So you book an economy class flight from Aus to UK and you go to book in and they say terribly sorry no economy seat for you so you have to go first class.

Does this ever, really, happen?

Is there anyway the possibility could be enhanced?

These days upgrades tend to go to the loyal membersof the airline's frequent flyers club. The more you fly, the more likely it is that any upgrade will go to you- especially if you also travel alone.

Yep, they've changed things over the last decade.

In the past I've had upgrades, but not recently.

The price of your ticket, FF membership, etc. all count (usually against you).

Your best bet for an upgrade today is to write a letter of complaint to the airline if there is anything wrong with your flight. The customer service lot can put a tag on your record such that they next time you fly they are more likely to upgrade you, although they are getting wise to even this.

I've been upgraded from Premium Economy to Business and Economy to Business but I doubt they'd upgrade Economy straight to First.

Travelling alone and having some status seems to help.

And dressing the part - they're not likely to upgrade you if you don't look the part if that makes sense

I wrote to Emirates 2 years ago to tell them that I would be in mid-air with my wife on my way to Paris on the anniversary of my wedding. I asked them if an upgrade was possible as a surprise.

They emailed me back to say they didn't provide free upgrades. When we arrived in Dubai from Perth, we were pleasantly surprised to find that we had been upgraded on the A380 flight to France.

Spent half the flight sat in the bar drinking Veuve.

Travelling with a "name" helps get upgrades... Airlines appear to be terrible snobs.

I once checked in at the counter next to First Class check in at Heathrow with BA. Liz Hurley was checking in with a young male companion. She had a 1st class ticket but her companion only had economy. She was pushing to get him upgraded but the agent was politely refusing a free upgrade and said it was a ridiculous amount of pounds. Liz trotted out the old "Don't you know who I am?!" One and only time I've ever heard anyone say it! Didn't work, he was down the back with the rest of us!

Son and I got upgraded by Delta out of new york , just last month.

We had missed the flight closing by 3 mins due to a snow storm, I think I looked stressed they could not not have been nicer about it, Delta get bad reviews but they were totally fantastic to us

Parents were upgraded by Emirates a couple of years back.

Flight out of Brisbane was delayed 24 hours due to 'technical issues' and they failed to notify us until I dropped them at the airport. Then because of some timetable screwup they had to stop and pick up a bunch of people who were stranded in Jakarta instead of flying direct to Singapore and on to Dubai.

When my parents got to Dubai they were offered a free business class upgrade for Dubai to Heathrow. They ended up travelling for 35 hours instead of the scheduled 24 and being more than 30 hours later than expected, but were stoked to get the upgrade!

When the MIL came out the first time, we were in Brisbane but for some god forsaken reason, she was flying back to the UK from Sydney.

Her flight from Brisbane to Sydney was delayed thanks to a lightning storm (they were on the tarmac at Sydney for over an hour!) and then because of a cock up with the transfer from the domestic terminal to the international terminal she missed her flight.

They put her on the next flight and the attendants upgraded her to premium economy. Ok, not much of an upgrade but she thought it was fantastic.

Sing Air upgraded 2 friends in 2 separate ocassions in the past year.

My daughter had a free upgrade coming out own her own ,booked economy and supervised as she was 14 at the time they had over booked so she was upgraded to business class

My Dad visited us twice in Canada and has been here 3 times. He has had an upgrade every time on at least one of the legs of the journey. Him and his wife always look smart when they travel and they have never asked for an upgrade. Some people get all the luck!!

Mother in Law and Sister in Law came out last year with Emirates and got upgraded to business class the entire journey.

Mum's getting old and I thought what a treat for her to have a nice lie down and sleep on the journey. When I asked them if the had a good sleep..... The replied "Oh no.... we didn't dare recline the seats as we thought we'd get stuck!"

Aaaggghhh!! What a waste of an upgrade!!!!