PHL-AMS flight's tomorrow night...agent tells me there's still 10 seats for sale in Envoy. Coach is oversold.

I've got my confirmed upgrade, but my companion got wait listed, and he's not a DM member at all. My hope was, when I upgraded 2 months ago, that he'd get upgraded with me, but I snagged the last seat in hopes he could clear the waitlist or get a standby at the airport.

We'll get there good and early tomorrow, I suppose. What concerns me is not that there are 10 seats still open, but that coach is oversold. I guess this could work to his favor, unless they start operationally upgrading people. How do you think operations will handle this when they take a look at the flight loads tomorrow?

Update: The agent told me this afternoon coach was oversold. ITN just showed me 6 coach seats left. This made me think - "did they go through and open seats/clear the waitlist??" but no luck. Still 11 Envoy seats for sale, which gives him a good chance(I believe)

What's even more interesting is that ITN priced a weekend roundtrip from PHL-AMS, leaving TOMORROW(5/10), returning MON(5/14) at $351!!! Yesterday, someone would have paid a full coach fare for this. Today, they're trying to sell the last few seats at a discounted rate.

Though I am not BOS-AMS for a bit, I'll be curious on the op/up situation, if you could keep and eye out on that accord. Looking for info regarding to changes in US policy/implementation since the introduction of international 3-class (NB: on other routes) along with inaugural service practices. An op/up to envoy over a bump? Heres to hoping!

A couple years ago an "operational upgrade" into Envoy would have been impossible, as US always guarded the service. There were no upgrades (either certificates or mileage). Agents would generally bump someone to the next day's flight rather than move someone up to Envoy. The exception is that companies would (and still do) receive certificates for free upgrades. US has gotten more liberal in this regard with the Preferred upgrades and mileage upgrades.

I'll be flying that route next week as a matter of fact. Last time I flew US in AMS (before they stopped the service) arrivals facilities were provided in the Amsterdam Airport Sheraton. I am wondering if they still have this set-up, and what the departure lounge is? I'm guessing Odgen (I think that's the name), and if so, too bad. It's not a very good lounge!

Well - here I am in AMS at an internet "coffee shop" (no explanation for those of you familiar with the coffee shop scene here)

My friend and I checked in to find Envoy "full", so he was given his coach boarding pass and put on standby for upgrade. I asked the clearly flustered agent where, on the list, he was and she said number five. This didn't sound good. How many checked in by this time? 18 out of 23 booked passengers with 90 minutes to go until the flight.

Then, since he would not be admitted to the Envoy lounge with me, we went to the club in PHL above B/C. The Envoy lounge agents are very adamant about not allowing a coach companion to accompany his/her Envoy companion.

The agents at the club seemed to have a better grip on handling customer needs, so I asked them to be sure "Where on the standby list for flight 42 is Mr. XXX". The woman looked it up and confirmed - number 5 on the list with still 18 out of 23 checked in.

Then, she noticed he was put in as a US4(no DM level). They asked if I was a tier level member, to which I replied that I am gold. By switching him to a US2, that put him at the top of the list. All the rest of the standbys were silvers. Why the heck didn't the agent at the front counter do this??? He was on my itenerary and we checked in together. That really irks me, because if I didn't ask a SECOND time, he'd have stayed 5th on the list. As a customer, I shouldn't have to do this.

Later, when the gate agents started clearing the standby list, his name was the first called, plus only 2 others. If he'd remained at number 5, he'd have been in coach. He joined me in seat 4B and we had a wonderful flight. Great service from the FAs. But - as usual, the entertainment didn't match the guide. The first run was fine, but then the second(progamme B) had NO english speaking movies. The FA told me that this ALWAYS happens and the movies RARELY match the guide. The tapes are only labeled with A-1, A-2, etc. No titles.

Back to the upgrade - I just don't understand the disparity in the way the agents handle this important customer service component of their job...any ideas??? My guess is lack of proper training on SABRE - they seem to just want to do what's necessary to get the passenger record settled and move to the next customer. When odd requests like upgrading a K to an O come up, that sends them into a tizzy(sometimes).

Oh well - all's well that ends well. We'll see how my return goes. I don't know if the agents in AMS are contract or USAirways employees.


[This message has been edited by PHL (edited 05-12-2001).]

With all due respect, I think the disparity in the way the agents handled your situation didn't have nearly as much to do with training as it did with LOCATION!!! I mean, you WERE in PHL!!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

Quite frankly I think the first agent was the following the rules and the second agent (at the club) was simply bending the rules to be nice. As far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong), status priority is given by the highest status on the same record, not necessarily anyone traveling with you (just talking about US here). I don't see how your friend and you could have been on the same record (if you started on the same record, wouldn't it have had to be split when you upgraded?). Thus technically your friend's status is only as high as the highest status on his record (thus whatever his status was; in this case US4=standard Dividend miles member). Thus the first agent was right to only have him down as a US4. The second agent (at the club) was giving you and him a favor by bringing his status up to US2 (gold=your status) because you were traveling together, though not on the same record.

Please correct me if my logic is wrong.

My logic is this:

The first agent knew I was gold and also knew we were travelling together. I don't know if our records were 'unlinked' when I got the advance upgrade(since we were on the same itenerary). But - regardless, if the policy is to put the companion on the waitlist at their friend's DM status, then the first agent should have done that. The club agents recognized it and wasted no time fixing the error.

Not to get too off subject - to further my issues with 767 entertainment, the tapes AGAIN were all mucked up. Programs on wrong channels, some not even showing as listed in the guide. On my return flight, same problem. I politely asked the FA to check and she looked at me like I was crazy and a bother. "Did you look at ALL the channels??" to which I replied, "yes, that's how I know that this program is on the wrong channel, and such-and-such is not even playing, etc. etc.".

Watching Vertical Limit was interesting - not only was it on the wrong channel, but my left ear was English and the right ear was French!??!@ I give up.

My logic is this:

The first agent knew I was gold and also knew we were travelling together. I don't know if our records were 'unlinked' when I got the advance upgrade(since we were on the same itenerary). But - regardless, if the policy is to put the companion on the waitlist at their friend's DM status, then the first agent should have done that. The club agents recognized it and wasted no time fixing the error.

Not to get too off subject - to further my issues with 767 entertainment, the tapes AGAIN were all mucked up. Programs on wrong channels, some not even showing as listed in the guide. On my return flight, same problem. I politely asked the FA to check and she looked at me like I was crazy and a bother. "Did you look at ALL the channels??" to which I replied, "yes, that's how I know that this program is on the wrong channel, and such-and-such is not even playing, etc. etc.".

Watching Vertical Limit was interesting - not only was it on the wrong channel, but my left ear was English and the right ear was French!??!@ I give up.

This seems to depend on airline. Some airlines consider companions to be of the same status level as the primary traveller. Other's dont.

I think USAirways is of the former; my wife normally is treated as Chairman's Preferred.

What I always do is make sure that our reservations are linked - even if we made them separately. Best thing to do is to confirm that with the Preferred folks after the reservatio is ticketed. BUT, sometimes you'll have to make sure they gave your companion your status level (they recently forgot to so that for a friend of mine - but we got them to correct it - he still didn't get the F upgrade on a transcon, he at least had an exit row). If the upgrade list has not cleared - and its day of flight - make sure all is squared away.