Dear US FT gang-
Wondering if anybody could help me find the routing that would most likely be upgraded for this transcon. The connections are, I believe, LAS, PHX, and DEN. I'm leaning toward DEN as it's not a hub, they've recently upgraded service for this flight (Movie and meal in first, from what I hear) & there's a strong likelihood that I'll score E+ on the DEN-OAK leg. If anyone knows different, or just plain has an opinion, please drop a note!
Thanks as always, guys,
Kendall

Yeah, DEN probably is your best bet, as I understand that even CPs are having a tough time upgrading on PHL-PHX. You should have no problem getting E+ from DEN-OAK.

Dear US FT gang-
Wondering if anybody could help me find the routing that would most likely be upgraded for this transcon. The connections are, I believe, LAS, PHX, and DEN. I'm leaning toward DEN as it's not a hub, they've recently upgraded service for this flight (Movie and meal in first, from what I hear) & there's a strong likelihood that I'll score E+ on the DEN-OAK leg. If anyone knows different, or just plain has an opinion, please drop a note!
Thanks as always, guys,
Kendall

PHL-DEN is a snack and not a meal in FC. If you have time between your US and UA flight and are hungry, immediately proceed to the UA terminal, where food options are exceedingly more plentiful. (I recommend the french restaurant at the top of the escalators in the hub of the UA terminal).

7:40 AM Philadelphia, PA 10:07 AM Las Vegas, NV Flight: 1200 (operated by US)
Boeing 757-200 Meal: Buy On Board Flight Time: 5 h 27 m
--OR--
7:50 AM Philadelphia, PA 10:39 AM Las Vegas, NV Flight: 430 (operated by HP)
Airbus A320 On-Time: 20% Meal: Buy On Board Flight Time: 5 h 49 m

--Connecting to--

11:27 AM Las Vegas, NV 1:06 PM Oakland, CA Flight: 372 Class: Coach Airbus A320 On-Time: 80% Meal: None Flight Time: 1 h 39 m

I would do this routing as the early morning departure to LAS avoids most of the leisure travelers. I am 50/50 on the evening LAS departures as a gold member and those flights are FULL with leisure travelers. My upgrade percentages are better on the HP flights as most US DM business travelers have not migrated over to the (sunny side) known as HP :D. Also, the HP 320 has 50% more F than the US, but there is not a better exit row seat out there than row 9 on the 757 if you don't clear for First.

As for the LAS-OAK flight, you should be golden. I usually clear on my LAS-SFO/OAK/SJC flights with my gold status.

I hope my suggestions helped.

LAS-anywhere is pretty easy, but especially the short West Coast hops. Even LAS-PHX.

I started this thread with this info in mind that you posted in Feburary.
Still relevant? What gives?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=521611&page=1
Kendall

Dear US FT gang-
Wondering if anybody could help me find the routing that would most likely be upgraded for this transcon. The connections are, I believe, LAS, PHX, and DEN. I'm leaning toward DEN as it's not a hub, they've recently upgraded service for this flight (Movie and meal in first, from what I hear) & there's a strong likelihood that I'll score E+ on the DEN-OAK leg. If anyone knows different, or just plain has an opinion, please drop a note!
Thanks as always, guys,
Kendall

Have you considered starting out in ABE, rather than PHL? You might start on a small jet to PIT, but at least you avoid competing for upgrades with all the elites at PHL. And ABE is a much less stressful airport IMHO on several fronts.

Obviously an ABE-PHL first leg doesn't help, unless you're trying to score segments . Ask me about my ABE-PHL-DCA sometime ;).

If you're not attached to flying into OAK and you really want the upgrade, I'd fly either PHL-SFO or CLT-SFO. There's 3x A321 on each route, for a total of 156 F seats daily. I've only ever missed one PHL-SFO upgrade as a Gold. Otherwise, PHL-DEN-OAK seems like a good bet. If you were to fly via PHX, the PHX-OAK upgrade is a gimme but PHL-PHX will be very tough.

So I pulled the trigger on my purchase-
I went for the roach fare PHL-LAX-OAK.
It's not particularly good form to mention it, but price was the driving factor here, and that's why I went for it. There were some terrific deals last week on this, but when I went for it today I was dismayed to find that the lowest fares had gone up 33%-125%. I should have just gone with my gut at the time.
BTW, I never considered PHL-SFO because I'm one for three on upgrades there. That's also a very busy route.
Thanks again everyone.
Kendall