Upgrade seats (using miles) to FCO
 

When does US open seats to upgrade to Envoy(using miles)?

I called the CP desk and was told nothing was open for Rome next April and that it was too early. The website shows availabilty to make an Award reservation using 160k miles RT.

I checked SeatCounter and it is not showing anything in O or P. I think one of those buckets are for using miles for upgrade.

I'm really trying to get my trip together now rather than later. Paying for Envoy is $2912, a bit too much for me!

TIA
Lydia

The 160K point Envoy awards are available pretty much when there are seats available for sale. There aren't really any capacity controls on those seats. Availability of such award seats has no relationship to how many upgradeable seats there are from a discount coach fare.

If there is 80K RT availability, the 'mileage saver' Envoy award, then there should be upgradeable seats with points available. Make sure you are on an M, H or Q coach fare. No other discount coach fares work.

But regardless, the bigger problem is that it's near impossible to get Envoy seats to most Euro destinations from Spring through Fall. If you keep waiting for them to open up, you may never get there.

Thanks PHL!

I called the CP line about 4 more times to see if one of them would try to get 2 seats to open. No go.

Two of the phone agents suggested purchasing the upgrade fare now and when (if?) seats open, I would be able to use miles for the upgrade. Of course, paying an extra $350 pp doesn't guarantee an upgrade.

Tried using the online chat (questioned about preferred instant upgrade) and told there were no instant upgrades for transatlantic. I then asked about upgrade with miles and her response was:

"There is not a number to call. (I had asked about calling someone) Upgrade seats would only become available by someone already holding an upgraded seat, canceling or changing their reservation. It is just a matter of checking back occasionally."

Now, I don't know what to do. Last November I had made the same type of upgrade reservation for this April and had no problem getting the reservation. This is in line with what an agent told me - probably in November.