to succeed in securing your upgrade.

I bed the lowest amount possible for my skycouch bid, and was told I had a very poor chance of succeeding. But I got it.

How?

Well, I suspect it was due to a combination of my Gold status and relatively light loading of passengers on this flight.

There’s increasing competition on the Auckland - Shanghai route, and Air New Zealand struggles to compete.

But my original request was the price I was willing to pay on a night flight. Once my flight got delayed and was scheduled to leave the next morning, I was no longer interested in paying for that upgrade.

Even though it’s a relative bargain at NZ$220 for a lie-flat couch.

Here’s my working

My reasoning was that I knew some people got switched fro m my delayed flight and got rerouted at the same original departure time, getting seats via Singapore.

So, I figured there would be fewer people on the flight. My success in getting my upgrade and my memory of viewing the seat map meant I was confident there may be space on the aircraft. They close seat map viewing 24 hours before departure, so I wasn’t sure, but had a reasonable inkling.

So why pay extra, when I could take my chances and perhaps secure the sky coach seat, but just without the mattress and duvet?

I boarded in the free-for-all that seems common on flights to China from NZ. Once on the plane, my row was full. And I’d have been ok there. But as the flight supervisor passed through, I asked if there might be a free row, I could get relocated to on the 787 Dreamliner.

She accommodated me in an exit row, before coming back and saying that there was a skycouch row fee and I was welcome to relocate there. She would keep an eye on it while I gathered my things.

80 per cent luck, 20 percent planning.

11 hours in a Skycouch row all to myself.

And I even got a brief nap in, even if I was sitting in front of the noisiest people on the plane.

Earplugs everywhere, all the time.

The TechPacker is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.