US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Upgrade on Award Ticket ?

Anyone ever get bumped to FC (If avail) on an award CC ticket ? Heading to SXM and Im hoping/assuming the flight wont be too full of FFs.

According to the rules, it won't happen.

If you ask nicely and the gate agent is in a good mood, it's been known to happen. It's far more likely to happen going to the islands--the contract staff in the islands generally (in my experience) takes things pretty literally WRT the rules.

I've had it happen twice in the past 7 months. The first time, my wife and I were coming back from St. Thomas. I was on a paid fare and she was on a FF ticket. The check-in counter lady asked if we wanted first class so we of course said yes. That was on a 757 and first was filled. The second time we were coming back from Cancun. We were both on FF tickets and the check-in lady again asked if we wanted first class. This was on a 321 and there were still plenty of first class seats left when we departed. The flight attendents even let 4 people come up from Y after the door closed. Neither time did we request the upgrade.

We've also been on FF tix to/from St. Maartin but were essentially laughed at for asking about upgrades. (This was on our honeymoon and the only time we've tried asking.) This was during the summer and the flights were completely full. So, I think it's all about luck but agree that coming back from the islands/Mexico, your chances are better.

Anyone ever get bumped to FC (If avail) on an award CC ticket ? Heading to SXM and Im hoping/assuming the flight wont be too full of FFs.

Unlikely. the 757's have 8 First class seats now, so there will likely be a lot of honeymooners on packages and elite members who upgraded with their status on paid fares. It doesn't hurt to ask, but your fare code (award ticket) will be clearly evident to the agent, so don't count on it. Meanwhile, get your exit row seats confirmed now. They have more legroom than First Class, anyway.

Yeah just noticed myself that they are 757's .. ugh .. looks like I will be in the back ... did grab some exit seats though ..

On "premium awards" to the US and the Caribbean, you can definitely upgrade according to your Preferred window-- 7,3, or 1 day(s) prior to departure. On saver awards, US Airways does not allow you to upgrade. However, as many others have mentioned here, on flights with good First Class availability, nice gate agents may upgrade Preferred members in an effort to keep their loyalty to US Airways, though technically, they are not supposed to. I love the US Airways agents at Fort Lauderdale, most of them are very nice and many times they have even upgraded friends of mine who had no Preferred status and were on saver awards since the agents knew that my friends and I were on the same flights. Do note that these were all A321-operated flights, I don't think they would be able to bump my friends to the front of the cabin on B757s with just 8 First Class seats.

Last I looked into it, premium awards were treated as Y class for upgrade purposes, so you could use E-upgrades at any point in time. No need to wait for the window.

Last I looked into it, premium awards were treated as Y class for upgrade purposes, so you could use E-upgrades at any point in time. No need to wait for the window.

This is correct. No need to worry about e-upgrades though since all US elites get unlimited domestic upgrades. The premium awards are very nice because they are pretty much F tickets but you can get onto any flight with Y availability. I booked DTW-CLT-SRQ-CLT-DTW this morning for travel Easter weekend using a premium award. After a quick call to the CP line was confirmed in F on 3 of the 4 segments. The ticket would have cost about $950 so I figure that to be a good use of 50,000 miles.

No luck this weekend, LGA-STT and STT-PHL. On 30k award tickets. No problem though, exit rows on the way down and bulkheads on the way back.

-JC

No luck this weekend, LGA-STT and STT-PHL. On 30k award tickets. No problem though, exit rows on the way down and bulkheads on the way back.

-JC

I did the STT award (30k type) trip last month. No upgrades either way, but that award is still a great deal especially since I booked it a day in advance and the tickets would have cost $1,500 each.

If you book a standard award, don't expect an upgrade. Sometimes a nice GA will upgrade you, but most of the time you'll be sitting in coach. I don't understand why US would want preferred members sitting in coach if there are empty seats up front, but those are the rules.

I did the STT award (30k type) trip last month. No upgrades either way, but that award is still a great deal especially since I booked it a day in advance and the tickets would have cost $1,500 each.

If you book a standard award, don't expect an upgrade. Sometimes a nice GA will upgrade you, but most of the time you'll be sitting in coach. I don't understand why US would want preferred members sitting in coach if there are empty seats up front, but those are the rules.

Agreed, definitely worth the miles for the award. Booked it Thurs night at 10P for a Friday night flight out.

I went in knowing that I had about a 5% chance at max for a free-up so I wasn't expecting to get anything other than a polite sorry to my request. But it WOULD be nice to give Preferreds the bump up if there's space - I'd feel bad bumping out someone on a paid ticket.

-JC

I have a P on my boarding pass, is that an award bucket? I used an award, but then changed the reservation due to weather delays, and now it has P on it instead of X. Does P indicate that it is a paid First Class fare? or full fare Coach? If so, Ill try and upgrade.....

P is the fare bucket used when upgrading Y/B fares.

so it earns Y class miles, right?

so it earns Y class miles, right?


Tickets booked with miles do not earn miles.

so it earns Y class miles, right?

Depends if the agent who switched your flights bothered to book you into award inventory or just put you in regular paid inventory. FWIW I have never received miles on a US award ticket even when taking a bump and US having to oversell the first flight in the morning by an additional passenger (me) in order to free up space.

I have received miles on other airlines when an award trip is disrupted and flights are changed.

Tickets booked with miles do not earn miles.

The 40K awards used to earn miles. I think they fixed that glitch a year or so ago. :(