US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Experience with SWU?

First of all, thanks to everybody in this group.. who showed me the light and made me see that 1 trip would enable me to reach Gold.. and I thought I'd be dropping my US status this year without any business travel...

Doing a SFO-PHL-AMS mileage run at the end of October and will be using my SWU to try and move up from my $466 fare (didn't want to try it with the e-saver).

Of my 4 legs, only the PHL-AMS has been confirmed in advance. Anybody have any advise as to how likely it is that I'll get the others upgraded as well given that I'm just Silver? Is there any difference on the domestic portions if I use 800 mile certificates?

Obviously which days you fly will have an impact. I find it odd that the G seats on the domestic trans-cons are gone (unless your trip is in a day or two). Keep and eye on ITN and if a G seat opens up, call ASAP.

On this trip for you, there is no difference between using an 800 miler or the SWU (both seats come out of G for the domestic segments). BUT, don't even bother with the 800 miler. A single SWU will take you SFO-PHL-AMS or AMS-PHL-SFO, save the NAUs for another trip or cash 'em in for 500 miles a pop.

Noah,

In theory, both SWUs and 800 mile upgrades come from the same G class inventory, so if you can get it with an NA 800 mile upgrade, you can get it with your SWU--which already covers all of your connections.

You might try them a few days from now to see if G inventory opens up--they've been playing games with inventory since the bombing (often zeroing out V and K and G) because of all the cancellations.

I see this as the availability on my (currently waitlisted) flights:

10/31
US Airways 334 SFO-PHL
F6 A2 G0 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 K9

11/4
US Airways 43 AMS-PHL
J9 C9 Y9 B9 M9 Q9 H9 K9 V9

US Airways 197 PHL-SFO
F9 A9 G9 Y9 B9 M9 Q9 H9 K9 V9

This leads me to believe that the G seat on the return PHL-SFO leg should be confirmed... and I can see where there is no G inventory on the SFO-PHL leg.

Since there is no G inventory listed on the PHL-AMS legs, what should I be looking for?

Thanks!

-Noah

You can't look up upgrade seat inventory on transatlantic flights. You can just 'guess' by looking at how many seats are left overall in J (biz) class, but even that is not very helpful. The only way to be sure is to call the International Desk and ask them. If you don't mind giving up any bonuses and/or discounts, just ticket through them to be sure to get your upgrades.

Even though there are G seats available on your return PHL-SFO flight, make sure that you don't get upgraded on that flight until your AMS-PHL portion clears. If you upgrade now on PHL-SFO, you'll have to turn in that systemwide upgrade, even if you don't get upgraded from AMS-PHL. But if you want to clear AMS-PHL, then you can use the PHL-SFO and only turn in one SWU. But if you are not going to use the SWU on any future trips, go ahead and confirm the PHL-SFO flight, and wait for the AMS-PHL.

Weird. I just booked a rather inexpensive transcon (PIT-SEA-PIT) for the SEA-Doo, and had no problem confirming the SWU both ways (yeah, I know it is a waste--I'm not going transatlantic on US anytime soon).

Granted, I'm booking about 5 weeks out, but still.... I did not expect the return to clear (A-319). Outbound had all kinds of G inventory (A-321). Of course, I don't think US does as much traffic to and from the hubs to SEA as to SFO, but what the heck.

Good luck, but I'd be make sure the transatlantic sectors clear first.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

The J-class upgrades on international flights are actually "O" class, and there are very very few available (I am thinking 1 to 3) on each flight until the day of travel.

On A-330 flights there are 36 seats, something less than that on B-767, but these days the transatlantic J-class cabin is certainly not full. I have had 100% success with upgrades this summer and fall, although I am Gold. Cabin was full in the summer, and not full in the fall to the UK.




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CBF - what is this SEA-doo you keep mentioning?
-steve

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum95/HTML/001387.html

An "excuse" to fly to the other coast, drink Red Bull in route, meet some folks, and enjoy Northwestern microbrews.

And about 4k status miles.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.