Have you ever tried Seatboost? Here's how to get an upgrade right from your phone

In recent days I published the review of my flight with TAP and inside the video I talk about the Seatboost app a product used by a group of vectors that allows cabin upgrades to be redeemed easily, quickly and intuitively.

Almost simultaneously In our Facebook group dedicated to frequent flyers. a reader shared his upgrade experience just using this system, and since several questions came in I decided to do an article

Who uses seatboost

It is a startup that seeks to insert itself into the world of air transportation by positioning itself in an empty space, namely that of flight upgrades. In September this year, the IAG group invested in this project. and, in chronological order, Latam was the last company to join.

Unfortunately, it is not used by very many carriers; there are only 5:

• Avianca
• Condor
• Iberia
• Latam
• TAP Portugal

I imagine that the entry of IAG and the presence of Iberia may open up British Airways and Qatar to also participate in the system in the future. The presence of Condor also gives hope that, sooner or later, the Lufthansa group will also arrive.

How seatboost works

If you are flying with one of these carriers you can log in at any time through the PNR of your reservation and see all available options. If you have, under the same PNR, multiple flights scheduled you will see all available routes.

The thing that surprised me, in a positive sense, is to see the ability to use the service until the last moment, even while standing in line at the gate waiting for boarding to open, of course always if there is seat availability on board. There is really a countdown, which I think coincides with the opening of boarding, with different timing between business clas and economy.

However, the system is auction-based, with a preset minimum bid. I have not tried to ask the desk about the possible cost of an upgrade, but I imagine it is potentially cheaper since if bought at the airport no fee has to be given to the app operator, let alone there are interconnection fees for mobile payment.

A reader's field test

In recent days, one of our loyal readers shared his own experience with a series of upgrades obtained thanks to this app, here is his story.

Great experience with SeatBoost that I didn't know about.Purchased VCE-MAD-VCE for 163€. Business was 1024€ round trip (I honestly don't understand the point of such a biz fare but every weekend is at that price)....a madness for 2 hours and a little more of flight....we were 6 out of 16 seats . Made offer of 51€ x 1 leg per person and accepted, there were 2 of us.Also won auction at 49€ per person for upgrade to biz on return trip.
Simple , intuitive , works great ! If it goes even the return with 260€ a/r in business . On top of that ate one of the best tiramisu of my life , and by job I am Chef of cuisine....

In conclusion

At this time there are not many alternatives to this tool, of course there are the classic rods with Plusgrade, but they "stop" at a few days before check-in. Seatboost innovation adds to ability to request upgrade at check-in counter. Then there's just more of a chance to upgrade on board, but not all companies allow that