US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - what's the deal with upgrades

one of my good friends gave me a bunch of 800 mile upgrades. does us have any issue for others using upgrades issued to another person? my friends says he does this often and that's there's been no problem? what's your experiences with this? we are not on the same itinerary.

(deleted--you'd think their website would mention something like that, but nooooooooo....)

[This message has been edited by silverpie (edited 04-05-2000).]

US Airways does send 800-mile upgrades to their Preferred members. Additionally, this year they started given Preferred members Systemwide Upgrades.

800-mile upgrades can only be used by the Preferred member to whom they were issued or to a companion of the Preferred member traveling on the same intinerary.

Unless you're traveling with your friend, you can't use them.

BizJet

Uhh, silverpie, I have a stack of 50 800 mile coupon upgrades for USAirways. They are all in my name or my wife's name but we don't use them since I am Chairman's Preferred.

Personally most of the time I did see them cross check the name on the cert with the person flying, but maybe not a few times. If your friend is ok with you trying then, hey, give it a shot. Personally mine will probably end up in the garbarge since I don't want to risk it coming back to me in the end since name and FF# is marked on upgrade.

OK. You guys are really twisting the knife here! As I said in my recent plea for help in Coupon Connection, I'd give a lot for an upgrade and you have ones that you have to throw away. What a waste! On top of this horrible long trip in coach at the end of the month (business--not pleasure, believe me), I found out today that I am in a MIDDLE SEAT for SEA-PIT. Ouch! Can it get any worse? Anyway, does US Airways offer purchased upgrades like AS and NWA do within 24 hours?

Full fare economy tickets can be upgraded by a non-Preferred customers (regular Div. miles member... enroll online if you're not a member) with PURCHASED upgrade certificates. If you are on a full fare (J or Y fare) you can call the Div. Miles service center (1-336-661-8390) and purchase the upgrades... I think they are about $50 each for non-preferred members. R/T from the west coast you will need 3 certificates each way... and you don't need to wait until 24 hours before your flight... you can do it now. Good luck.

BTW, my experience with the upgrades that are mailed to Pref. members is the same as dg1... I have used them to upgrade friends flying with me. I too have a surplus of the 800 mile certs with my name on them but save them for when I'm headed somewhere with a group of friends on a weekend flight (Sat. afternoon, e-savers) when there are no other preferreds flying and upgrade as many or all of them... they love it. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif

[This message has been edited by geo1004 (edited 04-06-2000).]

I thought you could only upgrade one travelling companion with the certs?

In any case mine really are very very useless since they are from the ole days when I was a lowly Preferred Gold <grin to geo> and I am Chairman's Preferred (with unlimited upgrades) till after the expiration date of all of them http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

SEA-PIT is flown on Airbus'es. I flew that route last month (in first, however http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) It won't be too bad, if you can get out of that middle seat.

DG1 you bring up a point I tried to get resolved with customer service but got no answer. It goes like this. If I am Gold Preferred I get sent eight 800 mile coupons every 10,000 miles flown and they are good for a year. If I am chairman's I get no coupons since I have unlimited upgrades. What about next April if I don't requalify for Chairman's but only hit Gold Preferred? I will have no upgrades to use since I have no coupons while the Gold Preferred will still have his upgrades to use since they will not have expired yet

It really isn't that great an issue for me since I am moving to Paris and probably will have very limited flying on USAirways next year but it is something to think about

psu lion: if you are a Chairman's Pref now and only requalify for Gold Pref next year your CP status will be good until the end of Feb next year, by which time you should have received your Gold packet with its set of certificates... so you'll at least have some. But you are right, you will not have the 40 certificates you would have earned as a Gold member flying 50,000 miles this year... which would have expiration dates into the next year. I guess that's the price you pay for being a Chairman's Preferred! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

that's they way delta does it also. when i qualified for platinum in 99, i had 51 upgrades in my account. after i dropped back to gold and no longer had unlimited in 2000, my initial allocation was eight. i somehow received another 10 for a total of 18. in the two years i've had status on delta, i've probably used 10 upgrades in total. quite useless to me don't ya think?

dg1: Unfortunately, my flight SEA-PIT is not an Airbus but a 757 (both ways) as is the PIT-BWI leg which is short enough that I don't care where I sit. The other leg is in a Beechcraft Turbo which I think is kind of fun.

This whole thing has been a reality check for me as my husband likes to point out. He says I am so spoiled by first class and other FF privileges, that I've lost touch with the way the other half lives (or travels). He's right, of course, but this trip is a FFer's nightmare.
1. Miles on an airline I rarely use, so pretty useless to me as I may never accumulate more miles plus no status miles I can use.
2. I'm staying at the Trump Plaza so no hotel points.
3. A 12-hour travel day for business on my own time (a Sunday).
4. Coach (without the miles to comfort me)
5. The dreaded middle seat

My philosophy--no miles, no points--a wasted trip!

To bring it back to the topic of this forum, I have only flown once on US Airways, and it was a great experience--but that was up front. Ticketed with NWA on a SMF-SFO-DTW-PVD flight, I was delayed in SMF so would miss my connections all down the line. NWA put me on US Airways and they honored my ConnectFirst seat on their planes without blinking an eye. I was quite impressed.

Anyway, thanks for your advice and encouragement.

I'm in the same bind as PSU Lion, probably not next year (I have a running scorecard which I keep track of the race to requalify), but the year after that. I doubt I'll be able to stay married if I keep dragging my wife to CLE or CMH to get more segments and cheaper fares http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

In any case I've always wondered too -- it looks like we get screwed. For example, I've already qualified for Preferred; I should start earning certs now. But of course I'm not getting any.

I almost had the same experience; I almost flew on Northwest http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I didn't, though now I don't know if it's worth it -- USAirways put me, a Chairman's Preferred travelling full fare, in a center seat in coach. That's just not right. I changed a day in advance on a non-peak flight, and they have no aisle or window seats available?

I personally am seeing a bad trend here -- it is getting harder and harder to secure upgrades if you change plans quickly, and even hard to secure basic decent seats in coach!

(Update: My story has a happy ending. I called back, and what are the odds, I got the same helpful lady. She had recommended an earlier departure with connection which had better coach seats available. It turns out now that flight had first class available on both segments, so boom, a lot more double dividend miles and first class to boot. It pays to call back!)

Good luck Travelweary. A 757 in coach middle seat for five hours IS painful; my best wishes you can walk afterwards. (Too many people I know tell me of that problem after transcons in coach)


[This message has been edited by dg1 (edited 04-06-2000).]

All of a sudden, first class seats are disappearing fast. Just look in Amex/ITN. If I had to guess, I'd bet that as part of the effort to regain passengers lost because of the impending walkout, big corporate clients and travel agencies are being given complimentary upgrades to use. Just a hunch.