ANA Now Offering “Bid My Price” Upgrades from Economy Class to Premium Economy

Starting on April 17, 2018, ANA All Nippon Airways launched “Bid My Price,” a system that lets selected paid economy class passengers bid for upgrades into premium economy class, using the Plusgrade platform.

“Bid My Price” is available for paid economy class itineraries starting in Japan, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand, and only routes between those areas are eligible. Interestingly, flights between Japan and Southeast Asia seem to be excluded.

With the new system, passengers eligible to bid for an upgrade will receive an email from ANA inviting them to do so seven days before departure. The passengers will then be able to to select the amount they want to bid for each of the flights they are eligible to bid on, and to confirm the bid, they will have to enter their payment information (unlike with Finnair where passengers have the chance to “throw away” a winning bid).

Passengers whose bid is accepted will be notified by email at least 24 hours before departure. And, if there are same bids competing for a seat, then the bids will be prioritized based on the original tickets booking class, elite status, and the date and time the bid was made.

One thing to note here is that even if the upgrade is accepted, the fare rules will stay the same as on the originally booked ticket. And so, the mileage earning rate, itinerary modification rules, etc. will stay unchanged.

Regardless of the price of the upgrade, the new system should be a welcome change for people without ANA status that will now have (at the very least) an option to upgrade into premium economy.

However, it’s a significantly negative development for ANA’s elite status holders who now enjoy complimentary upgrades into premium economy on a space-available basis. While at this point it doesn’t seem like ANA will cancel that benefit, at the very least, there will certainly be less seats available for those free upgrades.