Hi Everyone, before you start marching down to Smith Street with your pitchforks and torches, let me fill in some of the blanks about our upgrade programs. I'll start with some important clarifications about our program:
- There are two types of upgrade offers. As many of you have found, we have two types of upgrade programs we offer at check-in. There's our special segment-based 'day-of-departure upgrade' program designed for our non-Elite customers. Then there's our 'buy-up' offer, which proactively offers the difference between the fare paid and the lowest available front cabin fare with the change fee waived. The key difference between the two is that the day-of-departure offer factors in Elites who haven't yet been upgraded, while the buy-up, which is simply us selling a First Class fare, does not.
- We no longer have a set pricing model. We've found that instead of a publishing set prices for our segment-based day-of-departure upgrades, we now have dynamic pricing that better matches supply with demand. The original published chart is still a good guide for how these upgrades are priced, it's just not set in stone.
- It's not perfect, but more accurate that you might think. When we introduced the day-of-departure segment upgrade program, we were sensitive about Elite member displacement resulting from unknown variables such as higher-ranking Elite members switching flights at the last minute and companion upgrades. While it does happen, the number of times this actually results in Elite member displacement continues to be extremely low, as anticipated. That said, we do know this makes our companion upgrade benefit somewhat of a wildcard for everyone involved. Without spilling the beans, I'll at least say that we're aware and working on a better solution to this.
Originally Posted by Flyer737
FYI, my non-elite wife was offered upgrades (repeatedly as I checked several times) on a recent PHL-IAH flight while I was on the list for an upgrade. The asking price was $150, well below the fare delta to first class. I never cleared. The system is definitely broken, at least on some flights. CO Insider is supposed to be looking into this, but I have not received any feedback yet (1 week since I provided the info he requested).
Hi
Flyer737, this one took a while to research, and in the end, we did find an issue to resolve.
As you may know, our Elite Upgrade Automation (EUA) does not upgrade customers who are in the same reservation as customers who do not have Elite status. For EUA to consider you, you have to either book your reservations separately, or separate yourself from the reservation (which can be done via continental.com or over the phone). In your case,
Flyer737, had you separated your reservation, you would've cleared your upgrade at the 3-day mark. Same was the case for another Platinum member whose multi-party reservation wasn't divided until check-in. In the end, this customer and his Platinum companion got the last two First Class seats.
Here's where we could've been smarter. Our process that ensures we've accounted for all of our Elite customers does not appear to factor in the multi-party reservation that includes an Elite member. It's not until the Elite member declares the desire for an upgrade at check-in that he/she is divided out and added to our count. In your case,
Flyer737, the Platinum member and companion who ultimately got the last two First Class seats did not get divided and added to the upgrade standby list until very late in the check-in window. We have identified the solution that will ensure Elites in reservations with non-Elite customers will be considered in our Elite counts. It is in development and should be loaded very soon.