US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - How Diligent About E-Saver Upgrades?

I recall a few months ago we were told no more using upgrades with e-saver fares. Has anyone tried to upgrade on an e-saver since we were told it was no longer allowed?

Can we upgrade on e-savers? How easy is it? Are they being diligent about their pronouncement or not?

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Jonathan Goldstein
jonathan@pobox.com
http://www.urbantechgroup.com

Domestically, FTers have been able to sit up fron on an esaver after the announcement.

Internationally, the crack down started before the announcement. I would say it is harder to upgrade an Int'l esaver, but not impossible.

I've seen agents at the Preferred line in Charlotte let a Preferred member know (in no uncertain terms) that they could not upgrade him on an e-saver. It was in May - and the passenger was trying to use older (but still valid) NAUs which do not have the no e-saver upgrade language. They advised him that the rules had changed, and his response was something to the effect of "well, this isn't good customer service" (thanks for throwing some gasoline on that fire buddy).

So maybe it's agent-dependent - or maybe this guy just wasn't being pleasant to the agent (can't recall, I was too busy trying to get my upgrade for CLT-PHX).

Funny you should ask.

This past Saturday, myself (silver) and my significant other (no status) were flying PIT-SBN on an e-saver. I decide to try to blow some upgrades, despite the crackdown.

I call on Friday AM. Space is available, however the agent puts me on hold, comes back and informs me that e-savers cannot be upgraded. OK. Fast forward to the gate@PIT on Saturday morning. I approach the agent and ask about upgrades. She takes silver card, two certs and begins the process. All looks well except the computer tells her that it "won't go thru." Okay, so we have the exit row on the F-100 for the whole 52 minute flight.

Spent a day visiting family at SBN. Roll on out to SBN on Sunday evening. Approach the FC checkin counter (that being one of the two agents in sight) and try again. Space is available, but it (the computer) won't let the agent put the upgrade thru. He tries about 6 ways from Sunday to make it happen, but no dice. Back in the exit row.

Off to the gate. US ops at SBN have 1 of perhaps 5 jet gates. I approach the gate agent and try again. She takes DM silver card, existing BPs and certs and we are in 1A and 1B (or 1C, whichever) in roughly 30 seconds (most of which was me trying to pry out of her exactly what I need to do to be the system going forward http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

So the moral of the story is this (as has been said since US implemented the e-saver policy)--the gate agent is probably the best bet.

All remarks about why one would want to sit FC on an F-100 for 52 minutes will be sent to the bitbucket http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

Frankly, given the fact that I almost always have upgrades left over at the end of the year which are due to expire, I don't mind shucking one out for a free drinky or two en route during the 50 minute flights. It certainly feels better to be up front than to fight the masses back in steerage.

I think the gate agents have MUCH more leeway in moving folks around that other agents. They are routinely put in the position have to juggle seats to accomadate people and make sure that flights are as full as possible.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by BillMorrow:
I think the gate agents have MUCH more leeway in moving folks around that other agents. They are routinely put in the position have to juggle seats to accomadate people and make sure that flights are as full as possible.</font>

You are correct sir! I've seen gate agents give operational upgrades when they had to deal with a weight balance issue (helped for a family member I couldn't initially upgrade). When I missed a flight out of ORD, the gate agent routed me through PIT, and upgraded me on the ORD-PIT segment, even though I was travelling on a round trip flight credit (which can no longer be upgraded). They do have a good bit more leeway in all situations, it seems.

Therefore the conclusion- sometimes on domestic, no internationally.

I went to Spain in February on an E-Saver and tried to use my SWUs. I was Gold Preferred and got seat assignments without a waiting list. At DCA check in, an error message popped up that would not allow the star code for SWUs to be entered. I called customer service and we mutually agreed on paying $106 more to be able to use them. I was about to cancel the flight so they knew I was serious.

I thought it was a good solution at the time, however I would rather have the original seat assignments and SWUs in the system as planned. I suppose it can be done, but when e-savers are offered on airlines, I prefer to go on AA where I can upgrade with miles without learning fare basis.

Also, please note that when buying tickets at usair.com, it does not state clearly that you can not use upgrades. Makes it hard for us to know which fares are upgradeable and which are not. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by worldbanker:
Also, please note that when buying tickets at usair.com, it does not state clearly that you can not use upgrades. Makes it hard for us to know which fares are upgradeable and which are not. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif</font>

You're right - it's not plain as day, and you have to do some digging. How to do it -you can find the info when you look at he fare rules. Fr example when you reach the screen with your fare basis - click on rules. It'll take a bit of looking, but if no upgrades are available, then it'll be there.

If you're booking a fare advertised on their e-mails - then there's usually language if the fare can't be booked online.

Flew CAE-CLT-IAH-CLT-CAE this weekend on an ESaver. CAE-CLT and CLT-CAE were Dash-8's, so no need to even think upgrading those.

For the CLT-IAH flight I walk up to the counter. No line and the agent is standing there. I hand him my boarding pass that I got in CAE and two 800 mile certs and ask if I could get an upgrade. In about five seconds he says "Not on this fare." I chit chat with him for a few minutes about it, accepting defeat gracefully (hoping that will work http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif) and in the end ... nothing. However, truth be told, exit row with no one beside you is arguably more comfortable than first, except I had to pay $9 for three beers, and no Heniken (sp?) (and of course no way to guarantee they won't sit someone beside you).

On the way back I wait to check in at the gate. Fairly long line and I finally get to an agent and hand her my ID and two upgrades and ask if I could upgrade. She works and says, it doesn't look like I can upgrade this. I make what I think to be a feeble attempt "I guess they've changed the rules, I've upgraded them before" (which I have, before the rules were changed), so she says "Let me call". I start to feel bad for holding everyone up, but the line behind me clears up or I'd feel real guilty. She talks to a few other people on the phone, talking about Gold status and upgrade certs and so on. Finally she hangs up and says "Yes, you can upgrade this, and I think I can clear you."

So ... 1 for 2 on those attempts http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by CLTFlyer:
So maybe it's agent-dependent... </font>


This is the definitive answer.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1004:

This is the definitive answer.

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Darn tootin. I scored another e-saver upgrade this weekend PIT-YUL, and whould have been 2 for 2 (but somebody actually bought the entire open F inventory right before the flight for YUL-PIT).

I called on Friday night and tried that as I'd checked the e-saver far rule, which did not mention no upgrades in the text (which is odd, because my SBN flight earlier in this thread did). However, I got to the gate early, and they put me on the waitlist and cleared me.

Be nice to the gate agents. It's my humble opinion that these folks have the pull to do almost anything immediately before closing the flight.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

[This message has been edited by ClueByFour (edited 08-06-2001).]