Originally Posted by
CO Insider
At 24 hours before departure, we will prioritize expired waitlists for Regional Upgrades, Systemwide Upgrades and Mileage Upgrade Rewards ahead of all complimentary Elite upgrades, including those that would otherwise book into ZE class. This is a change we implemented only in the last couple months to ensure our Elite Upgrade Automation properly accounted for these customers with expired upgrade reward waitlists within 24 hours.
sbm12 and I have been debating this exact mechanism in various threads. I sensed a change based on my subjective statistical observations, and started asking about it. No one else has reported confirmation of what I have been told by CO agents. I've held off on asking
COInsider, as his time is valuable. I now wonder if
sbm12's information predates this change, explaining how we could both be so sure, yet disagree.
Within 24 hours before departure, consider two flyers:
Gold Reward Q has Gold status, has purchased a Q – Discounted Coach fare, and has waitlisted 15,000 miles for an upgrade that has not yet cleared.
Plat Reward W has Platinum status, has purchased a W – Deep Discounted Coach fare, and has waitlisted 15,000 miles for an upgrade that has not yet cleared.
From what I've been told repeatedly, I'd bet double-or-nothing on my upgrades for the rest of the year that
Gold Reward Q lists ahead of
Plat Reward W on the upgrade standby list.