Nope! Too bad though. If all but, say 2, seats were sold, then it would not matter when you called, you would not be given the upgrade at that time. Best you can hope for is the 2 held "revenue" seats are not sold, or there are some no shows.

One trick I used to use was to call at 72:02 before flight time, and tell the agent what I was doing. He/she would just keep me on the line until the magic moment, and then bingo! Upgrade. Worked every time I tried it.

'Course when your at the top of the heap (Super Elite/Executive Platinum) you can in some circumstances confirm the upgrade at the time of booking, which is great. Two weeks ago I bought an 80% discounted econo ticket on YVR-LHR (C$800) and still got a confirmed upgrade.

On the other hand, back in the bad old days, when I was just Gold, I spent a lot of time pacing before a YVR-BKK trip, because I could not confirm upgrades on any segment. I was able to standby upgrade on all segments. But the HKG-YVR segment was just barely -- immediately after getting upgraded, the fellow who had reserved the seat came running/panting up. He travelled economy, while I went in style, for 13 hours. We're talking 30 seconds here, tops. Whew! That was close.

Regards,

Ken Hamer