US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Envoy upgrade chances??

I'm thinking of booking 2 seats US126 on Mar 8, PHL-LGW and US27 on Mar 13, CDG-PHL. There are no upgrade seats avail. now (using last year's systemwides), but C is showing at least 7 seats for sale and the seat maps show about 15 open seats.

What are people's experiences with upgrades, (either by begging inventory mgmt to release seats prior to flight), or on day of departure?

As A CP on those flights on an A330, I wouldn't even sweat it, you'll clear.

i guess i forgot to mention i'll be a lowly gold by then http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif still, i think you're right there's a good shot at the upgrades...

with united, it's the status when you book your reservation that goes into departure management for same-day upgrades (so i'd be listed in as a cp if usairways worked the same way). do you know how us works?

You might only be a GP then, but, most airlines' computer systems only care what you were when you bought the ticket, so for any tickets bought before February 28, 2002 you'll still be a CP as far as they are concerned probably.

Note that I'm not positive US system is like this, but I know many other airlines' definitely are.

I'm going to vote that you will clear. I cleared what was an oversold flight with 8 envoy seats as a gold. One way to improve your chances is to arrive early so you will beat out other golds, but call the day before and find out how many seats are open.

beckles, i think you're right. last year i was downgraded from chpr to gold initially and i seem to remember that reservations made while i was chpr showed up that way on the boarding card. will keep my fingers crossed.

so i booked the seats and its madness. all i could get seat assignment-wise was 30E and 31E on the 330 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif with 15+ envoy seats still to sell, the chances are definitely good, but if it doesn't clear, i might have to cry.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:
beckles, i think you're right. last year i was downgraded from chpr to gold initially and i seem to remember that reservations made while i was chpr showed up that way on the boarding card. will keep my fingers crossed.

so i booked the seats and its madness. all i could get seat assignment-wise was 30E and 31E on the 330 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif with 15+ envoy seats still to sell, the chances are definitely good, but if it doesn't clear, i might have to cry.</font>

I'm in a similar situation. Except I was cleared in advance to Envoy but my traveling companion, she is still waitlisted on both segments (PHL-FCO-PHL) with 13 and 10 open seats for sale respectively (checked last night). I think since our trip is one week away that with that number of open Envoy seats she will clear. She's a CP too so I expect that will help to ensure her sitting next to me. I've already prepared her for sitting in coach (worst case). She's in Paris now and was upgraded on both segments.

I received an email from her this AM and she tells me Envoy was nice. I've not flown Envoy in over a year and have been concerned about cutbacks in service since 9/11. She tells me it is still very nice. Food good and nice selection of movies.

I'm anxious for our trip. Eight days in Rome, the weather forecast looks great (highs in the 50's and partly sunny - can't beat that for first week in March).

I'll post here to let you know if she has any problems clearing to Envoy.

James



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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

If you have to sweat it out unti the day of travel, and then get on the standby list at the airport, be sure to confirm that the agent puts your travelling partner in WITH YOUR STATUS. I was in this situation last year and the agent at the desk checked me and my friend in and said we were on the standby. I was Gold, and he had no status. Not even a DM membership! We went to the club and, as a precaution, I asked the club agent to double check our standby status. She immediately noticed that my friend was classified as a US4(i.e. non-DM status) while I was US2. She bumped him up to US2 and said that put him on the top of the list assuming no CPs come in.

Well, several CPs did check in, but he was still able to get an Envoy seat with me - but it was the LAST one! If I hadn't had the club agent double check, he'd have been relegated to coach on a 767.

thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

would you all take the middle seats in coach or not take any seat assignment at all? i guess they always hold a few seats until day of departure and am i more likely to get decent seats if i have no seat assigment (i.e. will a computer or person then assign me the newly-released seats?). i guess i'm concerned that if i have seats already, i'll be stuck with them.

would almost rather get bumped, (or bumped over to ba) than sit in middle coach seats.