sbm12

As of yesterday Continental has made changes to the way they are handling fare-up upgrades for all passengers. The changes were mentioned in the Daily News Update newsletter and in an Airport Service Bulletin (ASB C10-37). Essentially the move was made in an effort to remove confusion between the buy-up for non-elites that was on a per-segment basis and the fare-up that was per itinerary. Plus there was always a good chance that there would only be an F seat on one of the segments of an itinerary where a passenger is buying a fare-up, essentially meaning that they were potentially over-paying for the one upgrade they were buying.

That's all changed now.

Going forward the fare-up upgrades ON THE DAY OF DEPARTURE ONLY will be per-segment. The cost of that upgrade will be calculated based on the difference in fare between the paid class and the lowest available forward cabin fare (generally M for Platinums, B for Gold/Silver and Z for non-elites) based on the expectation (and historically this is mostly true) that Z is pegged to F on the day of departure in most cases. If you are on a connecting itinerary the difference will be calculated based on splitting the itinerary into its segments and calculating the difference based on the fares of each segment. Here are a couple examples that should help this make sense:

1) Platinum elite on L fare IAH-LAX. They will have the opportunity to buy up to the M fare and get the upgrade.

2) Silver elite on E fare DCA-(IAH)-MSY. The fare will be split into DCA-IAH and IAH-MSY. Because CO does not publish E fares on DCA-IAH or IAH-MSY the W fare will be used (W/E, S/T and N/L are paired for this calculation). The DCA-MSY fare is $139 one way on a W fare while DCA-IAH is $102 on the E and IAH-MSY is $96. The B fare (lowest that the Silver can upgrade into) is $670 for DCA-IAH and $215 for IAH-MSY. This passenger will be offered the upgrade on the first segment for ~$530 ($670-$139 "credit" for the original ticket) and ~$120 for the second segment.

3) Non-elite on IAH-MSY in Q. The ~$130 paid for that segment would be applied against the ~$265 cheapest F seat they can buy (BCOUP1 in this case) so the charge would be $130 for that segment.

There are a bunch of situations where the fares don't line up 100% so I'm not entirely certain how those will be treated but the gist of it is the same.

I'm not sure if this move is god or bad for us as passengers. Certainly having the upgrades on DoD all be based on the same scale means that there will be less confusion, but I haven't seen enough data to know if the prices will skew badly in CO or the passengers' favor; I do have a gut feeling but that would need to be confirmed.

A few more details in the blog post here: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewan...pgrade-policy/.

belynch

And we, on good faith, have to assume that there's not already a Plat sitting on a M or B fare on this flight. I honestly don't know if I have that faith.

Personally when I've been offered to "upgrade using miles or money" on an itinerary where I'm already booked on a B fare I've canceled the whole trip and booked on another carrier. If CO is going to do their best to keep me in the whY cabin, I might as well give my revenue to a carrier with a better whY experience.

CO needs to be very careful how they market this at the risk of frustrating their "best" customers.

sbm12

Since the recent changes to the way the EUA process is running this is supposed to be handled. The details of exactly how it is being handled were explained to me this morning but I am not sure that I'm at liberty to share them; I'll ask. But in the mean-time suffice it to say that someone on a B fare who is not yet upgraded will receive the upgrade before the person buying up to B or M is given the offer.

That said, this is only on the day of departure when Z≈F. In advance of the day of departure there is still the chance that Z opens after you bought a B during a Z0 situation and someone else gets that Z ahead of you.

Bonehead

Given the issues with waitlisted upgrades languishing while "R" availability exists, color me a tad skeptical here. Ze proof will be in ze pudding, ya?

sbm12

Again, only on the day of departure will this work. I agree with your skepticism prior to that point.

TommyC80

I was flying EWR-LAS the other day with a non-elite companion. Checked him in and he was offered F for $109 while flying on a W fare that was about $220 for that segment. I can't explain why I was so cheap; but he bought it.

sbm12

This new program just started yesterday. Sounds like your friend got the regular fee-up offer where all elites were already accounted for.

bmg42000

I was offered an upgrade for 109 from CLE-DEN a couple of weeks ago (it was a short flight so I declined it ) (I would have done EWR-LAS in an instant) )

entropy

Hmm I guess its confirmed now, as it should be no surprise, SBM12 is on CO's payroll. all the Rah Rah! makes a lot of sense, but now he can leak company memos!

I miss CO Insider

More devaluation of loyalty from CO. "Lets see who will pay to upgrade into the last 3 seats! " I wonder what else he can tell us about: Buy up to F, then buy your F meal! Premium drinks in F? bring you chase PP card.. Tired of BusinessFirst cheap wine? You and a companion can buy premium wines that our international competitors offer for free!

sbm12

What about my post makes you think I'm "rah rah" about this?? And I happened to receive the memos from various sources. I get a lot of inside information. Just part of my charm, I suppose.

And I'm definitely not on the payroll. I wouldn't be so open with my thoughts if I were.



The policy of selling F seats at F prices is not new; CO has been doing this for a while now, both in advance of and on the day of departure. The main difference now is that elites don't have to fare-up the entire journey if only one segment is available for the upgrade. I think that's probably a positive move but I haven't looked at the numbers close enough to know for sure.

jlemon

Oh come on.....give us a break.....

TommyC80

This was on Friday, July 16.

Steph3n

sbm12 is without a doubt NOT on the CO payroll and in fact was very worried about this when a number of us got the memo.

He did what it took to get the answers and share the answers to prevent unfounded rumors from spreading.

JFKSFOLAX_friend

OP: So, (more than one) company employees just regularly send you internal memos as a matter of course?

OK, I'll bite....why?

snod08