US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Upgrading Questions from a new GP

Today I made a res for a trip PHL-FLL-PHL for 10/24-10/29. Both flights are 757s and seatmap.com shows all of the FC seats available on both. Galileo shows the usual F4D4A4 and ITN shows all 7s (I do miss etours).

I have some questions:

1 - The distance PHL-FLL shows as 990 something miles everywhere I've looked. Does this apply at US?

2 - If so, does that mean that a oneway UG can be had for two of the certs?

3 - I now understand that the UG can be had three days out for a GP. If that is correct, what do I do? Do I call? Can I tell them now that I want to use the certs and they will do it automatically? How does it work?

4 - How do they calibrate the three days? If I need to call for a flight on the 24th, can I call on the 20th? The 21st? at midnight? At some other time of the day?

5 - And most important of all, what are the chances of two seats being available for two GPs who want to upgrade on that itinerary? Or will they all be gone, snapped up by CPs and full fares? There seems to be a good ratio of FC to coach seats on the 757s, and on CO, where we are platinum, I know that golds would UG about 90-95% of the time on a standard configuration 757 EWR-FLL in October(less of a chance for EWR-PBI).

Thanks in advance to any who can help with these (elementary, I'm sure) questions.

1. USairways.com shows it as 997 miles. This requires 2 e-upgrades. They also give you a 25 mile allowance per 500 miles. I fly TPA-CLT routinely (508 miles) and it take only 1.

2. See above, but basically yes.

3. You can request them online if you book at usairways.com, but I find it more reliable to call Gold Preferred Reservations and have them set up the queue to upgrade it automatically at your three day window. If you fly on a Friday, it will upgrade Tuesday at 1:00 AM EDT.

4. I would recommend calling as early as possible. If for some reason they do not clear at the window, get to the airport EARLY! The standby system works first by status, then by check-in time. My understanding is that fare class is NOT considered. Example: GP checks in at 1 PM, CP checks in at 2:30 PM (CP gets seat) or GP checks in at 1 PM then another GP checks in at 2:30 PM (GP from 1 PM gets seat).

5. Hehe. Quite a controversy regarding this question. Up until the present, upgrade chances on the B757 and A321 were **** near 100% for a GP (even an SP). They have 24 seats up front. Usually, everyone and their brother gets upgraded. HOWEVER, they are now reconfiguring the 757's to have only 8 FC seats. This will make the upgrade harder, but still doable as a Gold (probably won't clear until airport). Silvers are going to feel this much more than us. Also, as there is a mix right now of 757's with 8 or 24 seats, they only open the G inventory (upgrade bucket) to 8 seats to prevent having to downgrade people at the airport if equipment gets swapped for whatever reason.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

------------------
dsingerUNC
US Airways Gold Preferred

1/2 - I'm not sure where you are looking and I don't know where US gets their mileage from. If US agrees that it is 990 miles, then yes, 2 certs.

3 - Call them now and get on the 'queue'. At midnight, 3 days before the flight, they will start processing the upgrade requests. In the past, you needed to call within the 3 day window, but now you can call at any time in advance and they will queue it up until your window opens. It makes things a whole lot easier. Just call the GP number, tell them you want to upgrade and they'll take care of the rest.

4 - Technically, I think it's midnight between the 20th and 21st, CDT, but with the advance queue it doesn't matter. Call now.

5 - Hard to tell. Wednesday return should be good. Friday's tend to be busy and harder to upgrade, but that doesn't seem to me to be a route with lots of elites. I'd say you have a pretty good shot.

1. You can find this info for any flight in the timetables...

http://fs.usairways.com/abs/flightSchedule.do

When schedule comes up, click on flight number


3. I think US may be the only airline to offer this service. If you book a trip 3 weeks from now you can ask to queued up and you don't have to get up at midnight or call in the middle of the day to upgrade on the third day out.

4. You might want to read this thread for info on upgrade priority.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/005473.html

[This message has been edited by longing4piedmont (edited 09-24-2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dsingerUNC:
4. I would recommend calling as early as possible. If for some reason they do not clear at the window, get to the airport EARLY! The standby system works first by status, then by check-in time.</font>

Better yet -- use web check-in. You get the earliest possible check-in time and best possible position in the queue that way. (If web check-in is working...)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">My understanding is that fare class is NOT considered.</font>

That's mostly true. But not quite 100%

Some fares (usually Y & B) are immediately upgradeable (if inventory is available.) Outside the window or anytime inside the window. This should be a powerful and positive marketing opportunity. IMHO it's being largely wasted -- but that's another thread.

These upgrades come out of the higher priority D inventory bucket than G. As inventory is released from F it makes a stop in D before showing up in G. I believe that this even happens at the airport although it is difficult to test -- if anyone would like to fund the necessary tests contact me offline http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

An SP on a full Y fare could therefore snag that upgrade ahead of you... but given what that hypothetical customer (aka "sucker") paid it's hardly something to complain about. Actually you should probably feel sorry for them for having shelled out all that cash just to be offered a glimpse of a frayed snack basket and a plastic cup of two buck chuck.

Anyhow -- once we're down to clearing G upgrades then yes, fare class does not matter.