"stonej" wrote in message
...
If a flight is sold out on coach and only a few first class tickets
remain how often
do airlines let the first class tickets go for a coach price? Seems
it is better to fill a
seat with a paying customer than to let it sit empty.

I'm not sure about economy to first but some European airlines have been
known to offer things like "buy a round trip business class and we'll
upgrade you one way to first". What does happen is that in the last few
days before travel, if they don't believe they will sell the higher class
seats they will add the number of higher class seats to the economy
inventory. I've seen flights that had 5 seats available in every single
class and when I booked a seat in any class all the others went down to 4 (I
tried booking both economy and later business). On the assumption that the
flight then sells out what then happens is that, on the day, they upgrade
some passengers. Generally the passengers upgraded will have paid higher
fares, be premium members of the frequent flyer club - in other words there
is a commercial reason for doing so. But not always and the old saw about
upgrading men who look like they are on business doesn't always apply. I
turned up for a flight from the US back to London on a very cheap economy
ticket, carrying a medium sized backpack and wearing a 49ers jacket (over a
neat but not visible sport coat and shirt with slacks) and got upgraded.
Last year I was booked in premium economy outbound and business home and got
upgraded on the way out with an even bigger (camera) pack and no frequent
flyer status which I have a feeling was because I was booked business on the
way back.