Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Paper MVPG Upgrades

Does anyone have tips on using the paper upgrades? I have good luck with online and airport upgrades for west coast trips (Sea/LA/SF/SAC) I am flying with my son to OGG next year. I called to see if I could use the paper upgrades but was told no. There are seats and I suspect 4 months in advance AS wants to sell F seats. But what is the point of having paper upgrades if you cannot use them. I am sure there are tricks but I have not asked until now.

I suggest checking different routes that you might fly and try looking several months into the future for availability. You'd be surprised that some very long flights (e.g. OAK - OGG, LAX-DCA, etc.)offer paper upgradability if you book early enough.

Others can prob weigh in on which routes generally have this availability. There are some routes (e.g. SEA - BOS) that don't generally haev any availability because AS has determined they can sell most of these F seats for full fare...

Are their certain fare codes to look for? Can you use paper upgrades when either booking online or View/Change a current reservation? Thanks for the reply and advise.

The transcons seem to have very little U availability - though I have seen some from PDX at times. HI and Mexico flights have pretty good U availability - at least until somebody else comes along and books it !

PDX-BOS-PDX has been pretty good in teh U availability on many days. SEA-BOS not so much. Well except on my last trip there was U on SEA and none on PDX. I used all 4 on my next trip. BOS-PDX-ORD-PDX-BOS

If you have 2009 Gold UG certs, you can't use those in 2010. If they are 2010 UG certs, then you should be able to use them but you may have to wait for U space to become available.

Also, how do you know when a U fare is available?

Also, how do you know when a U fare is available?

When booking a flight, use the schedule option [pricing, schedule, and low fare calendar]. Look for the Gold "U", and roll your mouse over the "U" and it will tell you which flight has U availability. If a particular flight shows "U" then you can use the paper certs to snag an upgrade on that flight after booking. Be careful, on some flights SEA-LAX-DCA will show the Gold U, but that is for SEA-LAX only not LAX-DCA, so be sure to read the entire box to ensure that the U is available on both legs.

Try searching SEA-LAX using the schedule option you will see many gold Us. Then try flights such as PDX-BOS, LAX-DCA, or PDX-Hawaii and you will see some gold Us.

To increase your chances on Hawaii flights, I would hop on QX and fly over to PDX and connect onto Hawaii, or connect in OAK.

I have a question myself about paper certs as a newbie MVPG. If I am flying one way from LAX-SEA-ORD and there is U availability on both flights. If I want an upgrade on all flights, I will have to burn two certs?

When the time comes, I would only use the certs on the SEA-ORD leg :) But just wanted to know, because AS's website says 4 complimentary one way upgrades, so just wanted to clear up the dust a little.

Also, how do you know when a U fare is available?

www.seatcounter.com shows it directly, but if you get the golden "U" indicating MVPG UG availability on the AS availability page then that indicates Upgrade space is available.

I have a question myself about paper certs as a newbie MVPG. If I am flying one way from LAX-SEA-ORD and there is U availability on both flights. If I want an upgrade on all flights, I will have to burn two certs?

When the time comes, I would only use the certs on the SEA-ORD leg :) But just wanted to know, because AS's website says 4 complimentary one way upgrades, so just wanted to clear up the dust a little.

One itinerary = 1 cert. It has to be a valid one-way itin and I believe that the limitation is a 4-hour connection or less.

So, if you can book it on AS.com, as a valid one-way trip, and there is U availability for both segments, you should be golden :).

Dave

www.seatcounter.com shows it directly, but if you get the golden "U" indicating MVPG UG availability on the AS availability page then that indicates Upgrade space is available.

seatcounter used to be accurate, then a couple others... sadly best way these days is to do a paid one like expertflyer or call up AS to confirm there is U space on a flight...

But unless on a peak holiday, Hawaii has been very good to me with upgrades!

We used certs to upgrade to Hawaii last year. When I called four months out, I was told that there were no upgrades available, even though there were still seats in F. I called back regularly and finally, a month from our flight, got two upgrades. So don't give up and keep checking in with reservations.

One itinerary = 1 cert. It has to be a valid one-way itin and I believe that the limitation is a 4-hour connection or less.

So, if you can book it on AS.com, as a valid one-way trip, and there is U availability for both segments, you should be golden :).

Dave

Nice! :D

I would use upgrade certs on difficult routes, like transcons and hawaii.

I would not use a cert to fly from SEA-GEG or something under a couple of hours, unless I really wanted to ensure that locked in luxury.

seatcounter used to be accurate, then a couple others... sadly best way these days is to do a paid one like expertflyer or call up AS to confirm there is U space on a flight...

