US Airways Dividend Miles - Envoy upgrade anomaly

Hi all.
Was checking upgrade chances on flight to Rome in June and found this interesting..... PHL flight has 14 seats open in Envoy with no upgrades available and CLT has 5 for sale and 2 for upgrade. Would have assumed opposite. Same metal so same total # of initial seats for sale. Understand PHL is preferred Int gateway but surprised the much higher # of seats still for sale and no upgrades.

just thinking....

I've long since given up trying to rationalize the idiosyncrasies of airline yield management and pricing, but US Inventory Management apparently expects to sell those seats on the PHL flight, even though CLT seems to have less availability. Grab seats on the CLT flight if you want Envoy - in my mind, it's not worth risking sitting in the back if you can sit up front now.

I will say that for local traffic, PHL probably has an Italian-American population many times of that in CLT's catchment area. I've never been on a PHL-FCO flight in the summer that went out with more than a few empty seats in either class, so I'd bet Envoy goes out full, one way or another, that day, it being tourist high season to Europe.

When I encounter this type of situation I look at the coach seat map - if it is full or nearly full they often won't release the empty F/C seats for upgrade. They could be oversold in the back will have to move customers up front or alternately just figure that people will buy F/C inventory out of necessity.

I will say that for local traffic, PHL probably has an Italian-American population many times of that in CLT's catchment area.


Very true, but most of us would rather spend our money in Italy rather than on a full-fare Envoy seat to Italy. :D

My first thought that PHL-FCO might be on the new Envoy Suite A330-200s, but no, both are A330-300s....

Odd.

PHL InternatIonal (as well as Domestic) O&D is significantly higher than CLT. It's likely US is holding PHL-FCO seat availability until very close to the flight date in anticipation of this - based on historical yield statistics. The CLT-FCO flight was categorized in reply to a ? during an investor conference last year as a seasonal "reliever" for PHL-FCO. It's possible US is funneling most FCO connecting traffic through CLT to fill its flight and may have significant early bookings; whereas, the PHL-FCO flight is being kept open (i.e., free of connecting traffic) until much later in anticipation of higher yielding O&D customers.

I'll give you an idiosyncrasy. In 2009 - with the previous website and the 3rd MobileNet-run mobile site still in use - online check-in on the main website did not offer same day cash Envoy upgrades for CLT-FRA or FRA-CLT. However, checking in via the mobile site did offer Envoy upgrades for $500 and I purchased an upgrade both outbound and return.

rf - just curious, where are you getting your info on #seats available?

rf - just curious, where are you getting your info on #seats available?

I am referring to seats avail for sale so simply looking at on-line seat map.

Murphy's law - 24 hours and the CLT flight which had 5 seats for sale now shows 4 and there are now no upgrades....like mentioned prior, i should have taken it!

Now I can only hope they open seats on the PHL flight for upgrade. With 14 seats still for sale, maybe possible. I guess its it will be the old daily call-in routine for me!

nuts.