For those who want to upgrade their seat on a long haul flight and also enjoy the thrill of an auction TAP Air Portugal has launched a new method of upgrading.
This upgrade window opens at T-24 hours before departure and closes at T-1 hour. You’ll need to download the SeatBoost app off the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
According to TAP, the process is simple
- Download the app
- Open the Company’s app 24 hours before the flight, enter your flight details and bid directly through the SeatBoost app.
- The Customer with the highest bid will get their upgrade.
- The winner is notified directly via the app and automatically receives a new boarding pass. All they have to pay for is the upgrade.
The Seatboost site gives a much easier visual representation
Image – Seatboost.
According to TAP, Auctions are available for all TAP flights that offer Business class and are subject to seating availability. Each auction can be monitored live through the SeatBoost app.
For those who prefer other methods of upgrading, TAP also allows upgrades via its Contact Centre, and upgrade bids via online bids up to 72 hours before flying, in cash or miles, through Plusgrade.
Paying for an upgraded seat? It’s a real thing.
It’s interesting to see a much more “live auction” of a seat upgrade – much like eBay start turning up – and it seems to be a good way to upgrade if you’ve missed the Plusgrade window offered by TAP
For those who are used to their “I get upgrades because I’m an elite”, it’s rather common for a lot of airlines to use an instrument to upgrade (be it cash or points), rather than airlines fill up seats with elites.
For airlines, it’s a chance to preserve that premium cabin with revenue-generating customers. Adding an auction or a method to fill more seats with revenue-generating customers should also allow for last-minute sales as well
Of course, the real question is how much an upgrade could cost. With various different dynamics at play – it’ll be interesting to gather the long term data on winning bids and see what people are paying.
But that I suspect will be a closely guarded secret…
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I both love and hate this. As an economy passenger, it’s great to be able to see how much upgrades are going for and try and upgrade for a good prove. But as a business class customer (my next TAP flight), I’d much rather see the cabin go partially empty because you get much better service
I’m with you on both sides. Protecting the cabin has been something in a fan of. However, everyone loves upgrades and bidding. It’ll be interesting to see how to pan that out