Seeing how similar this interface looks in all the examples makes me think this is not something the airlines did come up with themselves, but rather might be a something offered by a third party that they implement in their booking process.

I.e. not only milking the customer as much as possible by having them bid instead of fixed price upgrades, but maybe even having a third party taking a fee or commission, which will ultimately be passed on to the customer through higher prices.

This is just speculation though. Does anyone have insight into this?

Seems like a company rolling out a shit idea on April Fools day to have the ability to say it was a joke the next day when backlash inevitably happens.

Expect to see this a lot more the next few years, as companies become even further soulless husks of themselves with decisions being made by AI.

Had similar experience with air Portugal, I didn’t even bother to click.

Something tells me their rating of “poor” isn’t based on actual demand

The real benefit is if you’ve bought a premium economy seat this will allow you get upgrade to business class for much less than the original ticket price.

I know someone who recently flew with Philippine Airlines that got an email exactly like this, after booking the cheapest possible economy seats. It’s a Wild West bidding war against other passengers for maybe a “premium economy” upgrade that gets you three economy seats in a row for yourself, so you can lay down and sleep on all of them during the long flight. It’s telling of an airline when this flight booked almost a year in advance wasn’t ever going to be a full flight.

That being said, if you’re ever flying to the Philippines, take any other Asian airline but PAL. They’re stingy with drinks, they have strict overhead carry-on weight limits that forces you to check bags in for a fee, their food is school/prison cafeteria quality, they delay flights without taking responsibility for screwing up your connecting flights, and you’re overall treated like cattle when in economy.

I had this on an SAS flight almost a decade ago. It worked out well because the earlier you sign up the bettter your chance. I got upgraded to transatlantic Business class for only $300 per person.

Here I was wondering how did they put a working slider into an email. But I think you actually clicked a link.

I’ve seen this same email and UI from WestJet when I booked a flight over Christmas. Was incredibly insulted by it as well, especially by the Subject line making it sound like they’re just upgrading you if you open the email.

Is it an April Fools?

Those cowards should allow for bids starting from one euro when they do that bullshit.

There will always be an idiot that pushes that button.

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I love this idea, but it seems poorly done here 😑

“oh we don’t make enough money if we just tell you how much it costs, we need you to overpay”