America West FlightFund (Discontinued Program) - Who isn't FlightFund Elite these days?

The comp everyone who breaths status really manifested itself this morning in Phoenix. I flew enough last year to earn Silver, but was elevated to Platinum via a status comp before I reached the low tier threashold. Thanks to my Platinum status, I was EUA'd on PHX-LAS this morning.

It came as no surprise this morning when preboarding began that a stampede to the jetway took place. The odd part? Everyone who preboarded was actually Elite! If you weren't Elite, the agent wouldn't let you board. The line of preboarding people at least numbered thirty. The man in front of me had his Gold card out and he was sitting in coach. So it appeared one needed to be Platinum to get the First Class upgrade this morning.

Is anyone finding Elite upgrades tough to come by these days? My return is already 92% full in First (my upgrade has cleared). When I relied on my Continental status for Elite upgrades, I was routinely upgraded on a standby basis. It seems things have really tightened up.

I think this is how a lot of airlines are becoming now. NW,CO, and HP more than other possibly.

However, one thing with HP, they have less seats in first than NW or CO. I find it easier to be upgraded on NW metal than on CO. I am about 90% this year on NW as a silver, maybe 60% on CO. I am 50% on HP with only 2 flights, both being PHX-BDL and BDL PHX.


Eric

I think what FlyBDL said coupled with the amount of Golds would make it tought to be upgraded when you're only a Silver. That in addition to the people who are plat would make it seem impossible to be upgraded.

I think HP needs to start "culling the herd" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif. They also need to let FC paxs board before anyone else. Yes, even before people with rugrats.

Nothing like fighting your way through the "I've got status horde" with your FC boarding pass. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

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God Bless America West and British Airways

HP - Platinum/970k miles
BA - Dirt/Soon to be Gold
NW - Dirt/Soon to be Plat
UA - Dirt/19k miles
AA - Dirt/Only using to get BA Tier points/miles.

[This message has been edited by ByrdluvsAWACO (edited 12-17-2002).]

TransWorldOne,
I flew HP several weeks ago DTW-PHX-SFO... the DTW-PHX flight had one empty seat in coach, and only two occupied seats in First. But what you described was completely true of the PHX-SFO portion. The same was true for the return. On a recent NW transpacific flight (100% full B744), at least 1/3 of the bags on the carrousel in customs had an elite tag. My guess is your theory applies to specific flights at specific times of the day.

That being said, it isn’t too hard to obtain elite status with HP if you have the time – AmericaWest.com will bring up DTW-PHX-CMH-LAS-CMH-PHX-DTW routings for the lowest fare. When WN was offering $54 each way DTW-MCO fares, HP matched – but you had to travel DTW-PHX-MCO.