Diamond Dog

When you don't get the upgrades on your inteniary and you call CO and they say they still have open seats; are any of you ever successfull at getting the person on the phone to upgrade you (confirm it)?

People have often said, if you dont get notififed via e-mail about your upgrade, you should call. But I am 100% unsuccessfull at ever getting a phone agent to ever change anything.

ssullivan

I've been about 50% when I've called.

dbaker

Any tricks to pull it off?

I'm 0 for 10 or something.

monitor

I got one on the phone today for next Friday coming home when I told the agent that the EUA had upgraded my wife and not me and we were both platinum and we really really liked to sit together. She upgraded me immediately without even referring to her supervisor.
I will admit that it is the first phone UG that I have been able to get in nearly a year, the standard line is "we're not allowed, the automatic system will take care of it."

SemiElite

Once. I was Gold at the time, and after passing the 3 Day window, it was obvious on ITN that a number of people had been upgraded at both the 5 and 3 day windows, but not me. At that point, there were only 2 FC seats left. And I was afraid that if I waited until I got to the airport, Silvers would grab both of them at the 1 Day window.

I explained this to the first agent to no avail. She was adament in saying I had to wait until I got to the airport on the morning of the flight.

Then I did what any experienced FlyerTalker would do...I politely thanked her, hung up, and immediately called another agent. This agent was far more cooperative. She agreed that it appeared that EUA had been running, and that I should have been upgraded. She then immediately gave me the upgrade. Only problem was that she was unable to give me a seat assignment through the system, and that I'd have to get that later. I told her that was no problem, as there are really no bad seats at the front of the plane.

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

HobokenFlyer

I did this for my last flight, EWR-IAH. My parents and I were travelling together, they were on the same itin and I was on another. They were upgraded at the Plat window and I wasn't (we are all plat). I checked ITN and there was an F4 on the flight. I called and said why wasn't I upgraded.

The agent first said maybe your made you reservation at a later time (like that matters; that's only a tie-breaker for last seat). I replied, that we booked at the same timem just separate Itineraries. She put me on hold and got me the upgrade.


Funny thing is on the return flight, IAH-EWR, I got upgraded and my parents didn't. The bucket is F0, the only thing I could think of is that they only released one seat and since I was a single, they only upgraded me.

- HobokenFlyer

NJDavid

It's the CO rule. If you get the wrong answer on the phone, hang-up and call again.

I got it on the 4th call a couple of weeks ago.

Oh, and this is so much easier than before it was automated and I had to call in once

[This message has been edited by NJDavid (edited 02-25-2002).]

TrojanHorse

This past Friday I called as I had seen A1 F1 and I had not been u/g the night before, I called once and she said "I can not do that, I don't have the capability" Since I was running late, I didn't call back. I should have kept trying it sounds like. I'm 0 for a lifetime getting a CSR to upgrade a missed EUA

ssullivan

Maybe it's just pure luck, but I think I've called six times and been upgraded on three of them. And, one of those unsuccessful attempts I really can't count because I didn't have Internet access so I have no clue as to whether a first class seat was available or not.

I guess they just like me or something. But then again, I rarely have a problem with EUA not working for me.

BTW, dbaker, I can't seem to get ITYT to load anymore, either at home, or at work!

B747-437B

Maybe its just my charm, but I'm 100% (4 for 4) or manual call-ins for the upgrade. This also means that in every other case, my upgrade cleared in advance.

bwallet

NW upgrades over the phone. I've checked during the day and found a single seat available in the F bucket on a CO flight 4 days out, called NW, and got upgraded. If I had waited until the EUA to run that night, I'm sure someone else would have gotten it.

thezipper

Like bwallet, I still saw a F1 just after 12:00 last night when the Plat window opened for a flight I have on sat. Would I wait for EUA to upgrage me... H3LL no! I called the NW Plat elite line and they upgraded me on the spot.

bikenski

Same experience here.. NW has ALWAYS upgraded me over the phone if there are F seats open within my window and I don't get the EUA for whatever reason.

I flew CO yesterday and didn't get EUA'd for the CLE-DEN segment even though there was still F inventory. I called no fewer than 6 times and got responses all over the board, from "You'll be upgraded at midnight ON the day of your flight" (not) to "You're booked in the lowest fare class (T) and aren't eligible for the upgrade." Common theme was that nobody would help over the phone, and every agent came up with a different incorrect excuse why EUA didn't work.

It wasn't until I arrived at the airport and the E-Service center didn't even offer standby in F for me that I convinced the agent that the system wasn't recognizing my status for some reason. She promptly tore up the Y boarding pass and handed me the F one and an apology.

Yes CO is a great airline for domestic travel, but sheesh... they could take some lessons from NW on how to treat their elites on the phone!

NJDavid

And in the aircraft...and at the ticket counter....and in the wallet....and in the press releases...and, and, and..........

B747-437B

Wow.... how times have changed!