But unless on a peak holiday, Hawaii has been very good to me with upgrades!

ExpertFlyer.com allows you to set alerts that will email you when U space opens up, but it costs $5-10 per month (depending on the service you subscribe to).

LMOffice.com has a U space tracker that's free. It's not as dependable or accurate, but hey, you can't argue with the price. And it's operated by a fellow FTer. ^

It pays to subscribe to at least some sort of notification assistant (whether paid ExpertFlyer or free LMOffice), since there's competition for those U-space seats--not only from other MVPG cert holders but also MVPGs who have booked Value or Full Flex fares and are waitlisted for instant upgrades. You want to be proactively notified about U space availability so you can call in and get the upgrade before anyone else calls or before the computer system automatically upgrades any Value/Full Flex fare Golds. :)

ExpertFlyer.com allows you to set alerts that will email you when U space opens up, but it costs $5-10 per month (depending on the service you subscribe to).

LMOffice.com has a U space tracker that's free. It's not as dependable or accurate, but hey, you can't argue with the price. And it's operated by a fellow FTer. ^

It pays to subscribe to at least some sort of notification assistant (whether paid ExpertFlyer or free LMOffice), since there's competition for those U-space seats--not only from other MVPG cert holders but also MVPGs who have booked Value or Full Flex fares and are waitlisted for instant upgrades. You want to be proactively notified about U space availability so you can call in and get the upgrade before anyone else calls or before the computer system automatically upgrades any Value/Full Flex fare Golds. :)

:D

Yes, proactive is very :cool:

Recently got myself in the front of a flight to OGG... :cool: but the return is sold out in F... :(

IIRC I got the expertflyer alert and not LMOffice (Only did 5 day trial of Expertflyer... for the amount I travel... still don't want to shell out the extra $$$... -now if we got extra AS miles :p)

I would use upgrade certs on difficult routes, like transcons and hawaii.

I would not use a cert to fly from SEA-GEG or something under a couple of hours, unless I really wanted to ensure that locked in luxury.yeah I totally agree. I dont even use them on a 3 hour flight between ANC-SEA except at the end of the year If I have any left. I mainly use them between ANC/ORD nonstops and availability is pretty good 2 1/2 or so months out. Can get much more out of an upgrade certificate than that ^

yeah I totally agree. I dont even use them on a 3 hour flight between ANC-SEA except at the end of the year If I have any left. I mainly use them between ANC/ORD nonstops and availability is pretty good 2 1/2 or so months out. Can get much more out of an upgrade certificate than that ^

Good point... if any left... time to burn em' :p

But generally I'm on a segment 2,300 miles or longer before burning them...

I know this is heresy, but I usually forget that I have them....but I do have one more trip (at least) coming up on them. It is, however, a codeshare DL flight op by AS. If I have my AS record locator, can I still use them, since I can't upgrade until check in on a code share?

...I guess the easiest thing is to call the Gold Line and ask away.....


(hours later...) and nope. Delta ticket stock means no auto-upgrades, no complimentary upgrades, and no waitlisting. Perhaps this will be addressed in the future when we get reciprocity with the wicked widget.

(hours later...) and nope. Delta ticket stock means no auto-upgrades, no complimentary upgrades, and no waitlisting. Perhaps this will be addressed in the future when we get reciprocity with the wicked widget.I have :confused:

I have :confused:

:confused:

It is not permitted...

One of the pitfalls of codeshares :(

:confused:

It is not permitted...

One of the pitfalls of codeshares :(Hmm it just worked for me in mid October on NW ticket stock. Perhaps because I booked on a travel site that sent each airline my frequent flier number for each airline respectively?

Hmm it just worked for me in mid October on NW ticket stock. Perhaps because I booked on a travel site that sent each airline my frequent flier number for each airline respectively?

I know its not supposed to work... but have a NW coded AS flight in January...

I have been able to do it personally several times this year on NW and DL. Both of these airlines provide the confirmation number so they are easy to load into mytrips. However, you will have to call american. If the ticket is one of those mangled messes devised by cheaptickets/etc you will have the confirmation number as well.

A lot of these operated by AS flights have very low fare classes, so id be shocked if you got put on a waitlist.

This weekend, I applied a gold cert to an AS operated/originated flight on an AA ticketed itinerary. From what I understand so far, I will probably have some CS issues in SNA...but i think i have enough time to take care of them.