PHL

How does this work -

On a domestic roundtrip purchased as a K fare type, one segment was successfully upgraded and the other had no upgrade availability. Checking ITN, every class of service is wide open, but 'P' is zeroed out, which is what I understand to be the upgrade bucket whether you're on a full fare or disc. coach fare.

F has 8 showing, which looks good. But, the whole ticket was less than $200 and for 20K, I figured why not just burn some points since one of the segments is available and the other looks wide open for a standby chance. Both are transcons from PHL.

My question - since I've already "paid" for the upgrade that right now isn't being released, who gets priority if P does open up? I'm not preferred. Should I call and specifically request to be waitlisted and then ask again upon checkin?

PHL

bumping this because I can't believe nobody chimed in with any thoughts on this. Seems cut and dry but when I called today to be waitlisted, even the agent (who was very nice, by the way) wasn't sure if I would get preference over a Silver/Gold/CP since I "prepaid" with points. Not one PHL-LAS flight has 'P' inventory on any random day I check, so it seems like it may be a closely watched flight by inventory mgmt, with seats being released when they're sure nobody's going to buy them. A restricted A fare is about $700 for a roundtrip. Not too bad for a transcon restricted First class - especially if you can get it on the airbus. The 757 is just to shabby anymore.

tribe01

I thought mileage upgrades for discounted economy tickets come out of the E bucket not P. P is the bucket for upgraded Full fare economy tickets and premium awards.

OverpaidSlacker

fwiw, i was once give the option to "partially upgrade" an itinerary on a CHS-LAS roundtrip (the transcon was unavailable at the time -- imagine that -- though there were still F5 or F6 or something like that).

i was told by the cp desk that if/when the seats became available, i would be first in line for the upgrade, even if other people's original upgrade requests had been made prior to mine.

i was cp at the time, but i came away from my conversation with the cp desk understanding that anybody (regardless of tier level) who prepays with miles gets priority if/when seats become available. and this agent, unlike the one with whom you spoke, seemed very confident when she described this option to me.

-- he who slacks

PHL

And, E, as I see it on ITN and other search tools, is not published. But P is a good barometer for now, I suppose.

Either way, I see F8 on an A319 with 12 F seats. For all I know all 12 could be for sale. In many random date checks, I can never seem to find P inventory, despite F8 showing, on any PHL-LAS flight.

SS255

I had the same problem today when I tried to do a mileage upgrade for a flight in February. 3 out of the 4 legs were "available" for mileage upgrades. The agent said she'd "waitlist" me for a mileage upgrade on the CLT-LAX leg, and that the computer would automatically clear me if something opens up (presumably in "E" inventory). I'm not sure how the airport waitlist priority works in these situations, and hopefully I won't need to find out! I'll post my results.

gabhain

When I used miles to upgrade, I was "E" class. When I used upgrade vouchers from a voluntary bump, I was "P." When I first booked a ticket home for Christmas, no P inventory was available and I was waitlisted. I called the reservation line every week until they confirmed me.

Also, in my experience, using miles to upgrade is a definite over freebies.

SS255

I went into my "existing itineraries" on usairways.com today, and when I clicked on "printable itinerary" it showed me as being "confirmed" in F for the CLT-LAX leg. I called the Gold desk, and sure enough I had cleared. So I guess the mileage upgrade waitlist does work. I suspect as inventory in the different fare buckets gets shuffled around, seats open up in the "E" bucket.