Originally Posted by
ijgordon
Am I missing something? - I have no idea how you got to this conclusion. The upgrade standby list is prioritized first by status and then by fare class, with the exception of Golds/Silvers on YB fares. A Platinum will be ahead of a Gold.
The general question is this:
Within 24 hours before departure, are Mileage Upgrade Rewards, SWUs, and CR1s sorted first by fare class, or first by elite status, on the upgrade standby list?
Reread
CO Insider's recent post carefully, it contains new information:
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.
As of a few months ago, flyers who have waitlisted miles for an upgrade appear on the upgrade standby list
ahead of elites waiting for a complimentary upgrade. If these "Reward" flyers clear, they do not get their miles returned.
What no one has specified online, is how this particular cluster of flyers is sorted, within the upgrade standby list,
as of a few months ago.
It is of interest to me because on Thursday afternoons EWR to SFO I always waitlist miles for an upgrade. Several times I have been the last person to upgrade, and several times I have been left #1 on the list (e.g. out of 62), not upgraded. If it is worth thousands of dollars to anyone to ever sit in front, then this question is worth thousands of dollars to me. Given that there's a slim chance of a complimentary upgrade on these flights, some might view this as a dilution of elite benefits.
When other upgrade certs (SWUs, CR1s) enter the mix, one can ask the same question. If on many routes, the complimentary upgrade becomes a rare event, then many of us should wonder how much elite status matters.
I was being quite specific in my comparison question ("Platinum Reward" is the internal CO terminology for a Platinum on the upgrade standby list
who has waitlisted miles) to keep people from answering a different question instead. I don't believe for a moment that there's any deliberate effort to keep this issue from surfacing; how would one then explain CO Insider's candor? But the
Turing Test always comes to mind: How would a systematic campaign to obfuscate this question look any different from the responses I've gotten so far?
