America West FlightFund (Discontinued Program) - Want to fly in HP F? Prepare to pay.

It looks as though the lower priced F cabin will be filling up with more paying customers.

I forgot to check my reservation a few days ago. When I checked this morning, I got an unpleasant surprise. I wasn't upgraded on my PHX-OAK flight.

Upon calling, the res agent told me that F was sold out. I asked if it they were paid pax or mile-upgrades and she said many were paid fares.

She also elaborated on the fact that there have been more paid F passengers on the shorter PHX-LAS/SAN/LAX/OAK routes. Apparently, they've been getting calls from many Golds and Silvers calling about upgrades, and not getting them.

I was surprised she could tell me this kind of info, but glad she did.

So if you're Silver or Gold you might want to reacquaint yourselves with coach seats again.

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"Rows 50 and above are business seats for those with infants" - gfowler-ord-1k
SkyTeam - "The whatever's leftover Alliance"

[This message has been edited by ByrdluvsAWACO (edited Mar 05, 2004).]

The way I understood the web page, I can upgrade DCA-PHX for $150 30 hrs in advance, no status required.

I think that will be very appealing to at least 10% of the people on the plane.

As near as I can figure out, there are about 170 seats on a 757 in coach, and 14 in first. Of the 14, 4 are blocked off, I presume for Air Marshalls.

Unless you can get confirmed seats prior to the 30 hour cheap seat sale, I cannot believe you will get a freebee.

By the way, is there any way to beat the 30 hour limit, and get the $150 UG earlier?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by slawecki:
. . . Of the 14, 4 are blocked off, I presume for Air Marshalls.
</font>

These seats are excluded from the automatic elite upgrade pool and held open for potential paying First Class passengers. In my experience as a Platinum member, if you are not upgraded automatically and call when the Flight Fund service center is staffed, the agent can pretty easily override the system and put you in one of those seats. While I've reached people who didn't know how to do it or didn't have the authority level to do it, I've never been told that the seats could not be released (such as for an Air Marshal). I just call back and get someone who knows how to do it and it's a done deal. If you call in the middle of the night, you're unlikley to get anyone who can help you.

Whew! I got lucky. After boarding and sitting in my assigned coach seat, the GA came onboard and upgraded me to 1D just before they closed the door.

Someone must have missed their flight/connection because they told me before boarding that all the seats had checked in.

In the presence of this new pricing model, Silvers should avoid flights on the B737's since there are only eight F seats versus twelve. This will be hard to do on the AZ/CA/NV flights since 737's dominate these routes.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by slawecki:
The way I understood the web page, I can upgrade DCA-PHX for $150 30 hrs in advance, no status required.
</font>

That still puts you below all the elite upgrades.

As a plat I wasn't upgraded on this particular flight, which say's only one thing. There were mileage upgrades/awards and/or fare paying passengers filling the F cabin.

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"Rows 50 and above are business seats for those with infants" - gfowler-ord-1k
SkyTeam - "The whatever's leftover Alliance"