I have seen so many people make this mistake. They buy their flight, and immediately purchase a separate seat upgrade. This is a HUGE mistake, let me explain.

• Seat upgrades that are purchased separate from the ticket are usually non-refundable, even if you need to cancel your ticket. So, buying a seat upgrade too early can cause you to be locked into your original fare. Thus, if the price of your fare drops significantly, it might not be worth cancelling and rebooking if you have spent money on a seat upgrade already. This can cost you way more than you think, like hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of opportunity cost.   Seat upgrades are more or less a sunk cost, regardless of if the ticket you purchased is refundable or not.
• Seat upgrades are priced higher the further out you are from departure date, and often drop in price as you get closer to departure date.

Unless you are buying a flight right before the departure date (so within 2 weeks), it makes more sense to wait to purchase your seat upgrade. Then, you can take advantage of any price drops of the original fare as well as see if the seat upgrade price drops, which it often does. For example, recently I purchase an international economy ticket 3 months prior to departure date and had my eye on a seat upgrade to a higher fare class.  When I bought my ticket, the price of the seat upgrade was $1,200.  Over the course of a month, the price of the flight I bought dropped by $190 and the price of the seat upgrade dropped to $300. Had I purchased that seat upgrade right when I bought my ticket, I would have overspent by $1,090  (the $190 drop in fare + the $900 drop in seat upgrade price).

I will always keep a close eye on the seat map to see if seats that I want to purchase are being taken or not, as that gives me a good idea of when I should take the plunge on the seat upgrade if I am planning to. As you get closer and closer to departure date, the chances become lower of your fare price dropping, so you should be in the clear to purchase a seat upgrade if you wish.

In summary, if you are planning to buy a seat upgrade, either buy a higher fare class from the start (so that you have flexibility in your ticket), or wait to buy your seat upgrade to give your original ticket the chance to drop in price so that you can cancel and rebook if you need to. In my experience, those premium seats you have your eye on don’t get sold out as fast as you think they might. Don’t chase those prices too soon!

-Jacob

Co-Founder @ The Sky Key