ibrandsguest

A relative of mine, who is Preferred, is flying CLT-LHR in 2 weeks and back in 3 weeks. Unfortunately the seat map on the outbound flight shows only 3 seats available. If the seat map is correct, I assume that Business will be full pretty soon.

The relative is willing to use either 30,000 miles + $300 or an all-cash payment for the upgrade.

First, does the usairways.com seatmap accurately show how many business class seats are available?

Second, if it does, is there a way to move to the later flight on either day without charge? There seem to be 2 flights between CLT-LHR in each direction on the day that my relative is flying, and the other flight has a lot more seats.

Third, on the day before departure, will any upgrades automatically be offered at online check-in or is it best to keep calling US?

Next time, the relative knows to fly on a Tuesday-Thursday, when upgrades are easier.

Any tips to get upgrade would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

WiscAZ

Keep calling. That is the best advice. I've had seats miraculously open up a couple days out. I also have called at at T-24 for full flights and gotten an upgrade. Call right at T-24. Also, if you call now the agents will tell you how many seats are actually left in their system.

If your relative changes to a different flight standard change fees will apply.

ibrandsguest

Thank you!

There is a PHL-LHR flight that has many more business class seats left, so ideally the family member would like to switch to a CLT-PHL-LHR routing and get upgraded.

Is there any way to switch to another routing like this on an international flight, either in advance or by asking at the airport on the day of travel, without paying a fare difference and change fee?

If so, is there a recommended way to handle the re-route and the upgrade?

I assume that if there is a weather issue, then this becomes much easier.

Thank you!

PHL

The seat map is not an accurate indication of available seats. The cabin may be fully booked, though people haven't been given seat assignments yet. ExpertFlyer comes in handy for this to see how many actual "C" seats are for sale. If it says C0 and there are a few seats available on the seat map, the cabin is still sold out. If it says C8 and there are a ton of open seats on the seat map, then it's likely a light load.

Any change in ticket routing, flight times, etc. - even if the final destination is the same - will incur fees and likely any changes in fare.

It may make sense to do this only if you can verify, on the phone with an agent, that there is a seat available to use points + cash to upgrade. At that point, you can make the change (with fees/fare difference) and also the coach -> business upgrade for 30K + $300.

Otherwise, I don't recommend shuffling around flights with no real guarantee that an upgrade will materialize. People cancel and change plans all the time so the available seats will likely move up and down between now and departure.

Moving to the later CLT-LHR flight may shoot them in the foot as the earlier one is the larger A330 with 2 extra rows of seats (28 vs 20)

dcpatti

Your best bets are going to be to pray for a schedule change (not real likely this late in the game) or pray for WX/MX delay on the day of travel. While you may always get a clueless agent any time you call, the "no changes without fees" rule is one that seems to be very consistently enforced. For you to be able to change the itinerary and not pay a fee and difference in fare, you'd need either US itself or the weather to be the initiator of the change.

ibrandsguest

I have family members flying from Europe to the US, and their flight has no business class seats available, but a flight from the same origin to the same destination that is a few hours later on the same day has plenty of seats available.

I know that you can't standby for a later flight, but since getting upgraded would involve 30,000 miles plus $300 per person, would a phone agent be flexible enough to make the change to the later flight at no charge, or could it be done at the airport at no charge?

The flight is tomorrow.

Thanks.

eponymous_coward

As mentioned in the post above yours, a change in routing would trigger change fees and a refare... which probably nets US additional money (and costs your relative money) on top of $300 and 30K miles. So it's not like US has incentive to ignore their rules here (though as mentioned, you could ask and see if you get lucky).

Nice try, though.

ibrandsguest

Thanks, but now no change in routing; it's just the later flight between the same origin and same destination, and neither flight has a stop.

PHL

It's still a change to the itinerary, which would incur a fee and fare difference.