Am going ALB-MCO in Oct with 3 other people. Traveling down on a Wed and back on a Thurs. They are not preferred, I am silver. I would like all of us to get upgraded. Now for the strategy on how to make it happen. I need to get either 2 of 4 or all 4 upgraded since wife, child, and mother are all higher on the food chain than me - and if I'm riding with the cattle I'm dragging someone with me - especially when I'm paying for all.

I have all of these at my disposal.
a) 2 SWU
b) miles
c) NA 800 certificates
d) paid upgrade certificates
e) 2 NA space positive one way upgrades (DS0066) Can upgrade 1 day in advance - need not be preferred. They work like a silver with enough certs to cover the trip.
f) upgrade cert on Y or "US" fare.

First the plane. There are no 757's on the route - mostly 737. It will be hard to get 4 of the 12 seats on a 737. There is an airbus that goes LGW-PHL-MCO. This would appear to have the best chance (PHL-MCO) due to the number of Envoy seats. No meal but good seat. Not traveling the last 5 days of the months so the pilots should still have airbus time.

My thoughts are the SWU is a waste on this trip, the Y and "US" fares are too high when I pay the bill - especially for the MCO market. Options A and F are out.

My idea is I will blow 20K each and upgrade 2 people from paid tickets. Blowing 40K for an F to MCO is a waste. At least I will have 2 confirmed seats each way. I can roll the dice and try to upgrade myself and a companion using the NA 800 mile certs. If I use the Airbus it may work. traveling mid day may also help.

Using option E may save me 20K but there are no guarentees. If I upgrade ony 1 person using miles and all else falls thru - who rides up front alone. Politically bad.

Any other ideas?

I might be wrong, but I think that you can only upgrade one other person traveling with you in the same itinerary, using your coupons. The other two could upgrade with award USU20, 20K miles for a domestic roundtrip. Unfortunately, all of these upgrades are capacity controlled, though the USU20 award can be confirmed in advance.

BTW, are you sure the A330 coming in from LGW (I thought it was CDG) goes on to MCO. Somehow I think there is a change of gauge in PHL and the 'craft going down to MCO is not the A330....

RZ

Hello US FTers,

The upgrade of 4 people is very difficult in view of the capacity controls on most flights.

The best that we have ever done (I am Gold and my wife is Silver) was to upgrade ourselves with our son and his fiance' on Saturday afternoon/evening flights from the East Coast to LAS in June 2000.

Note - I was told by a US worker that the US Thursday traffic has been steadily increasing in the past few years. She said that in many US markets with heavy business travel that Thursday loads had started to come close to Fridays.

Good Luck,

Va.SquireFlyer

There's no Airbus A330 to Orlando. If you're referring to flight 95, it goes LGW-CLT-MCO, and the A330 only goes as far as Charlotte. The flight number stays the same, but the equipment changes. Confusing, to say the least. I suspect it has something to do with marketing to make people believe they are on just one 'flight' to get from LGW to MCO. Imagine their surprise when told to change planes, despite keeping the same flight number.

You mentioned the end of the month...if that's this month(May) then the larger planes fly PHL-MCO as follows:A320 at 9:45am, 757 at 9:50pm. The 320 only has 4 rows of FC, though. Not a huge improvement, but better. Returning, there is a 757 at 6:45am, 2:05pm and 9:05pm.

Starting in June, there is a 757(flight 27) at 4pm from PHL-MCO, and an A321 at 9:55pm. Returning via PHL, there are 2 757 flights(8:50am, 2:05pm) and no A321s. I didn't look further to see how these would fit into potential connections to/from ALB.

Point is, to upgrade 4 will be tough on the flights with just 12 FC seats. The legal way to do it is use 40,000 points for 2 of the people right away, and then roll the dice with the other 2 people with certs in your silver window. You could also use 2 SWU's(a HUGE waste, mind you) for you and a companion immediately, and then call back in your silver window to upgrade the others, one by one. That's technically not allowed, but people have done it with success. Not something I would bank on, though.

If you can do without the FC seats(it's nothing to write home about on a 2 hour domestic flight), there is 1 nonstop metrojet (a 737-200) from Albany to Orlando. All coach, no frills. But only about a 2.5-3 hour nonstop trip. IMHO, I would prefer that routing over having to connect somewhere (adding 2 hours to your trip) along with the anxiety of getting 4 people upgraded to a popular destination. Don't forget the kid factor...don't you want to get them there quickly rather than tow them through an airport for a connection??

Good Luck -