Originally Posted by
exwannabe
This has been said every time this discussion comes up, but there are plenty of times when you can still be searching for Z with M ticket in hand.
1) You get Z on 3 of 4 legs and decide that is a good deal and go ahead.
2) You had Z, but rebooked
3) A late trip on a business ticket that allows M
I certainly agree with the premise of checking first. But there are cases where you will book anyway, and often you will get Z later on.
EDIT: I do agree wrt a TPAC (and maybe TATL) leg. It's a nogo w/o that for me.
Exactly our case. We got immediate upgrades on 3 or 4 legs (2 international, 1 domestic). 3 weeks later we got the upgrade for the remaining (domestic) leg. As noted many times on this forum, what you upgrade to varies by flight. On our international legs, on a 757 (FOR-ATL, and return), room in Business Class was great; ear phones were high grade. In First Class from ATL to LAX (767), legroom was surprisingly small. And on the First Class from SEA to ATL (actually international configuration, and appropriate labeled Business on the headrests), leg room was very good. On both domestic legs, the ear phones were the little crappy ones.