Originally Posted by
oklAAhoma
While there are times my upgrade has cleared before EF was aware there was availability, there are other times when EF alerted me to availability and I was able to call in and grab the upgrade. Now, it's possible I would have automatically received that upgrade anyway and my call was unnecessary, but I prefer increasing the odds of upgrading however I can, so I set up alerts. EF has notified me of upgrade availability frequently enough that I find it makes perfect sense to use the program. Obviously YMMV.
As I said before, EF availability has nothing to do with the waitlist or upgrades. If there is availability when EF polls, an alert is sent. You seem to be under the impression that upgrades are issued the same instance availability is released. IME that is not how it works and there is frequently a time lag between the two events. It's on those ocasions that EF proves valuable.
wow, this is all news to me... so here is a hypothetical situation. Suppose we are both waitlisted for the same flight with the difference being that I requested before you so I'm ahead on the list. C1 becomes available but we have yet to be upgraded because there is a lag between upgrades made available and released. Then you get an alert and I don't. You call immediately, grab the seat and therefore jumps ahead of me on the list... could this happen?
What I've always thought was that if you are on the waitlist and you get an alert, that's because the agent screwed up somehow when setting up the VIP. Anyways, like I said before, I'm like you and always set up alerts just in case.