My wife and I are both Silver Elite ... from pleasure flights exclusively with CO ... the majority of flights reflecting our monthly EWR-FLL RTs to our 2nd home in Boca Raton ... occasional flights throughout each year to vacation destinations in the US, Canada, Europe, etc.
We find that selecting Saturday evening flights to Florida gives us a higher success rate for auto-upgrades at the 24 hour mark ... but we have noticed over the past year that flight times other than Sat eve'gs on the EWR-FLL and the alternative EWR-PBI routes tend to show an Upgrade Standby List that just about scrolls off my laptop's screen.
We are on an EWR-FLL flight later today which had only 9 revenue seats out of 20 filled up through three days ago ... then just one person was shown on the "upgrade" list following the 48-hour Gold upgrade run. Suddenly (and magically) within the 24-hour mark (yesterday), the front cabin filled with 8 more upgrades (apparently all Silvers) which is understandable.
But with 19 (of 20) seats booked (revenue and upgrades) at the moment, the upgrade
standby list shows 17 souls ...
yep, 17!!! ... and this is a
Wednesday afternoon flight. Who are these people that have prevented my wife and me from partaking in the pleasures of a CO 1st Class experience?!?!
Fortunately, though we are lowly Silvers, we accumulate lots and lots of FFMs through corporate and personal AmEx Platinum and Chase Continental credit card spending. So, when we have late day (evening, non-Saturday) flights, we'll use miles for upgrades ... as we did for our return flight next week.
For us, because of our travel flexibility, it's become a challenge ... even a game ... to book flights based on departure times and days of the week and 1st class cabin size ... in order to improve our chances for upgrades. But when I feel bad karma ... small 1st class cabin, too many revenue bookings way ahead of the flight date, etc. ... I react emotionally and plunk down the FFMs for the upgrade, if it is available.
As an observation, each of us posters may have divergent priorities, dissimilar ages, varying incomes, differing desires, distinctive needs and diverse life experiences ... so my value system and desire to fly in comfort up front may be at odds with the priorities or options available to others posters.