Enshittification

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?

It reminds me of gambling and i don't like it.

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.

And you even pay for the chance so i guess no refund if you were unlucky? ( I hope its a april fools joke, but in such times it is realistic )

"oh we don't make enough money if we just tell you how much it costs, we need you to overpay"

Hey it's just like Amtrak's PoorBid system of selling business/first class seats (the real name is BidUp).

If you feel like it you can just put the minimum bid and see what happens. If it's off peak and mid week chances are pretty good.

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

Is it an April Fools?

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

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.

This isn't really that uncommon, some airlines do similar (American I believe gave me this option on my last flight) and a lot of hotels and cruise lines do it. You are essentially bidding on available upgrades. The email wording is pretty tone deaf and the labels on that graphic are not the best (it's trying to show if your bid has a high chance of winning an upgrade or not) but on the whole it's a decent system to fill unused upgraded seats/rooms and in theory opens up lower seats for folks to use that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford them.

Something tells me their rating of "poor" isn't based on actual demand

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.

Flew to Iceland and had same thing on BalticAir. I assumed it was gambling and youd lose your money, but now it seems like you might get it refunded and our planes business class was empty.

Seems like it would be a good idea to read the terms and conditions this time and try it for a long off-season flight as business class easily is double the ticket price.

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

WestJet did this to me recently too. Same UI, same platform. Fuck em.

There will always be an idiot that pushes that button.

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 love this idea, but it seems poorly done here 😑