US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - How are Silver's doing with upgrades?

Hello all,

I have a friend who is going to start flying DCA to NY,FL and LAX just enough to make bottom elite on one airline.

From what he's told me, US seems to be the best option, but upgrading is the most important thing to him, so I was just wondering how you US silvers are doing with upgrades? Some of the routes he will fly are kind of peek routes, but lucky for him, he mainly fly’s at off peak times.

Upgrading is all he really cares about now (I'm still trying to teach him some of the finer parts of being an FF ;) ), he does not care that much in terms of long term earrings (he will probably use an award ticket the day he gets to 25K) so the whole bankrupt thing does not mean that much to him.

Thanks for all the help!

I went 1 for 3 on my Fri/Sat MR. The final numbers...

PIT-PHL on a 757, no
PHL-SFO on a 321, no (FA told me lots of CP on flight)
LAS-PIT on a 757 yes, got the last seat upgraded from exit row on the plane.

As a new Silver, I'm 2 of 6 (~ 33%).

I've been 100% successful on all of my upgrades.

From the "how's the upgrades going thread" (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2907621):

Total segments upgradeable: 12
Segments upgraded at window: 9 (75%)
Segments upgraded at gate: 3 (25%)
Segments that did not clear: 0 (0%) - BIG
Percentage of upgrades: 12/12 (100%)
(from my FFTracker program)

Routes that I've flown and their respective upgrades:

G = Cleared at the gate
W = Cleared at 24-hour window

PHL PVD G 733
PIT ROC W ?
PIT BWI W (UA ticket, US metal, called US for waitlist, cleared w/o issue)
SYR PIT W 733
PIT LAX G 321 (Cleared absolute last possible minute - last one on plane)
LAX PHL W 321
BOS PIT W 734
ROC PHL W 319
PHL ROC W 733
PHL LAX W 321 (with US4 companion)
LAX PIT G 320 (Cleared after window but at checkin due to a/c downgrade, with US4 companion)
PIT PHL W 757(F8 757 - with a US4 companion )

Only flights that I didn't clear for upgrade were award tickets. One of those segments the flight was full in F and the other I couldn't score the upgrade no matter what anyone tried. But these don't count