US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Envoy Upgrade Observations

Just got back from a quick trip to the UK. I had tried to upgrade to Envoy, using miles, and could never get to first base, so when CO dropped their Business First fares to $1600 from EWR, I simply bought the tickets from them, and went direcctly. We arrived at Gatwick about the same time as the US flight I would have taken, via Philly. While standing in the line at the car rental place, I started talking with some people who had been on the US flight. Although in Coach, they had observed the flight having numerous open seats, including the Envoy cabin. They also mentioned that they had just bought their tickets a few days earlier, from an online Consolidator, and had paid $700 from Boston, substantially below what the US site was offering that close to departure. I am now persuaded,more than ever, that in survival mode, USAirways has literally walked away from its elite members. In the case of these international flights, they have probably dumped a ton of seats to consolidators, and don't know what is unsold (and therefore, coming back) until day of flight. In that circumstance, they need to keep the Envoy cabin open until departure, in the event of a serious oversell.

Just got back from a quick trip to the UK. I had tried to upgrade to Envoy, using miles, and could never get to first base, so when CO dropped their Business First fares to $1600 from EWR, I simply bought the tickets from them, and went direcctly. We arrived at Gatwick about the same time as the US flight I would have taken, via Philly. While standing in the line at the car rental place, I started talking with some people who had been on the US flight. Although in Coach, they had observed the flight having numerous open seats, including the Envoy cabin. They also mentioned that they had just bought their tickets a few days earlier, from an online Consolidator, and had paid $700 from Boston, substantially below what the US site was offering that close to departure. I am now persuaded,more than ever, that in survival mode, USAirways has literally walked away from its elite members. In the case of these international flights, they have probably dumped a ton of seats to consolidators, and don't know what is unsold (and therefore, coming back) until day of flight. In that circumstance, they need to keep the Envoy cabin open until departure, in the event of a serious oversell.

deelmakur - you've forgotten more than i Know about such things, so some dumb questions..

* Consolidators pay lowball prices but buy in bulk - when they "give back" seats I assume theyre stuck paying for them, but do they just tell the airline a few days in advance as a courtesy how many are unsold, or do people just never show up?

* How do "reserved" consolidator seats show up in SABRE? I assume there is some sort of hold placed on a reservation, but does it show up ahead of time like that, or does nothing happen until the consolidator re-enters someone's actual name and contact info?

just trying to figure out how messy of a problem it would be for airlines to have tighter integration with consolidators. Also - I wonder how long ago the airlines sold the buckets of consolidator seats? The last 6 months have seen pretty brisk demand to Europe, cant imagine they purposely decided to sell them more since January.

I am now persuaded,more than ever, that in survival mode, USAirways has literally walked away from its elite members. In the case of these international flights, they have probably dumped a ton of seats to consolidators, and don't know what is unsold (and therefore, coming back) until day of flight. In that circumstance, they need to keep the Envoy cabin open until departure, in the event of a serious oversell.

I can tell you firsthand this is happening. LGW-PHL about 10 days ago--when I arrived at checkin, I had already been op-upgraded due to an oversell of 25+. Both cabins were packed.

18 open in Envoy going over, and I sat in the club during a slight delay with a bunch of US1 and US2 who had to wait until that day to get upped (I did, but that was due to a V fare and d00087 usage).

What's a d00087? I'm a CP and got some DMUTA5 coupons, but they only work with Y,B,M,H & Q - not so good.

HScottM, your guess is as good as mine. Traditionally, the consolidator ate what he didn't sell, and would therefore drop prices more and more, the closer to actual departure. With so much capacity this year, they may even have the right to return the inventory within 24 to 48 hours of departure. Either way, presumably they have to tell the carrier what they have left, but would certainly wait until the last moment to do so. As for seat assignments, the few times I have used "bucket shops", advance seat assignments were not available. Meantme, I continue to see strange things, including occupied chairs, which later on turn out to be open.I would imagine oversell takes care of having to worry about Sabre, which brings us back to the non advance upgrade situation. In short, if it comes between loading the plane, and winning friends with the elites, I think we lose.