US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-2005 America West merger) - Transatlantic upgrade -- certificate vs miles

Hi,

I've done a bit of poking around but did not find the answer to this question. I am flying to Europe next month booked in Q class. I've used miles to upgrade one of the legs but am only waitlisted. Planning to use miles to upgrade the other leg -- for which I'll also be waitlisted. Before I do that, however, I was thinking of acquiring a space available cert and trying to use that to upgrade. So my questions:

Is there an advantage to using miles over certs?

Am I likely to clear early with the miles? If I will only clear at the gate anyway, it probably makes sense to the the certificate, no?

I have gold status if that makes a difference.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Where are you flying?

A330 or 767?

I've asked the same question and had one agent tell me they would upgrade further in advance if I used miles, but then later I spoke with someone else who had 16 years of experience doing international flights and she told me there was no difference.

I was left unclear about the answer, but decided to use points on the way over (on the overnight flight) and a coupon on the return since it's most important to me getting a good sleep on the way to Europe -- just in case it would clear faster...as opposed to using them on the return.

Similar situation here. Flying PHL-LGW in a few weeks and am thinking about upgrading from a full Y fare using 10,000 miles but could also use a DS0087 cert. I think 10k miles is the better deal but I'm concerned about waitlist priority as well. So if anybody knows the upgrade order it would be appreciated.

Thanks

I've asked the same question and had one agent tell me they would upgrade further in advance if I used miles, but then later I spoke with someone else who had 16 years of experience doing international flights and she told me there was no difference.

I was left unclear about the answer, but decided to use points on the way over (on the overnight flight) and a coupon on the return since it's most important to me getting a good sleep on the way to Europe -- just in case it would clear faster...as opposed to using them on the return.


No, I think it is true that mileage upgrades are done further in advance so that they can be deducted from the member's account.

Where are you flying?

A330 or 767?

Going on a 767, returning on A330.

The flight on which I'd use the cert is a 767.

The mileage is deducted immediately even if you are only put on a wait list. They will be returned if you don't make the cut. Unless they have availabilty when you call, I would not want to be wait listed. At the gate, I believe all upgrades are equal, however upgrades still assigned to highest status first. When i couldn't upgrad in advance to LGW, i just used the SA certifcates. That was the international desk's advice

No, I think it is true that mileage upgrades are done further in advance so that they can be deducted from the member's account.

This time last year, a friend and I used certs (DS0085 as they were then), to upgrade LGW-CLT and return, on the A330. Neither of us had any status,and were surprised that they all went through so easily. Our English accents even managed to snag us 1A/1B for the overnight flight back :D