Upgrades are a wonderful thing, they usually mean an opportunity to have a little more comfort. They come at a cost too but here’s the thing, there are a lot of ways to go about getting an upgrade, which can be quite frugal. For example, we booked our cruise as a guaranteed cabin. This is generally a less expensive way of reserving a room but it comes with some restrictions. It means we don’t get to choose our room location but there is “guarantee” of a certain level. I don’t generally like doing this because I am really fussy about where our room is positioned on the ship. We don’t want to be under pools, fitness areas, smoking lounges, teen centers, laundry room or near elevators. We want the middle of the ship because it is more stable when we hit rough seas.
The cruise we are about to sail on, had been nearly sold out when we finally decided to change our plans from a September sailing to a March sailing. As payment dates neared, I was watching the site like a hawk, knowing passengers often cancel around that time. We began to notice that actual cabins were becoming available so we began checking regularly, hoping for a room in our desired location.
As soon as a room was available, I was on the phone to our travel agent, who then locked it down for us. There was no additional cost and we now had a specific room. Sometimes patience is all which is needed. Now we are in a wonderful location. It is on the port side of the ship which will allow us to enjoy sunsets and be able to see every port we sail into and all the land masses as we are sailing by. I couldn’t have picked a better location, even if I had had first choice!
Then came another opportunity. Last week we were offered to upgrade our perfect room to a mini suite or better. We momentarily contemplated it knowing the perks which come with it (such as more space and possibly even a private butler) but we know better than to take these offers, because there is no guarantee about where you will be placed on the ship, so while the cabin might be bigger, with many more amenities, the view, the noise levels etc., might be less than comfortable. We will be sticking with our current cabin. As they say in card games, you have to know when to hold em’. so no more upgrades on the cruise side of things!
As I have mentioned before, we are pretty frugal, some would even call us tight. We spent 30+ years working our butts off to be able to travel like we do now. The airlines have been slowly changing the seating in planes, a little less cushioning, a little less legroom, a narrower seat. It has become almost dangerous to fly economy anymore, We began upgrading to Premium Economy, its now what regular seats use to be. With Alan’s height, this gives him just a little more leg room and has been worth the extra comfort. Business Class is another level altogether. This is not normally the way we fly, as we find it very expensive for the return on investment. We can generally get through about 8 hours before starting to get really uncomfortable and so far, that has been our longest air time in one stretch.
We upgraded to Business Class when we flew back to England recently…there had been a “too good to turn down offer” and we paid the extra money to do it. Sometimes the deals to Europe aren’t very much extra to upgrade, when a flight is full. Perhaps it was a mistake, because now we have realized what we have been missing and the comfort which this class of travel offers. The problem with taking some of these upgrades is that once you experience them, you don’t want to go back.
With the upgrade we could load 70 pounds into our suitcases instead of 50 (which we never recommend because ultimately it is you that has to pull that case). With the Business Class upgrade we were greeted with champagne and served food on real plates. We could lay flat and turn our seat into a bed. During our layovers, we also had access to showers and lounges, hot meals, drinks and alcohol all day. We could use the lounge to charge our phones and enjoy free wi fi. We could sit in oversized cushy chairs as we waited between flights. The lounges were mostly quiet, so we could rest. We were now officially spoiled.
We began to reconsider our trip to ASIA, which involves 29 continuous hours of travel. Even Premium Economy was going to be uncomfortable. We decided to figure out how to make the upgrade to Business Class work for ourselves but we still didn’t want to spend much money. We are not (yet) masters of using mileage points for upgrades etc., but our particular card lets us purchase tickets with our points, 1 mile= $1. When we realized that we still had mileage from our last cruise and we had just used the same card to pay for our current cruise, we also realized we could make this work to our advantage.
After our 2023 trip, we had learned to always book a changeable ticket, so when we asked to upgrade, there was no problem. We had actually booked our Premium Economy seats nearly a year before the trip, but the best international fares generally come out about six weeks before a travel date, so again Alan had been monitoring the fares, always hoping to restructure to save a little more money. The day after we returned from England, the best fare finally hit. It was a couple thousand dollars less than just the day before! The Business Class fare was now within our reach. This is when we knew to make use of our points.
For just a few hundred dollars more, we are now traveling to Singapore, in style! The bench like seats are about twice as wide as normal Premium Economy seats, they convert to a full lay flat bed so we will be able to sleep on the plane. The “room” on All Nippon Air (ANA) allows us to cocoon ourselves completely away from others and is considered one of the most unique features of the airline.
Even as early as today, we are still watching the fares, they have since risen to astonishing rates and have almost doubled from where they were when we booked! Nothing feels better than feeling like we got a super bargain! Our best advice is to consider your “why” when deciding if an upgrade is worth it, then make it work for you. When we arrive at 1am after a 29 hour travel day we hope to be touring just 8 hours later. With the upgrade, we will arrive refreshed and ready to enjoy our adventure, from the first hour we set foot in Singapore.
Once again we are counting our blessings. We are humble enough to recognize this is a luxury. We are wise enough to realize that some opportunities only knock once. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to travel at all. Our Golden Years are about grabbing life by the horns!