Originally Posted by
zski1
2) I continue to be perplexed by the logic of statements made on threads like this that go something like "XXX airport is home to a lot of EXP's/PLTs/etc".
No matter where you live, wouldn't your success with sticker upgrades depend more on the routes you fly rather than the airport you call home? If you live in a non-hub city, you will still likely have to fly through hubs where the population has a high proportion of elites; so why, in this instance, does it even matter that a lot of EXPs live in ORD? Wouldn't it be more important to consider the domestic routes that the OP will be flying? (ORD-SLC, ORD-SFO, ORD-NYC). Those routes seem to me like they would probably be elite-heavy -- but the OP would have to compete just as hard for upgrades if they lived somewhere like MCI where they'd have to connect to elite heavy flights.
-z
Yes, but if you live in a spoke city and your destination is a hub, then youre going against traffic, helping your odds a lot. I'd wager the Monday morning upgrade lists
into ORD are a lot shorter than the ones
out of ORD.
If you live in a spoke city and are connecting thru a hub, then the same trend means that your first leg upgrade will be a decent chance (or your last leg when flying home at the end of the week). But the connecting flight, yes, you're competing with all the hub residents. (Though until last year, when they changed the upgrade rocess, your earlier check-in time meant you could at least get ahead of the hub-originating same-level-elites.
FWIW, it's been 3 years since I commuted to SLC regularly, and my upgrades ex-DFW to/from there did a lot better than many other destinations.