I will be flying transatlantic from Europe to PHL on Tuesday and justed checked usairways.com to find out that I was still waitlisted. I called the European US Air office to find out why (I am a Silver Pref and bought a mightily expensive B-code ticket to be eligible for a 10k miles upgrade). Since it is Sunday the European office closed after 5 PM, so I decided to call to the US DM phone number and they checked. They saw no reason not to upgrade me 48 hours in advance so the friendly US Air employee processed my upgrade and assigned seats for the trip, including connecting flights. Wonderful experience, and it shows that a phone call may be wise when an upgrade somehow does not come through. With current international calling rates this cost me less than 15 cents, and gives me two days to decide whether I will choose champagne, orange juice or mimosa when boarding @:-)

...(I am a Silver Pref and bought a mightily expensive B-code ticket to be eligible for a 10k miles upgrade)....They saw no reason not to upgrade me 48 hours in advance so the friendly US Air employee processed my upgrade and assigned seats for the trip, including connecting flights. Wonderful experience, and it shows that a phone call may be wise...

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm also waitlisted outbound on a "B" fare for a transAtlantic weekend trip in late May. Return flights have been confirmed in Envoy and F. I'm in queue for the auto upgrade if there's "R" bucket availability anytime before May, but sometimes that doesn't work right, and I'd be calling US nearer flight date to see what's up if my outbound upgrade hadn't cleared by then.

It is good to hear they already upgraded your return flight. I have not been lucky enough to get anything but Envoy waitlist before. Which is quite disappointing, considering the fact that Envoy class usually is not full and B-code is at least four times as expensive as W.

... gives me two days to decide whether I will choose champagne, orange juice or mimosa when boarding @:-)

Oh, the humanity!!! :D

I have found it doesn't hurt to call a couple of days before just to see
if your upgrade cleared. It saves on the suspense at the gate.


Cheers!

If they make it too easy to upgrade from "B" or "Y" with 10k Miles each way, there would be fewer buyers of paid Envoy :) . Last time I checked, full-fare Envoy was upwards of $6,000. Sometimes there is a "Z" restricted fare around $2,500 (I think consolidators sell Envoy for around that price too).

I guess it's all relative...."B" may well be more expensive than "W" but it's a lot cheaper than the others.

I know B is a premium price to pay, but it's surely not that big a deal if it gets you a seat in Envoy which some companies have paid between 3 and 6 thousand dollars for - and the passenger only loses 10,000 miles for the privilege instead of 30,000. If you have decent status, it's rare not to get into the Envoy cabin. There's always a slight risk, but generally everyone's a winner: the airline sells a premium priced fare, and the passenger gets a full business class service for the price of a coach ticket, minus a very reasonable amount of miles.

I will be flying transatlantic from Europe to PHL on Tuesday and justed checked usairways.com to find out that I was still waitlisted. I called the European US Air office to find out why (I am a Silver Pref and bought a mightily expensive B-code ticket to be eligible for a 10k miles upgrade). Since it is Sunday the European office closed after 5 PM, so I decided to call to the US DM phone number and they checked. They saw no reason not to upgrade me 48 hours in advance so the friendly US Air employee processed my upgrade and assigned seats for the trip, including connecting flights. Wonderful experience, and it shows that a phone call may be wise when an upgrade somehow does not come through. With current international calling rates this cost me less than 15 cents, and gives me two days to decide whether I will choose champagne, orange juice or mimosa when boarding @:-)

How much did you pay for the 'B' fare?

About $ 2000 if I remember correctly

I think few people would be willing to pay $4K plus for Envoy after any corporate discounts or whatever would actually bother paying less and trying to upgrade. These people have the dough and the authority to spend it. Why bother....then again, unless they are flying to/from PHL or CLT, I would try and fly BA or Swiss or something.