Last week, I bid upgraded to WestJet premium, its equivalent of domestic business class, for the reserve price of just $37 on an hourlong flight instead of the listed $65.
After flying almost 400 times in the last four years and bid upgrading or last minute upgrading dozens of times successfully, I thought I’d share my philosophy on when an upgrade is a good deal.
Upgrade pricing, availability and method vary across airlines and routes, so your mileage may vary from attempt to attempt.
Generally, upgrades are available on low demand, leisure, early morning or late night flights, as the premium cabin sees less demand. Meanwhile, business routes, midday or commuter flights and red-eyes see less or no upgrade availability.
Normally, I would just fly whichever itinerary works best for my trip. It’s not worth flying inconvenient routes or times just to maximize the chance of an upgrade. However, I’m agnostic about which airport I connect through if there were no direct flights, the departure and arrival times are similar and the base fare is the same or lower. For example, connecting transatlantic through Montreal may mean more premium cabin availability than connecting through Toronto, which has more business travelers, a wealthier population and more status holders.
I value upgrades to business class at about $50 an hour in 2025 dollars. If the flight is long, eats into normal sleeping hours or features lie-flat pods, I may be open to a higher valuation.
In Canada, two third-party software companies run bid upgrade systems. Plusgrade for Air Canada and Seatboost for WestJet. Plusgrade runs a blind upgrade regime where passengers enter a bid above the reserve amount. Seatboost has a live bid system where passengers can see how competitive their bid is on a leaderboard and outbid one another.
For Plusgrade, my strategy is usually to bid the minimum amount plus $5. The logic is that many people will bid just the minimum and going slightly higher increases your odds above baseline without breaking the bank. If the instant upgrade option is not more than 15% above the reserve price and still within budget, I’d just opt for an instant upgrade.
For Seatboost, you can usually see what the instant upgrade amount is on WestJet’s check-in page. I would monitor seat availability 24 hours to departure and put in a minimum bid, bidding up to $5 below the instant upgrade price. If my odds become slimmer at 12 hours prior to departure, I would just pay the instant upgrade price.
The benefit of Plusgrade is that upgrades are confirmed a day ahead of departure, so you’ll get lounge access for your flight and priority ground services. Seatboost’s auction closes about 75 minutes before a flight, so you’ve likely already checked in and gone through security.
While an upgrade on Air Canada with Plusgrade gives you access to all the perks of flying in a premium cabin, prices for WestJet on Seatboost are generally a lot lower. An instant upgrade on an hourlong flight on Air Canada costs at least $80, but one on an equivalent WestJet flight would cost about $65. The reserve bids are also lower on WestJet.
Since the pricing accounts for the lack of premium ground service, I’d say the value proposition is equivalent for both airlines.
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